By Matt Courson, Staff Writer
BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR Cup Series rookie Tyler Reddick was just one of six cars that finished on the lead lap Saturday night in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Although he missed the Playoffs, the driver of the No. 8 made a statement with a fourth place run at The Last Great Colosseum.
“This was a really good night for our team,” said Reddick. “We’re chasing wins in these remaining races while also working on building a strong notebook for next year, and this is a solid step in the right direction for both of those goals.”
Reddick attributes the recent positive results to an improvement in communication within his Richard Childress Racing team.
“It took a couple adjustments to get our car to where I needed it to be, but our communication as a team on what adjustments to make has been a big focus for us over the past few weeks and that paid off during tonight’s race,” Reddick said.
“I fired off a little loose on the bottom and tight on the top, so our team had a decision to make on what to focus on. I felt that the top the better groove for our car, so we chose to work on loosening up our Chevrolet a little bit throughout the night and got it in a really good spot for the final stage. Those adjustments made it so I was able to cut through traffic during that last stage and race our way into the top five for the last 100 laps or so.”
The fourth-place effort is just the third for Reddick this year, the first since the series competed at Texas Motor Speedway in July. Reddick ran runner-up to his teammate Austin Dillon in that event.
Photo by: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images