Ryan Reed returned to NASCAR competition for the first time in nearly a year and recorded a seventh-place finish on Friday evening at Talladega Superspeedway. The driver of the No. 91 Tandem Diabetes Care Chevrolet Silverado RST joined his MHR teammates at the front of the field in the closing laps to notch his best-career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series result in his sixth-career start. After 20 races, the No. 91 team sits 15th in the NCTS owners’ point standings.
Reed began the day by posted the 22nd-fastest time in qualifying on Friday afternoon and reacclimated himself to competition in the opening laps. The Bakersfield, Calif. driver made several attempts to engineer a third lane at the top of the track but wasn’t able to make permanent progress. Reed was scored 24th at the end of Stage 1 on lap 20.
Crew chief Darren Fraley called for a four-tire pit stop under the stage caution to snug up Reed’s balance. He restarted 32nd on lap 27 after being nabbed for a pit road speeding penalty, but showcased the capability of his Chevrolet and advanced into contention during the second segment. Fraley elected to employ a shrewd strategy and called Reed to pit before pit road closed prior to the end of Stage 2. Unfortunately, a second speeding penalty thwarted the strategy and was scored 27th at the end of the stage on lap 40.
Undeterred to start the final segment, Reed refocused and drove towards the front in the final segment. He ran as high as 12th prior to the green flag pit cycle and made his final fuel-only stop on lap 57. Reed advanced to seventh by lap 70 and was in contention the win along with all three of his MHR teammates. Reed ran inside the top-five on the final lap and drafted with teammate Christian Eckes when a multi-truck accident ignited coming to the checkered flag. Reed was collected and sustained significant damage in the accident, yet crossed the finish line in seventh.
Ryan Reed Quote:
“Thanks to Bill McAnally and everybody at MHR for building a safe truck. A really fast truck. We could go wherever we wanted today. I made a lot of mistakes, but we put ourselves in position at the end. I hate that Bill has torn up race trucks. I was trying to push the No. 19. I wanted to push the No. 19 to the win. I wanted to see a Tandem Diabetes Care Chevy Silverado and a NAPA Chevy Silverado pushing one-two. I think we still ended up with decent finishes, all-in-all. Thanks to everyone that helps support this deal. It’s fun to come off the couch and be a racecar driver again.”
McAnally Hilgemann Racing PR
