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Bob PockrassNASCAR
Tyler Reddick took a unique path off the track to the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
Prior to the playoffs, he indicated he hoped he would sign a deal to stay at JR Motorsports. Then just 17 days before the championship-deciding race, Richard Childress Racing announced it had signed Reddick for 2019.
The move wasn’t a huge surprise to insiders, as Reddick had won at Daytona to open the year but had not run as well as two of his teammates, Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier.
Reddick had just three top-5s in the 28 races following his Daytona win. Then at Kansas, about a week before his new deal was announced, he finished fifth. Three days after the RCR deal was announced, he led 54 laps and finished second at Texas. He followed that with a sixth at Phoenix before driving his best race of the year Saturday to win the race and the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
That performance begs the question: If the 22-year-old from California had done that all year, would he be racing for JR Motorsports instead of RCR in 2019? Reddick indicated a potentially clearer, quicker path to the NASCAR Cup series at RCR was at least part of the reason for him and his sponsors to opt for a change.
“It’s hard to say,” said Reddick on if a better overall season would have changed the decision. “They’re a Cup team, and hopefully one day in the future, I might be able to make a start there. We’ll see.
“But it’s just one of those things. It’s more or less business than anything. But I’ve enjoyed my time at JR Motorsports a lot. It’s been a blast. It’s been a rough road at times.”
Reddick said he felt the chemistry was there between him, his team and crew chief Dave Elenz, who will crew chief for JRM newcomer Noah Gragson next year.
“Me and Dave have had a lot of fun this year, whether it’s been at the racetrack or away from it,” Reddick said. “It’s been a lot of fun getting to know him, working with him, and obviously that friendship is going to carry on.
“I’ve already been giving him trouble about next year and telling him how much grief I’m going to give him. It’s just part of it. The chemistry was there. It was more or less the driver needed to put his head on straight, and we did that in the playoffs, and here we are sitting here a champion.”
JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. indicated the organization wanted Reddick to return, and the choice was Reddick’s.
“The decision to do other things and go elsewhere, I believe, was his and his family’s and the partners that they have,” Earnhardt said. “It certainly wasn’t something on our end. But I feel like that we have a good opportunity with Noah coming in next year. He was on the box all night tonight with Dave and me, and I’m kind of excited about that.”
Earnhardt takes comfort that Reddick will drive for Childress.
“I’d love to work with Tyler again another year,” Earnhardt said. “But we’re not going to get the chance to do that. He’s going into a program that’s very successful and around people that I know and trust and love.
“He’s going to be in a great situation, so that makes it a little bit easier.”
RCR has a strong Xfinity program, as it put Daniel Hemric into the championship round each of the past two years. Reddick will replace Hemric, who is moving to the No. 31 Cup car at RCR to replace Ryan Newman.
Reddick’s roots are in late-model dirt racing, which is where Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon — the grandsons of team owner Richard Childress — started when trying to develop their skills.
“He’s good,” Childress said on pit road following Reddick’s victory. “We’re excited about him. He’s definitely a wheelman. He was a good dirt racer.
“Anytime you can find a good dirt racer, they’re going to make a good asphalt racer. He has great car control.”
Now, Reddick just needs to hope that he can use that car control to reach his potential each week.
“I did a really good job in the regular season of taking what would have been a top‑5 day and absolutely ruining it very early on,” Reddick said.
He didn’t ruin anything Saturday. He got close as he rode against the wall for much of the night, using that high line for top speed and scraping it only enough to keep that speed and not damage the car.
“I know I’ve given a lot of people that are on my team more gray hairs than they’ve ever had,” Reddick said. “But I told them if we can just get to Homestead that it would be worth every ounce of stress, and they believed that.
“We all believed that.”