Despite winning the first Daytona 500 Duel of his Cup Series career Thursday night, Tyler Reddick had an unusual take on it afterward.
“It wasn’t really a great race for us, to be honest with you,” said the 23XI Racing driver after climbing out of his No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry.
In fact, Reddick had a point. After starting the 60-lap race from a lowly 19th qualifying position, the Californian was forced to fight his way to the front of the 21-car field. A near miss entering pit road nearly did Reddick in, but he saved the best for last — running fifth on the outside on the last lap, he sped through to cross the finish line 0.056s ahead of race runner-up Chase Elliott. Reddick will now start the Daytona 500 from P3 inside the second row.
“Yeah, a lot went on during that race,” said Reddick “I mean, it was a bit of a chaotic restart finish for myself. The green flag cycle didn’t really go as planned, but pretty much from the time we left pit road to the race end, it was much more of a race that we needed. We were able to drive back through most of the field and get somewhat back to the front. From there and with the caution falling the way it did, I ended up choosing the outside line and all of that just worked out really well. I was trying to get the No. 77 [Carson Hocevar] and the No. 9 [Chase Elliott] going and thankfully when they finally got hooked up, it was on the last lap and it left me an opportunity to get to the No. 5 and clear him on the back straightaway.”
The close call for Reddick came on lap 51 when a caution flag was waved and sent the lead pack of cars scrambling toward pit road.
“Yeah, that was almost really bad news,” he said of the close call. “I could have wrecked probably about three or four different times there. I didn’t, so I’ll take that! I definitely used some luck up right there, but we were able to hold onto the car and then from there, we didn’t lose anyone. Us four Toyotas were able to get together and push well together, so that was beneficial.”
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When the white flag flew on lap 59, Reddick was slotted-in at fifth place. Off Turn 2, Elliott and Hocevar dove to the bottom of the track, thus allowing Reddick to push Kyle Larson and himself clear.
“Yeah, this brand-new Toyota Camry does seem really good,” said Reddick. “We didn’t qualify where we wanted, obviously, but pretty much everything else so far this weekend out of the car has been fantastic. We look at that as something that excites me going to Atlanta next weekend, and obviously on top of that, the other racetracks that we have coming up on the schedule where downforce matters so much.
“The car pushes really good, that was exciting for me. I could be aggressive with my pushes all night long, so that is a really good thig to have right out of the gate. When we go into the 500 that is going to really matter. Having that confidence is important. The car was predictable. It wasn’t dancing around a lot. All of that sort of stuff is really important when you’re working the air.”
For now though, Reddick is still basking in the glow of his first Daytona 500 Duel race win.
“Yeah, it was a cool moment,” he said. “I’ve got a win here in the Truck [Series] and in the Xfinity car and to win a Duel race here in the Cup car is really cool. Obviously, winning the July Daytona race, or the summer race would be really great. Winning the Daytona 500 would be incredible. To park a Cup car in victory lane here was nice. I’ve been absent from victory lane here at this place for some time, so it was nice to be back up front.
“Obviously there is 500 miles and 200 laps and a lot can take place on Sunday, but to have a good starting position like we earned [Thursday], and to have a good pit stall selection is all going to be really beneficial for us. We’ll have a great pit stall for the race. It should be good for us whether that’s for the green flag cycle or just having an opening-in and an opening-out. Some of those things matter a lot in a race like this where we will have green and yellow flag pit stops. Especially on those caution stops. When everyone is coming down pit road, it gets really chaotic. Having a clear path in and a clear path out really helps eliminate some of the errors that can take place and can ensure that you have efficient time on pit road.”
Reddick knows race day will be hyped to the hilt from the start.
“This is probably one of the earliest mornings that we have on the year and we are running around doing media and all of that sort of stuff. We have appearances and meet-and-greets,” he noted. “Between all of that and just the size of the crowd, the atmosphere, the hype, the energy that the fans bring, it really is kind of a bad formula for the drivers because we get strapped into the car and we’re ready to run through a brick wall in getting our 500-mile race started.
“A lot of times you will see chaos early because of that. We get so amped up from seeing the gigantic crowd that is here at the race. It all gets everyone really amped up and that’s I think we see a lot of accidents in this race, too. A lot of times at this race the biggest celebrities will be here as well as athletes from different sports. Legendary people come to this race and it gets everyone fired up.”
Reddick and 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace need little amping up after the promise the team showed in the Duels.
“We’re feeling good after Thursday night,” Reddick agreed. “Bubba didn’t get the finish he wanted to, surely, but he was able to avoid complete disaster and not getting into the inside wall during his spin. So thankfully the team avoided catastrophe there. Between my car and Bubba’s car, we’re both really happy with the handling of our Camrys. The rest of the Toyota group of drivers seem pretty happy with what they have, too.
“The Duel was good to get out of the way, and we got some validation of the hard work everyone at Toyota and TRD have done on this new Camry. It was cool to see the car perform like it did. Bring on the race!”