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NASCAR: Tyler Reddick’s switch to Richard Childress Racing paying off

By Asher Fair

TALLADEGA, AL - APRIL 27: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #2 Roland Chevrolet, celebrates winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series MoneyLion 300 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
TALLADEGA, AL - APRIL 27: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #2 Roland Chevrolet, celebrates winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series MoneyLion 300 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /
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Tyler Reddick’s switch from JR Motorsports to Richard Childress Racing ahead of the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season has paid off thus far.

Tyler Reddick signed with Richard Childress Racing as the driver of the #2 Chevrolet for the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season before the 2018 season came to an end. Reddick, a rookie last season, spent last season driving for JR Motorsports behind the wheel of the #9 Chevrolet.

The 23-year-old Richard Childress Racing-bound Corning, California native then went on to win the Xfinity Series championship. Meanwhile, 2018 Truck Series runner-up Noah Gragson was named his replacement behind the wheel of the #9 Chevrolet for the 2019 season.

Would the 2019 season turn out to be just an attempt to switch things up and/or to fix something that wasn’t broken for the 2018 champion given the fact that he changed teams after winning last year’s championship?

Nope.

Through the first nine races of the 33-race 2019 season, Reddick’s move has paid off, as he has gone from a good situation to an even better one.

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Of course, with only nine of the 2019 season’s 33 races having been contested, there is no guarantee that this move will indeed “pay off” to the point where Reddick will win another championship.

Even if he does, that wouldn’t be anything better than he pulled off last season, at least not from the standpoint of an end result.

But after a regular season last season that was certainly not great nor really even close to being great by championship standards, Reddick simply got hot at the right time in the playoffs and won the season finale as one of the four Championship 4 drivers en route to being crowned Xfinity Series champion as a rookie.

His prowess at running the high line at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the site of the season finale and lone Championship 4 race, allowed him to earn this achievement.

Reddick finished the 33-race 2018 season with two victories, seven top five finishes and 20 top 10 finishes. He led 184 of the 5,602 laps that he completed, and he recorded an average starting position of 11.7 and an average finishing position of 12.9.

So far this season, Reddick has earned one victory, his victory in this past Saturday’s MoneyLion 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, and he has already recorded seven top five finishes, eight top 10 finishes and two pole positions. No driver has recorded more top five finishes, top 10 finishes or pole positions than he has this season.

He has not finished a race outside of the top 14 yet this season, and he has already led 199 of the 1,704 laps that he has completed, which is more laps than he led throughout all of last season. His average starting position is an impressive 4.1, and his average finishing position is an impressive 4.9. Both of these average positions are the best among those of the full-time drivers.

Additionally, Reddick currently leads the championship standings by 32 points (413 to 381) over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, the Xfinity Series driver who the majority of fans feel is the most deserving driver of a Cup Series ride in the near future, in second place.

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From the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series season to the 2019 season, Tyler Reddick has gone from underdog champion to championship favorite. His switch from JR Motorsports, the team for which he drove en route to winning last year’s championship as a rookie, to Richard Childress Racing has paid off in a big way so far, and it appears likely to continue to do so.

Was his move just an attempt to fix something that isn’t broken or simply just to switch things up? Not in the slightest. He is here to do nothing less than perform at a high level, an elite level, and he has been doing just that.

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