Reddick On 500 Runner-Up: ‘We Got The Most We Could’

Tyler Reddick (45) chases William Byron to the finish line in Sunday's Daytona 500. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It took seven years, but Tyler Reddick finally made it to the finish of the Great American Race in one piece. In fact, because he did so, he nearly won the 67th Daytona 500.

Reddick earned a second-place finish Sunday night at Daytona Int’l Speedway, chasing William Byron home at the end of a crazy final lap that left few challengers unscathed.

After Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric, and Cole Custer all collided while racing for the win on the backstretch, Reddick followed Byron in the far outside lane in an effort to skirt the chaos by running right against the SAFER Barrier.

It worked, basically.

Though Hamlin’s front bumper came up into the side of Reddick’s Toyota, the latter was able to keep his speed up and not get pinned against the wall as the field raced back toward the finish line.

Because of that, Reddick was the second car to come off the banking in turn four, trailing Byron underneath the checkered flag by .113 seconds with his No. 45 for 23XI Racing.

It was far-and-away the best Daytona 500 result for Reddick, who had never finished better than 27th in six prior tries.

“All in all, I feel like I’ve never really finished a 500 here unless it was 40 laps down, so I’ll take second,” said Reddick. “We wanted to get a good start to the year, and we scored a lot of points here. I’m really happy with everyone’s effort on this (No.) 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry.

“One spot short, but not bad at all.”

Tyler Reddick (45) races in the draft during Sunday's 67th Daytona 500. (Danny Hansen/NKP for Toyota Racing photo)

Reddick didn’t seem like he ever had the steam to contend Sunday in the Great American Race, while teammate Bubba Wallace led seven times for 18 laps, but he put himself in the right place toward the end.

After starting from the eighth row for the final restart that decided the Daytona 500, Reddick appeared to be out of it early, stuck in a broken-up bottom lane that had no momentum to speak of.

But exiting turn two on the first lap of overtime, he darted to the top behind fellow Toyota driver Ty Gibbs and began a march forward. When Austin Dillon got shuffled into the third groove, Gibbs and Reddick were able to slot in behind Byron, but Reddick was still just 13th at the white flag.

Getting to ninth exiting turn two for the last time, Reddick tucked up tight to Byron’s rear bumper so that when Cole Custer flared out to go three-wide for the lead up ahead, he had a potential escape route.

That pathway materialized the moment Custer came down into the side of Denny Hamlin’s Toyota, opening up a lane to driver’s right that Byron and Reddick were able to squeeze through.

From there, it was a chase back to the finish line, with Reddick as surprised as anyone that he even had a sliver of a chance.

“On that restart with 15 to go, we kind of checked up in the middle and ended up further back than we wanted to be. We didn’t really want to, but we ducked out of it hoping for a caution and we got it,” Reddick explained. “But we were still lined up 16th there on the green-white-checkered. When they started to spin on the dogleg, I kind of jumped out of line thinking that was going to be it, and we just kept going.

“I knew that me and the 24 [Byron] had a good run and they were throwing big blocks, and when they started spinning on the inside and I had a run on the 24, I thought, ‘Man, if I can just make it through on the 11 [Hamlin] and not scrub speed, I might have at least an opportunity to do something.’

“Unfortunately, that didn’t come to reality. Got in the wall, scrubbed my speed and didn’t have any momentum left for [Byron].”

Because he wasn’t in the mix for the majority of the night – running as far back as 25th with five laps left in regulation – Reddick wasn’t about to second guess any of his decisions on the final lap.

Instead, he took some peace in finally having a positive Daytona 500 result, no matter how it happened.

“If we were up there controlling that race and lost it at the end, it would sting a lot more,” Reddick noted of being the bridesmaid. “We basically got two major breaks and snuck through two big stack-ups. Without those, we finish somewhere around 20th.

“We got the most out of it that we could.”

Reddick will look to carry his strong Daytona 500 result into another drafting-style track in Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Broadcast coverage of the Ambetter Health 400 is slated for 3 p.m. ET, live on FOX, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.