A debris caution early in Stage 3 at Gateway had Tyler Reddick cracking jokes about NASCAR, and he isn’t wrong. One of the charming and frustrating things about the sport is the wild and wacky ways in which races happen. Today is no different.
A common thing at racetracks are these little signs that mark the distance to the corner. Drivers are able to use these marks to time their braking zones and make it around the track. Not everyone uses them, but they can be helpful.
Well, one of those signs fell onto the track to start the final stage at Gateway. The NASCAR Playoffs aren’t without their quirks. Today included. Bubba Wallace went on to lose the lead on the ensuing restart because of this caution.
Tyler Reddick hopped on his radio. He thought is was funny for NASCAR to work so hard on putting those signs up just to have one cause a caution.
“That’s f***ing hilarious,” Reddick explained, via Dalton Hopkins of Frontstretch. “They took all that time under caution to fix and it’s already broke. That’s some NASCAR s**t right there.”
You know, Tyler Reddick isn’t wrong. That is SOOOO NASCAR. Now, let’s see if we avoid any more NASCAR moments before the finish of this race.
This race was going well for Reddick early on. However, his car has taken a turn for the worse since the debris caution. It has tanked his points position and put him in a tough position if he isn’t able to turn it around in these final laps.
Tyler Reddick trying to flip race around in final stage
If things don’t turn aorund quickly for Tyler Reddick, he will lose much of that points cushion he built at Darlington. These playoffs can go back and forth so quickly. Then again, he could muster a decent finish and still find himself up double digits on the cutline.
The good news about entering today with a 30+ point cushion is that a mistake could happen. There have been enough struggles for other playoff drivers that Reddick doesn’t have to do anything amazing to bounce back from his car falling through the field.
As long as 23XI Racing has the car fixed and running how it was early in the race, then all should be fine. If not, well, things could be dire at Bristol. For now, Reddick just needs to worry about getting to the end of this race.
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