On the fourth lap of the NASCAR Cup race at Iowa Speedway, Tyler Reddick was battling side-by-side with Erik Jones for seventh place. Ross Chastain briefly considered making it three-wide but ended up filing in behind Reddick.
However, entering Turn 1 at the start of Lap 4 of the 350-lap race, the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota of Reddick snapped around on its own, sliding up the track and taking the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota of Jones into the outside wall.
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Both cars suffered significant damage and went to the garage, ending their days.
Reddick entered this race 84pts back of the championship lead with Ryan Blaney breathing down his neck, so this will be a major setback with the Chase reset less than a month away.
It’s even more dire for Jones, who entered this race 18th in the standings, 44 points below the cut-line. Sunday’s early wreck essentially destroyed his Chase hopes.
Reddick called it a ‘killer mistake,’ and when talking with a media scrum that included Motorsport.com, he explained what happened.
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“I just lost the car, honestly,” said Reddick outside the infield care center. “It just snapped on me. If I’m by myself, I probably can save it. Just unfortunate that we ran out of room, got into him [Jones] and we both wrecked. It’s not ideal. Unacceptable, really. It’s one thing to wreck myself, but taking out a Toyota teammate is not what I’m supposed to do.”
Reddick has been on a backslide for several weeks now, losing the points lead and continuing to lose ground to Denny Hamlin. “We got a lot of stuff to figure out,” lamented Reddick, who now has six finishes of 25th or worse in the last nine races.
Jones couldn’t believe his misfortune, and struggled to hide his disappointment.
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“I think Tyler just got loose and crashed,” Jones told a media scrum including Motorsport.com. “The nothing more to say, I know he didn’t mean to do it. He took himself out too. But it is frustrating. It’s just really early. It it was 10 to go, I get it, but it’s lap 3 so its just frustrating.”
On his hopes to make the Chase, Jones believes it’s basically over at this point. “Yeah, it’s gonna be a long shot from here. We’re gonna be deep after today. It would take a heck of run in three races to point our way back. It’s a bummer. We needed four really good weeks, and it’s just not gonna happen.”
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