As Kyle Larson dominated the entirety of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Tyler Reddick lurked in the rearview mirror at every stage – literally.
All three stages at the 1.5-mile oval saw Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota cross the finish line in second, trailing Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet.
After vaulting to second with 18 laps to go, Reddick chased down Larson, but to no avail.
Looking back on the battle, the 23XI Racing driver acknowledged Larson’s ability to hinder the No. 45 car’s progress as Reddick closed the gap in the final laps.
“Yeah, Kyle (Larson) did a really good job there taking away pretty much every option I had there to close the gap,” Reddick began.
“He seemed pretty good in the middle and I was obviously really good on the bottom, and he just never let me have it. I kept trying to run higher and higher and you know, he’s kind of running in the middle of the race track, which is pretty efficient to block both lanes.
“Every time I sort of got close, I mean, we’re running just wide open enough in turn one and two, you can kind of defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never up front really all day long, until it got to the stage ends.”
What may have been the difference in Reddick’s race, however, were pit stops.
Trouble in the pits sent Reddick farther back in the running order throughout the race, which included sliding through his pit box at one point.
“We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry. Just stupid mistakes on pit road,” Reddick said. “Same s—, different year, right? Kind of frustrating.”
With passing at a premium as drivers and teams improved their race cars, Reddick’s uphill climb became increasingly difficult.
“Second sucks that is for sure, but we had a really fast Nasty Beast Toyota Camry. I mean, we should have been battling up there in the front more than we were today,” Reddick said. “Just put us behind, unfortunately, and had to battle through that all day. As the field got better, it got harder to get back to the front as quick.
“You have to run up front all day long, and when asked about what we need to do to get better, that’s the very thing, and we didn’t do it today.”