'It's not good': Reddick scratching his head after off-song run at Kansas

Tyler Reddick was left dumbfounded after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

“[I was] just trying to stay alive, really,” Reddick, who finished 11th, said of his race, where he had to come from outside the top 30 at times. “I truly don’t know. That was a lot like last week but even worse. I don’t know. It’s very head-scratching how we were that off. It’s not good.”

Because qualifying was rained out, Reddick started 15th through the performance metric. It took little time to notice the No. 45 team had a problem, as Reddick dropped 15 spots after the green flag, and spent much of the first stage fighting his car while outside the top 20.

Reddick was listed in 34th position when the competition caution was thrown on lap 36. At the end of the first stage, he was 28th. He would not earn points in the second stage, either. The good news is that Reddick climbed to 13th, giving the team a chance in the final stage to salvage the day.

In the final stage, through pit cycles and steady progress, Reddick moved into the top five. But it all came undone during the final pit stop, under green, when he had to reverse into his stall to tighten a wheel.

“I really thought we were going to make something of this day, and we’re kind of running fifth, and I was fighting the car, the handling, and got in the wall and gave up three spots there to [Christopher] Bell, [William] Byron, and [Ryan] Blaney,” Reddick said. “Then we had the issue on pit road and fell back closer to cars that went long (on the cycle) and didn’t make anything up on that last run. I don't know, man.

“A very head-scratching day. To show up that off, silver lining, I guess, is we made better, but yeah, we were still nowhere close to what we should be at tracks like this. So, that’s a big problem.”

Reddick’s average running position for the afternoon was 19.7.

Kansas was the first traditional intermediate since Chicagoland Speedway in July. In that event, Reddick held his own in and around the top 10 during the first stage, earning one stage point, before debris went through the front of his car in the second stage. It relegated him to the garage for a radiator change, and he finished 36th.

The season has been a mixed bag for Reddick on the intermediates, which may have contributed to his confusion on Sunday. Reddick was running well when he was collected in a crash at Michigan. But he had a top-five finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And the last time he won this season was at an intermediate, Kansas, in the spring.

“It’d be good to understand that,” said Reddick of what the issues are. “We definitely didn’t show up much differently than how we ran in the spring, and to be that bad is a big problem. So, we will try to learn what we can from it. A little different than Bristol, where we just had to move on (after struggling to an 18th-place finish). This one, we can’t move on from.

“We’re going to go to Las Vegas and Charlotte, so we have to figure it out big-time.”

Las Vegas and Charlotte are the next two venues on the schedule. Reddick has a 111-point deficit to overcome if he is to challenge for the championship as the postseason moves onward.