THE MODERATOR: We have now been joined by today’s race winner, Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.
Tyler, congratulations on making the Championship 4. Can you walk us through the last few laps and your emotions.
TYLER REDDICK: I can’t walk you through the last few laps. But my emotions were all over the place.
Yeah, when we went long, I didn’t know how that was going to play out. I was worried that caution wasn’t going to come. We pit, lose a lap. Oh, damn. We get back on the lead lap. I was not expecting it, right? Nick says caution. Great, we’re at the back, whatever else.
It was like, Yeah, we’re going to stay out.
I was like, Oh, shit, we’re going to stay out? We’re going to figure this out (smiling).
Yeah, turn one went about as good as I thought it could have went. I saw Denny get to my outside. That wasn’t great. We settled in there. I didn’t know how bad we were going to bleed.
I drove into turn three kind of, I don’t know, out of desperation, something, I kind of held serve. I was very shocked by that.
Then as laps just kept winding down, it didn’t truly feel like we were at a big tire deficit. You come to this place, you know tires are a premium. Early in the race we saw the 8, a number of other cars, on three-, four-lap tires stay out and get their doors blown off. I was completely shocked we were able to stay in the mix like we were.
Yeah, going into one, I made the right guess. I got the bottom. I got clean air. I got up in front of the 11. I had a good run on the 12. I was just blown away that I had that kind of momentum going into turn three.
I thought there was no way the 12 was going to leave, Blaney, was going to leave me the outside. He must have thought that I was just going to absolutely dive bomb it off in there to try to get around him. Once I saw him kind of shade down, I hit the gas and forgot about everything else. Came out on the other side in the lead.
It was just crazy.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions.
Q. How do you put out of your head what happened last week when you’re trying to make a move?
TYLER REDDICK: You can’t think about it at all. I’m thankful that the cars are as safe as they are when it comes to rolling them over. They made big improvements with that from Gen-6 to Gen-7.
Certainly I didn’t think the crash was as big as it was. It was an interesting process understanding that. Again, I was just glad the car, for the most part, I stayed in the seat, nothing collapsed, nothing crazy happened.
I don’t know. To your point, Bob, we’re kind of crazy to some degree. My first lap in the car after flipping it, I drive off into turn three and four in practice right on the wall, like nothing had ever happened.
That’s just how you have to be if you want to compete at this level. You’ve got to be able to remember the important things, remember the lessons. There’s certain things you just got to completely block out, forget, go into the next day, the next week completely ready to go like nothing ever happened.
Q. What is it about this place that suits you?
TYLER REDDICK: I have no idea (smiling). I like Florida. Maybe that’s some of it. The weather’s always nice.
Yeah, this place is the only mile-and-a-half that we have that is shaped the way that it is. With the nature of the surface, the banking, just how well the wall is shaped, it really allows you to just get up there and rip it and make a lot of speed.
Today was a day where you could really run the wall in three and four, but in one and two you had to move around quite a bit. That took some adjusting. But our car was really, really tuned for it. Our Beast Camry could kind of run wherever we wanted to. That was nice. It really was a big part of why we were able to win this race today. On older tires, we got up in line. Versatility is important here.
I don’t know. This place has just been really, really fun from the first time I ever ran it as a rookie in the Truck Series. I don’t know what it is. Just me as a racer, I love stepping over the edge. This place seems to reward that to some degree.
You have to take care of your tires. Being able to rip the fence when all else fails, man, there’s nowhere else like this place where you can do that and make that kind of speed.
Just a lot of fun to run lap after lap.
Q. Did your mindset change watching Truck and Xfinity yesterday, seeing how important and advantageous it was to wrap the bottom on the white line? Did your mindset going into today change based on what you experienced in practice?
TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I mean, you always have to be ready to adapt. So for us, we had an approach. We kind of stuck to it on practice day. Watching the Xfinity race play out like it did was a bit interesting.
Certainly it’s funny, you would think as a track ages, you want to run the higher lanes more and more. Something about this place, maybe just the laps that have been run around the top, the bottom can be more beneficial at times.
Just when you think you have a track like this figured out, it always seems to present something new that catches you off guard and you have to adapt. That’s the name of the game for us all day long. We kind of just kept having to adjust to what our car would give us.
Ultimately at the end we kind of went on a limb with our strategy. Cannot believe it, but it paid off. It was an incredible thing. I cannot believe we won the race on older tires in a place like Homestead. Shouldn’t happen, but we did it. That’s the kind of team that we have. We’ve been put in some very tough situations. We found ways to overcome it. We did that again today.
Q. On this track where tires are everything, how does a driver not only just pass the two cars in front of him but rip off this incredible lap?
TYLER REDDICK: I heard that after the fact. It was a truly fast lap. I truly don’t know.
When you think about it, I had clean air for the whole lap. I went down to the bottom. The 12 was more worried about the 11, as he should have been. Three and four, I got the top uncontested.
Yeah, I guess I had clean air. Should have been a pretty quick lap. I don’t know. Sometimes you have to take guesses going into the corner where you think the lane for you is going to be. I just got it right.
It’s crazy to do it the way we did it, but we did it.
Q. Did your dad say anything to you in Victory Lane?
TYLER REDDICK: Oh, gosh. I mean, he’s just really proud of me. We were both just in disbelief by just what happened honestly. Yeah, at a place like this, that shouldn’t work. We made it work. It’s just incredible.
