Tyler Reddick went through a movie scene at Talladega Superspeedway but emerged with his NASCAR Cup Series playoff hopes intact.
The regular-season champion faced being out of a transfer spot as the laps wound down Sunday afternoon. It would have put him in a fight to advance going into the final race of the round, but then came the largest crash in Cup Series history with five laps to go. Reddick was involved in the crash, but his No. 45 Toyota remained on track and he finished 20th – ahead of six of his fellow championship contenders.
“I was in it, for sure,” Reddick said of the crash. “I was spinning around backward, and hit front and back. It felt like some Days of Thunder stuff. It was not fun. It was a lot of wrecked cars.”
Reddick was approximately five points below the cutline before the crash, yet left Talladega with an advantage of 14 points.
“That was [a change in fortune],” he admitted. “I didn’t know where we were when that happened at first, but to see it turn out the way it did was a good thing. If we can take a 20th place finish and gain on the cut, I think you take that every time.”
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Sunday was not Reddick’s best showing, as he earned only five stage points and averaged an 18th-place running position. But that has been the theme of the postseason for his 23XI Racing team. After finishing sixth in the opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Reddick finished 20th or worse in the last four races.
It led to him admitting to the concern in his camp before arriving at Talladega. The speed he showed late in the regular season hasn’t been there, nor has the team executed well, but he’s still above the cutline, and Reddick feels confident he’ll control his destiny at the Charlotte road course.
“The last time we really showed up with any kind of speed was a road course,” Reddick said. “I know at Watkins Glen it really went off the rails. The surface [at Charlotte] isn’t changing, the tires aren’t changing, and those are all knowns that we’ve raced on and had good speed on. The last time we ran on this tire that we’re taking to the Roval was Sonoma, and we ran up front for a majority of that race.
“I feel good about it. The changes to the course — typically, anytime something changes on any type of track, it helps me, I feel like. It levels the field a little bit. It should be good for us.”