REDDICK

have been a lot better.

“It’s really crazy that this is the place I got my first win because this place four years ago had me questioning everything.”

The win showed how far Reddick has come as a road-course driver since the early stages of his career.

“He was like: ‘Man, I hate road course racing. I’m not very good at it,’” crew chief Randall Burnett recalled. “He’s pretty good at everything he does, so for him to say that, it was a little bit of a challenge.”

Burnett credited Reddick for working tirelessly to make himself more comfortable on road courses.

“I think that’s a nice little cherry on top, for him to know that he’s worked that hard to get as good as he has on these places,” Burnett said. “So I think it’s pretty special for him to actually win on a road course for the first time.”

Reddick generally had many more good days than bad days while racing in the Xfinity Series, where he won consecutive Xfinity titles in 2018 and 2019 and earned the seat in the No. 8 Chevrolet driving for Childress. He was surprised in the significant leap in competition when he got his Cup ride.

“We got slapped in the face with the reality of what Cup racing is like,” Reddick said. “I’ve had to learn a lot over the course of these last three years in the Cup Series as a driver.”

That also meant making sure he didn’t stew too much over his second-place finishes and instead figured out how the experiences could make him a better drive. Reddick didn’t even cast blame over his heartbreaking finish at Bristol this year, when he led until Chase Briscoe tried to slide past him in a move that caused both of their cars to spin out of control. Kyle Busch passed both to earn the victory.

“Yeah, it eats away at you a little bit, but again, I try and look at it, ‘How can I learn from this? How can I learn from Bristol?’” Reddick said. “Yeah, I got wrecked, but I had a gap and I let him run me back down and get there. I gave him an opportunity.”

Reddick’s team made sure frustrations never boiled over. They all knew a victory would come sooner or later.

“It wasn’t a matter of if he was going to do it, it was when they were going to win,” Childress said. “That’s what we kept telling them.”

Now they’re ready for more.