‘It was a huge sense of relief,’ Tyler Reddick wins the Road America cup race topping Chase Elliott for his first career cup race win
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Tyler Reddick secures his first career cup race win
NASCAR’s outing on the Road America 4.048 mile produced a historic moment for the No:8 Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver for Richard Childress Racing driver Tyler Reddick. The race marked Reddick breaking his 91 one-race runs in the cup with zero wins to his name in the cup series after he made his debut as he came short of a win more than once with his five P2 finishes though out those outings. But there was no one catching up to Reddick on Road America as he proved his worth and possibly secured his playoff spots with the win.
The intense duel between Tyler Reddick and No:9 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1 driver Chase Elliott was the highlight of the day as Reddick was able to make the move on the pole-sitter Elliott after starting the race on P4. Chase Elliott was the defending champion at the track and was searching for a win that can equal the road course wins tally with Tony Stewart as he hoped to break the most-win record set by Jeff Gordon, he is just two wins shot.
Tyler Reddick won the race at the end with more than 3 seconds lead over Elliott who led 36 of the 62 laps. The duo was dominating the field by a long margin as they went on and on with their dual and Elliott had the upper hand at Lap 42 when they both pitted the same time but Reddick was able to get his shit together and get the lead back from Chase. Kyle Larson finished P3 in the race ahead of Ross Chastain at P4 and teammate Daniel Suarez at P5, both of whom are the only other Road Course winners of the time with both of their wins being their career first just like Reddick.
Find out what Tyler Reddick had to say on his Road America win
Talking about his win Tyler Reddick points out that when Chase Elliott won the race last time around here he had a strong car that time to go for the win as they were in a spot where they were forced to race their way into the playoffs. He pointed out that last time they sacrificed their track positions for stage points by staying out of the pit.
“We were here last year. It was kind of an unfortunate circumstance. We were in a spot where we had to kind of race our way into the playoffs on points, and I really felt we had a really strong car here last year and Chase Elliott was able to go out and win that race. We had good speed but we kept having to lose all of our track position to stay out and get those stage points,” Tyler Reddick said.
He went on to say that just looking back on the race he was frustrated as he wasn’t able to fight for the win as he did this time as the playoff was at stake for him in terms of the number of points he secures. He points out that his team wasn’t able to flip the strategies mind-race and chase the win just like they did on Sunday at the Road America.
“And just looking back at that race from last year, it was a bit frustrating because I felt like we had a good car because we were just in that box at that time of the year where we had to chase points instead of flipping the strategy and flipping the stages like we were able to do today and just go for the win,” Tyler Reddick added.
Tyler Reddick acknowledged that the relief of getting a win and entering the victory lane was one of the biggest things for him on Sunday. He points out that the win is not just a relief for him but also to his crew and crew chief as it is consisting of individuals who just like him yet see their car at the victory lane though they have been in the fight for the cup series race wins for a long time.
“I mean, honestly, it’s funny you say that because down there in Victory Lane that was one of the biggest things that came to mind is just it was a huge sense of relief for not just myself and my whole team, my crew chief Randall Burnett. There are a lot of members on my team that has been racing in the Cup Series, racing in NASCAR for a very long time, and haven’t won a race, either,” says Tyler Reddick.
Tyler Reddick went on to add that the win isn’t just a huge sense of relief for him as the win is big for the whole RCR team as they have been coming close to one most of the season so far. He points out that they were going through tough times and were able to toughen themselves up for the tougher times in the future which they did last Sunday.
“So, too — it’s not just a huge sense of relief for me, it’s a huge sense of relief for this entire team, for RCR, because the effort and the time and how close we’ve been most of the year and to not get it done is very tough, but going through tough times makes tough people get through the tough times, and we were able to do that today, and persevere and come out on top,” added Tyler Reddick.
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Justin P Joy
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