Competing in his third full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Tyler Reddick is primed to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will fulfill 100 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
A native of Corning, California, Reddick made his Cup Series debut in the 61st running of the Daytona 500 in February 2019. By then, he was coming off his first NASCAR Xfinity Series championship while driving for JR Motorsports and was set in competing in his first season with Richard Childress Racing both in the Xfinity and Cup circuit. Driving the No. 31 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for RCR, Reddick started 39th and finished 27th in his Cup debut after being involved in three separate incidents. Three months later, he made his second Cup career start at Kansas Speedway in May, Reddick, who started 21st, had a strong run occurring, even appearing in the top three, before settling in ninth place.
After achieving his second consecutive Xfinity title in 2019, Reddick moved up to the NASCAR Cup Series as a full-time competitor in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, where he replaced Daniel Hemric. He commenced his rookie Cup season with a 28th-place result in the Daytona 500 after being involved in a late multi-car wreck. After finishing 18th and 11th during the following two races, Reddick had a strong top-10 run established at Phoenix Raceway in March before he wrecked under the final 60 laps and ended up in 33rd place.
When NASCAR returned to on-track competition at Darlington Raceway in May amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Reddick notched a strong seventh-place result. He went on to finish eighth in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and fourth at Homestead-Miami Speedway in June. Six races later, Reddick utilized a late pit strategy to grab a career-best second-place result behind teammate Austin Dillon at Texas Motor Speedway in July. Despite earning two top-five results and seven top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, Reddick failed to make the 2020 Cup Playoffs. He went on to finish fourth at Bristol Motor Speedway in September and seventh at Talladega Superspeedway in October before capping off his rookie Cup season in 19th place in the final standings.
Remaining at RCR for the 2021 Cup season, Reddick rebounded from finishing outside of the top 25 through the first two scheduled races at Daytona by earning a strong runner-up result at Homestead in late February. He then went on to record a pole at the Circuit of the Americas, an additional top-five result and a total of 12 top-10 results before making the Playoffs for the first time in his career. Reddick’s title hopes, however, came to an end after finishing 18th, 15th and 12th respectively in the Round of 16, which prevented him from advancing to the Round of 12 by two points. For the remaining seven scheduled events, he recorded two additional top-10 results before settling in 13th place in the final standings. By then, he nearly doubled his recorded top-10 results in a season to 16 and earned an average-finishing result of 15.0.
Reddick commenced the 2022 Cup season with a 35th-place result after triggering a late multi-car wreck. During the following event at Auto Club Speedway, he led a race-high 90 of 200-scheduled laps and placed himself in prime position to win until he blew a left-rear tire while leading with 49 laps remaining. While trying to limp his No. 8 Chevrolet around the circuit, he was sideswiped by William Byron at full speed, which dropped him out of contention and in 24th place in the final running order. After rallying by finishing in the top 10 during the next three of six-scheduled events, Reddick placed himself in another opportunity to notch his first Cup victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway Road Course. Having led a race-high 99 of 250-scheduled laps, he was leading by a narrow margin over Chase Briscoe during the final lap when Briscoe slipped and made contact with Reddick entering Turn 3 as both spun below the apron. Reddick managed to proceed forward following the spin, but he was edged by Kyle Busch at the finish line by 0.330 seconds, thus leaving Reddick with his fourth runner-up result.
Then nine races later, where he earned another runner-up result at Darlington Raceway in May, Reddick achieved his long-awaited first career triumph in NASCAR’s premier series after overtaking Chase Elliott and leading the final 16 laps. The victory made Reddick the fifth first-time winner of the 2022 Cup season, the 203rd competitor overall to win in NASCAR’s premier series and the 41st to win across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Camping World Truck, Xfinity and Cup). Reddick double-downed on his win column another four races later after grabbing a dominant victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in late July. Reddick’s second Cup career victory was also one that solidified his chances of earning a spot for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs with multiple victories throughout the regular-season stretch.
Through 99 previous Cup starts, Reddick has achieved two victories, two poles, 13 top-five results, 36 top-10 results, 391 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.5. To go along with his two victories and a total of 10 top-10 results through the first 25-scheduled events of this season, Reddick is ranked in 13th place in the regular-season standings as he prepares to embark in his quest for his first Cup Series championship.
Reddick is scheduled to make his 100th Cup Series career start at Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero 400, the 2022 regular season finale event, on Saturday, August 27. The event’s coverage is scheduled to occur at 7 p.m. ET on NBC.
