TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 39th
Are you okay? What happened?
“Yeah, actually it wasn’t too bad at all. Just hate it for the Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD. I really felt like we could push really well, and we could really make progress through the pack. I just haven’t really been in the lead much at all today – that was the first time I was getting any pushes in the lead and the car seemed a little unstable down the back straightaway into three. Kevin (Harvick) was trying to push me, and I just lost it. If I would have known that earlier in the day, I would have been more careful about that, but that was the first time I’ve had that experience all day long with that.”
Kevin Harvick said he felt like he may have hit you wrong, but you didn’t feel much of a hit?
“I don’t know. Down the back when he got to my rear bumper it just didn’t really seem – when I had clean air there – that my car was really stable. I thought it moves around a little bit down the back, I’ve had this before, but yeah, I was kind of caught off guard by what happened in the corner. Unfortunately, it was the first time I’ve been put in that situation, I got loose and unfortunately took out some other good cars.”
It looked like the accident started with you or around you. What could you see?
“It definitely started with me unfortunately. I really thought our Monster Energy Camry TRD could push really well. I just didn’t have a lot of clean air all day long and I was never a lead car until Kevin (Harvick) was really pushing on me there. The car just unfortunately didn’t have the stability that it needed to have. It was dancing around a little bit down the back straightaway and a little bump into turn three I would be okay. The car just came around right away and now our car is out of the race and took out a lot of other good cars too.”
Were the Fords the strongest cars on track from your vantage point?
“When I was pushing the 17 (Chris Buescher), I could stay on his back bumper pretty good. (Kevin) Harvick could push me pretty good. Things were working out okay, but I was kind of sandwiched in the middle with my Toyota. I would say there was a point in time there where all the Toyotas were lined up and I thought we had a pretty good head of steam and momentum going, but the bigger pack ran us down and we used pit strategy a little bit. Once all of our Toyotas got together, we were working well together. The Fords are pretty good too. I thought the Toyotas drove really good on the speedways so far.”
How was it working with the other Toyotas this season versus the Chevrolets last year?
“I really had a blast with it. I feel like strategy-wise in the past it was a total disaster for me on the speedways and it just never seemed to work out. Every single cycle here it seemed to work out and we gained track position. I don’t really know what other Toyotas I tore up, hopefully none. But I thought it was going really, really well. I just hate that the day ended where it did as I thought we were working good together.”
Toyota Racing PR
