November 16, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

It's deja vu for Reddick at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Tyler Reddick was in absolute Beast mode en route to his second Xfinity Series title and consecutive wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Reddick became the seventh driver to score back-to-back NXS titles, but the first competitor to accomplish the task with two different race teams.

Despite jumping from JR Motorsports to Richard Childress Racing, the 23-year-old Corning, California driver picked up where he left off in 2019—hoisting the championship trophy.

“It's about this race team, man, and I was just honored to pilot this Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet,” Reddick said. “It all about Richard, man. He’s the one that believed I could be a champion before I won the first one. And I was just really glad to keep him true to his promise.”

Behind the wheel of the No. 2 Tame the Beast Chevrolet, Reddick was able to seize the lead five times in the Eco-Boost 300, but no move was more impressive as the slide job he executed in Turn 4 on Cole Custer to secure the point. Over the final 19 laps, Reddick extended his advantage to 1.038-seconds over the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford at the finish.

“I wouldn’t say I had it planned out, but I made a lot of mistakes around Cole tonight and he was happy about it,” Reddick said. “So, I knew he was going to race me hard tonight.”

Custer kept Reddick in his crosshairs but pushed so hard in the closing laps that he slipped and hit the wall with nine laps remaining. Meanwhile, Reddick sailed off to the finish.

“Tyler can rip the fence here,” Custer said. “I don't know, I can match his lap time there, out there at the end, but he was just a tick better where he could be on my bumper when he was behind me and do a slide job, and I could keep up with him and I just—there at the end I felt like I needed to find a way to close the gap.            

“I was just like three car lengths back the whole time, so I was like, I need to try and figure out a way to close the gap, and I just got in the fence a little bit.”

Even crew chief Randall Burnett was impressed by his driver’s move.

“That was incredible,” Burnett said while enjoying his first NXS title. “He ran right up on Cole, and Cole was doing everything he could. He took his line away, he was right on the fence and running really fast laps up there, and forced Tyler to do something out of—he wasn't going to give it to him on top. He knew if he gave him the top line that Tyler was going to take advantage of it.

“So it forced Tyler to be aggressive and make that move, and Cole tried to cross him over.  And just great racing, man, both of them racing as hard as they could, and we were fortunate enough to come out on top of the deal.”

Chase Briscoe finished third and collected Xfinity Series Rookie-of-the-Year honors. Noah Gragson, Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Cindric, Brandon Jones, Jeb Burton and Harrison Burton rounded out the top 10.

Reddick led the first 33 laps. His progress was slowed by two cautions—Ray Black Jr.’s engine blowing up on the front stretch and Tyler Matthews hitting the wall. Reddick relinquished the lead to pit during the Lap 33 debris caution and finished fourth after the first stage behind Briscoe, Custer and Justin Haley on Lap 45. Cindric won the second stage—which ran green throughout the full 40 laps. Again, Reddick finished fourth with Bell and Justin Allgaier ahead.

Over the final 100 circuits, Reddick exchanged the lead with Gragson, Bell and Custer. His ascent was slowed after Briscoe bounced off the wall in Turn 1 to trigger the caution. Although Allgaier developed a right rear flat tire on Lap 187, he was able to nurse the No. 7 Chevy to pit road as Reddick raced to the checkers.

Reddick led a race-high 84 laps, scoring his sixth race win of the season and the ninth of his career. The title marked the fifth for RCR—the most in the Xfinity series.

“This Tame the Beast Chevrolet was just so fast; and just hat’s off to Team Chevy and all those guys for working on this Chevrolet, and all the guys at ECR for giving us great power,” Reddick said. “I’m losing my breath. I’m that excited. This one means so much. It was just a lot better year and it was really cool to go back-to-back.”