Reddick’s team confident after breakthrough Cup Series win

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Tyler Reddick finally has his first Cup Series victory and probably a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs.

He is not letting off the gas now. The Richard Childress Racing driver and his team have bigger goals than simply qualifying for the playoffs.

“We talk about being a contender for the championship, and I think we can. I truly think that we will be a contender for the championship when we get into it,” team owner Richard Childress said Sunday after Reddick’s win at Road America.

Strong statement for a team that only earned its first Cup win Sunday, in Reddick’s 92nd career start. But Reddick had come close enough before – five runner-up finishes before his win at Road

America – and was reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson’s preseason pick as surprise driver of the year.

So it’s been a buildup to get to victory lane and now Reddick will try to carry his new momentum into Atlanta Motor Speedway, where NASCAR races this Sunday and Reddick was a contender in the spring until a late crash.

Reddick had acknowledged just one week before Road America how frustrating it has been to fall short of that breakthrough first Cup win. He’d been driving his partner, Alexa, crazy as he struggled to take the next step.

“I’d say I was pretty miserable,” Reddick said. “I don’t think Alexa enjoyed being around me when I’d run second place. Yeah, second place isn’t a bad place to finish. But we’re here to win races.”

His first victory came on the course where he experienced one

of the low points of his career.

Reddick recalled a disastrous performance in a 2018 Xfinity Series race at Road America that had him questioning whether he had what it takes to make it as a driver at the highest level.

“It was about here that things could have went one of two ways,”

Reddick said. “It could have went one way where I was pretty much giving up ... I don’t think I had it. But I had a lot of good people around me that believed in me, got me back where I needed to be, and from that point on, things