By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
It was the race where Kyle Busch could have earned his 200th NASCAR win. And in the early going, Tyler Reddick perhaps emerged as his toughest competitor to keep that from happening.
Starting from pole in Saturday’s Production Alliance Group 300 at Auto Club Speedway, Reddick showed consistent top-two speed in race’s opening two stages, finishing second to Busch in each.
However, Reddick got the best of himself and overdrove his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at times in the final stage, eventually hitting the wall and cutting a tire, costing him the track position to stay in the front.
“I was just being too aggressive for when it was in the race,” Reddick admitted. “I knew we were going to have another caution at some point and we’d come back down pit road to adjust on it. I hit it [the wall] once and thought we’d be OK, I hit it one more time and we blew that tire.”
The mistakes wasn’t Reddick’s first in 2019 or of his Xfinity Series career. And the 23-year-old doesn’t need to be reminded of that.
“I just need to pull it back when I know my car isn’t where it needed to be running the top,” he said. “We were running third at the time and we weren’t really gaining on the [Nos.] 00 or 18. [I have to] keep the right side on it, don’t go a lap down pitting under green.”
Despite the errors, Reddick managed to rebound in the final 20-lap run to the end, hitting the top 10 and eventually jumping Chase Briscoe in the closing laps to finish fourth.
“Fortunately, we caught a caution right there and it kept us in the race,” he said. “I wish I wouldn’t have raced a
Reddick leaves Auto Club with now three top-five finishes in the season’s opening five races.
“We know we have good speed on these kinds of tracks. That’ll keep us going forward. We were able to get back to fourth and that’s not a bad day. I just wish it would have been a cleaner day.”