NASCAR: Tyler Reddick left a championship team, and it paid off

Tyler Reddick left JR Motorsports after winning the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. It paid off with Richard Childress Racing in 2019.

In his first full season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series last year, Tyler Reddick drove the #9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports and experienced a season that featured its ups and downs and a load of inconsistency.

He won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, but that was the only one of the season’s first 32 races that he won. Before the season ended, he confirmed that he would be leaving JR Motorsports to drive the #2 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in the 2020 season.

Reddick managed to work his way through the playoffs to the Championship 4, in large part thanks to a solid round of 8 during which his average finish was 4.33 and he finished in no lower than sixth place in any race.

So what did Reddick do in the Championship 4? He won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway as a result of his prowess on the high line at the track to win the championship, and he did it for a team he had already opted to leave after 2018.

More from Xfinity Series

Would the 23-year-old Corning, California native’s gamble to leave this championship-winning organization pay off?

Reddick’s 2018 championship came as quite a big surprise to many NASCAR fans, and even to Reddick himself. He won only two races, recorded only seven top five finishes and recorded only 20 top 10 finishes throughout the 33-race season. He led only 184 of the 5,602 laps that he completed, and his average finish was only 12.9.

None of these statistics were even remotely close to being the best in the series last year.

Because statistics aren’t always everything, even a drastic improvement at Richard Childress Racing, which wasn’t exactly the likeliest scenario considering they won just one race in the 2018 season while JR Motorsports won seven — and Reddick accounted for only two of those seven — didn’t guarantee a championship for Reddick.

Skip ahead one year, and Reddick is hoisting another Xfinity Series championship trophy anyway, and make no mistake about it; his gamble to leave JR Motorsports for Richard Childress Racing played a huge role in this success.

As stated above, even a drastic improvement at Richard Childress Racing wouldn’t guarantee a championship for Reddick. But he improved more than drastically, doubling his numbers in the majority of significant statistical categories and looking far more like a championship contender on a weekly basis as opposed to a driver who snuck his way the Championship 4 only to finally end a lengthy win drought at a convenient time.

Reddick won six races and recorded a series-high 24 top five finishes and a series-high 27 top 10 finishes. He also took five pole positions, led 568 of the 5,746 laps that he completed, recorded a series-high average finish of 6.3 and won the regular season points championship.

And above all, he once again took the checkered flag in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway as a result of his prowess on the high line around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Homestead, Florida.

He collected all six of Richard Childress Racing’s victories in 2020. JR Motorsports, meanwhile, had one of their worst seasons in recent years, winning only two races. One of those races was the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, won by Michael Annett. Justin Allgaier, who did manage to qualify for the Championship 4, won only the round of 8 finale at ISM Raceway following a five-win 2018 season.

It’s safe to say that Reddick’s departure from his 2018 championship-winning organization paid off.

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

Of course, Tyler Reddick is now set to compete for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning next year, and they have not had much success at NASCAR’s highest level as of late. So will his move to the organization ultimately end up paying off in the Cup Series as well? He is set to drive the #8 Chevrolet as the replacement for Daniel Hemric, and the 2020 season is scheduled to begin with the 62nd annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 16.

Home/Xfinity Series