Fourth place at Bristol feels like a big step forward for Reddick, 23XI

On the one hand, Tyler Reddick and his 23XI Racing team put together a big-deal kind of day by their standards on a NASCAR Cup Series short track.

It was a fourth-place finish for Reddick at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Food City 500 after coming on strong in the final stage – a finish that came after he qualified second. It's only the second top-10 finish that Reddick has earned at the track. The latter was the first time he ever qualified inside the top-10 at the track.

And if that wasn’t good enough, it was a bright spot for the team on the type of racetrack in which they have struggled. The short tracks, they admitted, are the weakest part of their arsenal.

“I think some of the way the weekend went, some of our approach coming in here, and some of the stuff he’s worked on, has absolutely been an improvement overall,” crew chief Billy Scott said. “But the brakes continue to be the one thing that is the hold up and keeps him from being able to give clear feedback on the balance during the race and for us to contend for the win.”

Ah, yes, the brakes. Or more specifically, brake shake and steering issues. In that sense, Sunday was more of the same for Reddick and his crew.

“We were still fighting a lot of brake issues (and that) turning into steering issues,” Reddick said. “So, 100 laps in, I didn’t think I was going to make it to the end of the race. It was really, really hard to feel what my car had balance-wise.

“It was kind of a nightmare to keep up with all day, but our Camry had speed, so, that was good. I just couldn’t really tell the guys what it was driving like with the steering and brake shake.”

The mechanical issues would have been enough in the past to knock Reddick down and put him a lap behind. Fortunately, he didn’t have that problem. But he did have a speeding penalty to overcome in the first stage. Reddick fell to 34th position but had driven to 26th at the end of the first stage.

In the final stage, Reddick and the car came on even stronger. Reddick was seventh when the second-to-last caution flew and on the ensuing restart, with 15 laps to go, put himself in position to challenge for the win by charging to second in one lap.

“I was pissed,” said Reddick of the final caution coming out with four laps to go. “I feel like I gave away a chance to win the race. I know we had another shot at them on the restart, but truthfully, I was battling for the lead, and I don’t think I made the right choice there.”

Scott, however, saw it differently. Although it’s a good problem to have that the driver and team were immediately looking at what they could have done differently to win, it showed the resilience, and “just to be even up there in contention was a heck of an effort by him today.”

“I think we had the speed the whole time, it was just hard on him to be able to push it every lap and know what we needed,” Scott said. “We made some mistakes with the communication on the pit road speed and the penalty that came from that, and a few other things on our end that we need to clean up. But for him to stay focused and to battle one spot at a time and figure out when he needed to ride and hang on to where he was, and then when to push it, it all worked pretty well.”

So, while not the win that Reddick was looking for, it was a result that certainly felt close to it.

“Only a win is a win, but to come out of here with a top five, and obviously, when you look at the point situation, we didn’t lose a lot to the guys that are closest to us,” Scott said. “So, I think we’ll take that and move on for sure.”