Reddick concedes Coronado Cup Series win to Heim after contact

Tyler Reddick gave the Naval Base Coronado race win to Corey Heim.

Reddick hit the brakes and let his 23XI Racing teammate regain the lead with three laps to go after the two had made contact. It happened in a quick chain of events with Heim overtaking Reddick, who then pulled a crossover move going down the backstretch to get back to Heim’s left side.

But then he bounced off Heim in the corner. Reddick felt it was egregious and slowed as Heim, who had gone wide, gathered himself up and drove away. 

“I certainly overdid it and ran him into the wall, and initiated the contact. Everything,” Reddick told reporters on pit road. “So, yeah, just not the way you should race a teammate. One hundred percent not the way you should race.”

The duo had charged to the top two spots off the final restart with 12 laps to go. Reddick took the lead but never gapped Heim comfortably enough to have the win in hand. Heim began to pressure Reddick with five laps to go. 

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” said Reddick. 

Reddick congratulated and apologized to Heim in victory lane. 

“He raced me really clean,” Reddick said. “He got the lead fair and square, and I just overdid it. I didn’t have much left, and I just made some bad decisions today, pretty much all day long.” 

Unfortunately for Reddick, the contact with Heim was not the last adventure of his afternoon. Reddick fell to 25th in the finishing order because he suffered a flat left front tire shortly after losing the lead.

“It just wasn’t a good day,” said Reddick, who caught a piece of the multi-car crash in Turn 1 on lap 32, then spun on his own on lap 37.

Sunday was the fifth straight race that Reddick finished worse than Denny Hamlin, with whom he is fighting for the point lead. Reddick is now only eight points ahead of Hamlin.

“We’re going down the wrong path right now,” Reddick said, “and we need to stop it.”