Tyler Reddick could have made his way to a 1st place finish for the fifth time this season, but miscommunication seemed to have cost him that. While it was a minor disappointment, he still managed to impress his co-owner, Michael Jordan, who was happy about the fourth-place finish.

A second shot built the hard way at Bristol

Reddick started at P2, which was his best-ever Bristol Cup qualifying effort. He even enjoyed early control of the track position and was running inside the top five through the opening stint. However, by Lap 63, that advantage had evaporated. There was also a pit road speeding penalty during the first green-flag cycle; this dropped him from the front of the field to the tail end of the lead lap, costing him over 20 positions in a single sequence.

The post-race interview shed light on how Reddick felt about the same.

“Unfortunately for us, miscommunication, before that first pit sequence, just had my wrong mark.”

Even after that, the recovery never really caught up. By the end of Stage 1, he was outside the top 15 with no stage points. Through Stage 2, he hovered between P18 and P12, gaining a position or two with slight increments. There wasn’t much he could do.

He added, “We had more speed this time around, but unfortunately, still kept fighting brake and steering issues along the way.”

 

By Lap 300, he had broken into the top 10 and eventually by Lap 382 even broke into the Top 6, which in turn was a net gain of roughly 15-18 positions from his post-penalty low.

“We had to fight for it all day long; it was a very physical day inside the race car,” Reddick added

The end of the race pivoted due to the wonderful theatrics of Kyle Busch, as we all know. Everyone was forced to think about strategy. Reddick chose to stay out, briefly gaining the front row track position. Despite being on worn-out tires against cars with fresh rubber, the 23XI driver held on, briefly clearing into P2 and placing himself directly in contention for the lead with under 20 laps remaining in a race that extended beyond 500 laps.

Despite the resilient display, a trip to the Victory Lane was not going to happen, but Michael Jordan was impressed with what he saw from Reddick.

“I mean, but s***, what a great second shot. I thought you wouldn’t pull it out, but you had some good times,” said Jordan. “You had a good day, man. No, this is a short track, man. You should be happy. I should be hugging you. See you in Kansas.”

 

The line “I should be hugging you,” after which Jordan, gigantic compared to Reddick, wraps his arms around the racer to console him, probably felt better and more rewarding to the young No. 45 driver than any race victory possibly could.

Reddick, proud of his team, added, “It was a really good bounce back for our No. 45 Toyota Camry… everybody on this 45 team did a really good job.”

His fourth-place finish was just 0.665 seconds off a win. What should not be forgotten is that he got this finish on older tires and a worn-out car. And maybe, as Jordan points out for the future, Kansas is where the driver will have his shot at glory.

The sins of Tennessee can be washed away in Kansas

The issue is that the errors of miscommunication and wrong marks made at Bristol cannot be made at Kansas, because Kansas punishes the same much harder with long green-flag runs stretching the field beyond easy recovery.

Then comes the issue with the car, as Kansas rewards stability. Even though Reddick can be reasonably inferred to be the fastest on the intermediates, he has had problems converting that pace into standings.

The record, however, is now clear with 4 wins, 5 top fives, 6 top 10s, and establishing himself as a points leader this early in the season. But champions often emerge from their ability to handle failures. Even though Bristol was far from a failure, Reddick has the chance to correct what went wrong at the track in Kansas.

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