LAS VEGAS, NV – March 3, 2024 – Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series Race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Myk Crawford | The Podium Finish)
LAS VEGAS — Tyler Reddick did all he could to run down Kyle Larson in the closing laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but ultimately wound up second in the opener of the West Coast swing.
Still, Reddick remained frustrated. He shouldered the blame of the race on pit road, saying mistakes cost him an early season NASCAR Cup Series victory.
“I feel like we were never up front really all day long, until it got to the stage ends. We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry,” Reddick said after the race. “Just stupid mistakes on pit road. Same shit, different year, right? Kind of frustrating. We’ll continue to work on it, but a good rebound for our team today.”
Reddick made a crucial mistake early in the race, sliding through his pit box during the first stage break. He entered pit road in second, but after having to back up and reposition for service, Reddick exited 16th for the start of Stage 2.
With just one caution halting the middle stage, Reddick launched through the field with his No. 45 23XI Racing machine. Once again, he ended up second at the stage break, but still ran behind the dominant Kyle Larson.
When Corey LaJoie went around on Lap 236 to cause a caution, the door got kicked open for the 28-year-old from Corning, California. The leaders pitted, and after Ross Chastain took two tires, Reddick restarted third with 27 laps to go. He dropped back to fourth but eventually navigated past both team owner Denny Hamlin and Chastain to return to second.
As the laps ticked down, Reddick neared Larson. He got the closest with 3 to go as he got a massive run on the high groove entering Turn 3. However, Larson moved up to block the run and shut down any momentum. Reddick fell back down the backstretch before taking the white flag and couldn’t come close enough to make a last-lap move.
Tyler Reddick races his boss, Denny Hamlin, late at Las Vegas. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
“We were pretty evenly matched, so I don’t know if there was anything that I really could’ve done to get around him,” Reddick said of his late battle with the 2021 Cup Series champion. “He would have had to make a big mistake or had some traffic kind of knock his wind around. It’s a solid effort for our team, that’s how we need to run, but I don’t like running second.
“He seemed pretty good in the middle and I was obviously really good on the bottom, and he just never let me have it, right? I kept trying to run higher and higher and you know, he’s kind of running in the middle of the race track, which is pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I sort of got close, I mean, we’re running just wide open enough in turn one and two, you can kind of defend pretty well. It’s frustrating.
“We should have been battling up there in the front more than we were today. Just put us behind, unfortunately, and had to battle through that all day. As the field got better, it got harder to get back to the front as quick. You have to run up front all day long, and when asked about what we need to do to get better, that’s the very thing, and we didn’t do it today.”
Reddick’s 53-point day pulled him back into the top 12 of the points after crashing in the first two races. He failed to finish the Daytona 500 after getting damage in the wreck with nine laps to go and finished 17 laps off the pace at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Next up is a trip to Phoenix Raceway — the site of the NASCAR Cup Series championship race in November. The Shriners Children’s 500 is set for Sunday, March 10 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
