Tyler Reddick looked to be in solid position to make a run for a victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
However, after winning Stage One and earning 10 valuable points, Reddick’s day turned upside down — literally.
Nine laps into Stage Two, Reddick got sandwiched into the wall alongside fellow playoff driver Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. off turn four.
As his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota slid through the frontstretch grass, the car went airborne, making one full, slow barrel roll before coming to a rest.
He’d drive off into the pits before exiting the race for good.
TYLER REDDICK FLIPS!
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 20, 2024
Reddick and Chase Elliott both crash. Reddick was able to drive his car to pit road but is done for the day. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/kBjgRp4TC0
“You just have to be aggressive on restarts,” Reddick began. “It’s how the Next Gen racing has been from the beginning. I kind of saw them both have a moment, and I just had to split-second make a decision. You have to be aggressive on the restart. It is hard to pass after a while. Being myself on a mile and a half, being aggressive – by the time I realized I was in trouble, the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) started sliding and the 9 (Chase Elliott) was coming up and I was pretty much already on their outside at that point, with nowhere to really go.
“I needed to make the decision earlier when I saw them sliding to be more conservative to avoid an incident – just not who I am, but it is unfortunate. It took us out of the race,” Reddick continued.
“We had a really, really fast Jordan Brand Toyota Camry, probably would have been in the mix all race long, but we will go to Homestead – a place where I have had to get it done before and go for it there.”
With Reddick out, that dropped the No. 45 team below the cutline. Following Joey Logano’s victory, Reddick is 30 points out of the Championship 4.
While a DNF wasn’t ideal for his title chase after scoring the regular season championship, Reddick is optimistic about the final two Round of 8 races ahead.
“We can still have a good day at Homestead and be in the mix in Martinsville,” Reddick said. “Ideally, yeah, it would have been nice to win today. It would be nice to win next week, and that is what we will focus on, but thankfully we got 10 stage points in stage one, and it’s not like we are absolutely out of it on points, yet.
“We are going to have to be perfect here on out, probably.”