The morning after the best NASCAR Cup Series race of his career to date, Tyler Reddick woke up in Las Vegas and went on a seven-mile hike.
That wasn’t enough activity for the day. He then went on a 36-mile bike ride.
Why did Reddick put himself through such an enduring day, aside from the “great views” and “good exercise”?
He was “more pissed off and motivated than ever,” Reddick told Speed Sport.
A day before, the Richard Childress Racing driver led a career best 90 laps and won the first two stages of the Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway.
That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Aside from the three Cup races his teammate Austin Dillon has won – including the 2018 Daytona 500 and 2017 Coca-Cola 600 – it was the most dominating performance by a Richard Childress Racing driver since Kevin Harvick led 70 laps and won the fall 2013 race at Phoenix Raceway.
Unlike 2013, Reddick’s day didn’t end in victory lane.
Thanks to a cut tire and subsequent collision with William Byron on Lap 153, Reddick wound up finishing one lap down in 24th.
“It’s been easy to stay motivated this week,” Reddick said.
More: Next Gen Parity On Displace at Auto Club
Reddick had led a total of 73 laps in his first two years of full-time Cup competition. Of his Auto Club performance, Reddick said “I wouldn’t say I was expecting it, but I was prepared for it.
“Our whole team was ready for it. That’s what our goal is, that’s what every team’s goal is, but it’s hard to be able to be on it like that every single race weekend. It’s certainly is a challenging thing. But once I kind of got a feel in practice that getting up by the wall, this car does handle that similarly to an Xfinity car. It made me feel good, about how the race could transpire. … I felt good about about Sunday, but I wasn’t ready for it to just come our way, I knew that we’re gonna have to go to work in that race and get to the front and then maintain it.”
Meanwhile, Dillon scored a second-place finish. His first top five of the season, it matches his total from 2021.
Dillon pointed to RCR’s role in developing the Next Gen car as part of the reason for the team’s early success, which was also on display in the Clash at the L.A. Coliseum.
“RCR and ECR (engines), we definitely tried to be the guys to embrace this new car the earliest in the process,” Dillon told reporters this week. “I think some of the teams probably didn’t embrace it as much as we did. We saw it coming and tried to put a lot of effort into it from the beginning. I really love working with Tyler. He’s a great teammate and I think we both do each other some good. We have different thought processes on things and I think that allows us to kind of open our minds and push each other in different ways. I was bummed for him last week. I felt like that was his first win coming, for sure. And then all of a sudden, we popped up there and had a great shot at winning it.”
Aside from Reddick and Dillon, teams with technical alliances with RCR – Kaulig Racing and Petty GMS Motorsports – also had standout days in Fontana with top-10 finishes. Erik Jones finished third behind Dillon for Petty GMS.
“It’s a good place to be in, as far as RCR and our affiliates,” Dillon said. “It’s still early in the season, but I like where we’re at and we just have to keep progressing. We definitely feel as though RCR should be a force to be reckoned with.”
It’s been a long time since that was anything resembling a fact for Richard Childress’ Cup program.
RCR has only scored four Cup victories since Harvick left for Stewart-Haas Racing after 2013 , a season in which Harvick won four times. Aside from Ryan Newman’s runner-up result in the points in 2014, the team’s best finish has been 11th, three times from Dillon.
Even with the team’s best outing (outside a race win) in nine years, there wasn’t much time this week to bask in the moment.
The team had to thrash until Wednesday morning to get its cars for this weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ready and out the door.
“Half of the shop is gone, so it’s hard to kind of get everybody in the building, see them and see what’s going on because people are so busy right now,” Dillon said. “I’m getting texts from guys and I think that’s the best way to kind of know – guys that have been in the shop for a long period of time, that I’ve known for a long period of time, that are pumped and feel like we’re going to string off some wins this year. Hearing that from those guys that are excited, I know that just boosts morale and makes them want to work that much harder when they see the runs that we had this past weekend.”
Heading to Las Vegas, Reddick feels good about the team’s chances.
Last fall with the high downforce, low horsepower rules package, Reddick placed sixth on the 1.5-mile track while Dillon finished 13th.
“Me personally, when I look to Vegas (portion) of this West Coast swing, Vegas was the one that I was most excited about because I thought the car was, based off sim, handling the best at Vegas even over Fontana,” Reddick said. “That’s not always how it crosses over. But certainly our approach and how we put a car together for Fontana was the right approach and we’re somewhat on a similar trajectory going into Vegas, so that’s exciting.”