NASCAR CUP SERIES: CHALLENGE ROUND 2 - GRANT PARK 165

July 6, 2025

Tyler Reddick

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to continue with our post-race availabilities. We've now been joined by Tyler Reddick, who finished in the third position in today's race. We'll take questions for Tyler.

Q. Was it a little bit of déjà-vu for you trying to chase down SVG with a faster car in the closing laps?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, each year we've been here, the situation has kind of been the same. We've had some sort of tire advantage all three years and just come up a little bit short. The first year obviously we came up big short because I just drove it in the tire barrier into 6.

But this time around, the last five, six laps were really good. We just on that second to last restart, the 8 got -- I think it was the 8. A couple cars got turned around and we were in the wrong lane and had to check up quite a bit.

Cars that were on our similar strategy got ahead of us, so I had to -- took me a few laps to get by those cars on equal tires before we could start chewing through those cars on older tires.

Had to be aggressive. A lot of those cars on older tires weren't wanting to give up the spot, but when you're on those newer tires you've got to go because you're hoping you're able to run the leader down. It's truly hard to say how much the 88 was coasting there, but we were catching him at a pretty good pace, and I think with two or three to go he picked it up a little bit, and we were still faster. But obviously he had a 3-second gap there with two to go, so comfortably in front.

But it was nice to be able to restart 18th or so and even with the issues we had and the damage we got on the car, be able to drive back to third there. All in all, it was another really solid day for us here in Chicago.

Q. Tyler, had you gotten to Shane and the yellow not come out, what were you willing to do to make the pass and get the win?

TYLER REDDICK: Well, when you have a tire advantage, you have a lot of options. As long as you can get within one or two car lengths, you have many, many opportunities, many choices.

I kind of experienced it with other cars coming through the field. If they choose to block, they're kind of opening the door for you to be aggressive and then use them up as well.

We can all speculate, but it just didn't come together. Obviously I saw what Shane was willing to do to win the race on Saturday, and for us needing a win to lock ourselves into the playoffs, I would have raced really hard because I think he would have done the same.

But it didn't happen, but we can all dream and speculate what it could have been.

Q. When you were running through the field, was there any drivers that you got stuck behind or anyplace that you felt like you lost some time?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, the second to last restart, that first restart when we put those tires on, we got through Turn 1 okay, but the 2, the 17, some other cars had damage. Someone got spun around on the driver's left of Turn 2 and got some toe link damage or something on the left rear so lost some braking ability, so that's when we lost some track position to the 19, the 42, some of those other cars that were on the same tire strategy as us. So we had to work our way back through them.

There was other cars throughout the field on the way up that were difficult, but I understand it. You're racing to the end of the race. But again, when others open that door and block aggressively or use you up, then when you're on fresher tires, it's pretty easy to be aggressive back.

Q. Were you also an advocate, like Ty, for the caution to come out there before the white?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, it's just a tough situation. I can't see what's going on over there in Turn 6. NASCAR control has got to decide all that. It's a tough spot for them to be in because if they throw the yellow flag before we get to the white, it could totally change the outcome for the top 10, the top 20 in the race.

It's a tough spot for them to be in for sure, but I think it definitely would have opened up Pandora's box, if you will, and drivers 10th on back would have been really aggressive for two laps. Also on our fresher tires we would have been able to be very aggressive as well on those two laps.

It's just a tough deal. It's racing. Sometimes it's just how it goes.