CHICAGO — Tyler Reddick’s intense drive through the field late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in the streets of Chicago fell short after a miscue on the final lap.
After pitting for slick tires on lap 43 – two laps before the conclusion of Stage Two – Reddick wound up midfield behind 13 cars that elected to stay on wets.
But he didn’t know what lap he’d be racing to. As a downpour delayed the race for two hours early in Stage Two, NASCAR set a stop time of 8:20 p.m. local. The 23XI Racing driver had to navigate traffic quickly if he wanted a chance.
On the restart, the cars with slicks were at a disadvantage as the track surface remained wet. Joey Hand and Alex Bowman battled for the lead, and after Bowman went to the point on lap 51, Josh Berry crashed and brought out a caution.
That yellow gave Reddick a chance.
“I really didn’t even have any business to be in contention to catch the 48 (Alex Bowman), but just I was very fortunate all day long,” Reddick said. “A lot of people wrecked around me. I don’t think I really ever passed a sole to be honest. I just avoided the mess.”
Restarting on lap 54, just four minutes and 30 seconds remained until the stop time. Once Bowman completed a lap at 8:20, NASCAR would call for two laps to go.
At that point, a dry line on the track began to form. The cars on slicks started to come to life while those on wets fell behind. Bowman got a strong jump, but Reddick passed Hand for second and came charging on the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Coming to one to go, Bowman led by around three seconds, but Reddick was inside a second and a half heading down Dusable Lake Shore Drive toward turn four. Reddick executed the corner to perfection, but after closing in on Bowman down the short chute, he clipped the wall on the turn five right-hander.
That ended up costing Reddick a chance at winning as Bowman sailed to a three-second victory. Speaking to reporters post-race, Reddick thought he could’ve run down the eventual winner in the closing corners had he not made contact with the wall.
“That puzzles me. I clearly just screwed up,” Reddick said. “Trying to stay in the dry groove and I had more than enough room of dry groove.
“I cut the wheel a little too hard — just not focused enough, I guess. I knew I was going to get to him and the earlier I could get to him the more options I would have, and it was going to get a little bit more slick off line beyond turn eight. Just didn’t even give ourselves a shot to race him, unfortunately.
“It was going to be really close and had I not made the mistake — just crazy. Run all day long and know where my limits are and here at the end when it matters most I made the dumbest mistake.
“A clean lap was all I had to do and couldn’t even do that.”
Reddick held onto second place over Gibbs, recording his eighth top-five of the season and improving to third in driver’s points. But that’s no consolation after the 28-year-old felt like he let a win slip away two weeks in a row.
At Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, Reddick chorded his tires in the closing laps of the scheduled distance and had to pit before overtime. Little did he know that five overtime attempts would come, and amid the chaos, finished third. Had he not surrendered his original track position, Reddick felt he would’ve had a chance at winning in overtime.
In the end, it’s just another stinger for the No. 45 team.
“I hate it. Not what this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry is about and what this team is about,” he said. “Just got to start capitalizing on these ones.”