Yahoo Autos Strong second place at Indy keeps Reddick in the title hunt
Tyler Reddick was content to walk away from Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a solid points day after finishing second in the Brickyard 400.
“Me and Kyle (Larson) were the first few cars on that alternate strategy,” Reddick said. “We had that issue on pit road. I think he had some issue on pit road as well that put him back there. We just didn’t have anything to lose. A great effort by all of us; the car went through the field. Unfortunately, when Kyle got to me and passed me like he did, I wasn’t expecting it. It was really creative, and he continued to catch the rest of the field and pass cars.
“I wish I could’ve seen that one coming and maybe defend that better. It was a great way to make a pass. [Unfortunately it] means we bring home our Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry second, but good points day. Didn’t score as many as [Larson], but nonetheless, a fairly solid points day.”
Reddick didn’t have a shot of potentially challenging Larson during the last lap as a caution ended the race. The 23XI Racing driver got to the position a lap early on the restart, making the pass on Ryan Blaney going into Turn 2. He lined up third on the second overtime attempt.
NASCAR threw the caution for Ryan Preece spinning on the backstretch after Larson took the white flag. There was time to throw the caution before the white flag, as Preece struggled and did not get his car moving because of a flat tire, which would have given Reddick another shot on a restart.
In the immediate aftermath of the finish, Reddick, who likely had not seen any replays, didn’t know the timing of when the caution was thrown. He laughed and said now he was mad after being told NASCAR could have thrown the caution to set up a third overtime attempt.
“You always have a shot with these restarts,” Reddick said. “It did seem like Turn 1 was getting pretty tricky but [Kyle and I] were even on laps on tires, and I felt pretty confident being on the outside of other cars. It all depends on how the launch goes in the restart zone; if I got a good push and had a nose ahead, I feel like we would have a shot at it. It is what it is. We’ll take our second place and chill for a couple of weeks.”
Reddick started from the pole Sunday and led a race-high 40 laps. He is 15 points behind Larson in the hunt for the regular-season championship.