He was proud. Everyone’s really, really excited and ecstatic about what just took place. Again, I’m still in disbelief, honestly (smiling).
Q. You had issues with traction. Pit stops were not up to speed. Do you feel confident going into Phoenix the pit crew stuff will be cleaned up?
TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, we got extra time to just think about Phoenix now. That’s going to be good for us.
I have faith in my team. They know how to execute a fast stop. For them, they can just solely focus on Phoenix for the next week and a half, if you will, before we get there.
Q. (No microphone.)
TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, that Tyler wasn’t very good at Phoenix. I feel like since I came over to 23XI, becoming a driver, Toyota Camry, I’ve certainly gotten a bit better at Phoenix.
Look back to the spring, we were really, really solid. Obviously Christopher found something in that race that set him apart from the rest of the field. It’s something that we’ve been thinking about since that first race, how can we go back there and compete with Christopher. It’s been on our mind. We’ve been thinking about it.
Obviously we’ve had a lot of season between now and then. The work that we put in after Phoenix should certainly help us as we prepare for this race coming up.
Q. Blaney said afterwards he thought he drove it pretty hard into three. His plan was to slide up. By that time you were already outside. Were you confident from what you felt after the restart that the car was going to stick?
TYLER REDDICK: I had no idea, but I was willing to take the risk and find out, so…
That’s just the corner I was in. I knew for us to make it to Phoenix, a win here today was really going to help our odds. Yeah, I don’t know, I drove it in till I got next to him, then hoped that it stuck, and it did. It was pretty incredible.
Q. Those of us that have followed Michael know there’s only one thing that makes him happy, and that’s winning. Take us through what the moment is like, when you can make the boss pretty happy, that’s pretty rare.
TYLER REDDICK: It’s special, man. He’s dedicated a lot of his time, his efforts, his money into elevating 23XI to where it is right now. He’s fully committed to this team, to our organization.
To be able to reward him with the days like we had today, it’s a true honor. It was really cool to see how happy he was. We’re all very happy about it.
He believed in me. He believes in this team. The people, him, Denny, everybody else, has put together to create what 23XI is. He’s put a lot towards it. It’s really cool in these critical moments to be able to deliver for him and for everybody else that’s a part of the team.
Q. After MJ was finished giving you a bear hug, what did he say to you?
TYLER REDDICK: He was just really proud, the fight that we had, never giving up, fighting through the adversity. Just really, really proud of the effort we put forth.
Like I said, he believes in me. He believes in this team. I know the circumstances weren’t ideal. This is the kind of things we have to overcome when we get put in these positions. We’ve had to do it a few times.
He was really proud of the whole team for the effort we put forth.
Q. Probably a silly question. Do you consider this the biggest, most important win of your racing career so far?
TYLER REDDICK: This is pretty big, yeah. To do it that way, at a place like this, when everything was on the line like it was, it’s pretty incredible.
We got to enjoy it. We’re going to certainly enjoy it and celebrate it. Monday morning on, we’re going to be thinking about Phoenix and getting ready for what lies ahead.
Q. From what you’re saying, you haven’t seen the finish, a replay?
TYLER REDDICK: Bits and pieces, but not the full thing, no.
Q. You said you’re kind of in disbelief. Do you have any sense that this is one of the best finishes in the Playoff era? Do you have any sense of that?
TYLER REDDICK: No, not exactly. No. I’m sure when the time is right, I’ll have the opportunity to go back and look at it.
Living it, it just seemed like, yeah, it wasn’t a great restart, but I just could not believe that we were holding on as good as we were. My opportunity was the 12 and 11 being worried about each other, try to get in the middle of it, then make something out of it.
Yeah, I was very fortunate that I was left to top at my favorite track, my favorite corner, which is three and four here. Just took a risk, and it paid off. I don’t know what else really to say.
Q. What was going on getting out of the pit box? Were you not getting a good launch? There were a couple times it seemed like you were telling the guys you were struggling getting out. Bell had that issue with Las Vegas. What was going on?
TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, we definitely struggled with it at Vegas a week ago, too. We’re just trying to at bare minimum take the gain that stall one gives us and live with it, make the most of it.
Yeah, it seemed like more times than not if we could just get a little more traction out of this first stall, man, we’d be passing cars on pit road instead of maintaining or losing one or two.
It’s just the struggle you have at some of these tracks. That first pit stall does have an advantage. When you leave that pit stall, you’re on asphalt or a different surface that’s slick. Certainly I had my struggles with it today and last week.
Q. Why is turn three and four your favorite corners?
TYLER REDDICK: I don’t know. It just feels like you can drive a lot deeper in there than you should. It worked. I don’t know. I’ve always felt that way about that corner.
Just feels like you can, when the moment is right, do some pretty crazy stuff over there. Thankfully I did and it paid off.
THE MODERATOR: How does it feel to make the biggest and most important pass to win the race, and that ended up setting the record for the lead changes at Homestead, then you ended up punching your ticket to the Championship 4?
TYLER REDDICK: I knew we needed to come in here and win, but I didn’t ever foresee it being as crazy as it was today as it ended up playing out.
Yeah, we were put in a tough spot. We had to rise to the occasion. We did as a team. It takes everything. We did a really good job of overcoming the things that went our way, that didn’t work out, and just being gutsy and willing to put the it all on the line like we did.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
