Tyler Reddick wins NASCAR Xfinity Series title — and right to name his son — in Homestead
Tyler Reddick had been feuding with his girlfriend for a little while. Alexa De Leon is pregnant and she was set on Ryker. Reddick was set on Beau.
He got all of his friends in on his preference and tried to wear her down. “How’s Beau doing?” they would ask her. Eventually, prompted her to make a bet.
“One day she woke up and she’s like, Alright, I don’t know what’s come over me — maybe it’s pregnancy brain — but I’ve got an idea,” Reddick said. “If you win the championship, you can name him whatever you want to, but you lose it I get to pick my name and you’ve got to live with it for the rest of your life.”
Reddick raced Saturday in the Ford EcoBoost 300 with a lot on his mind -- a chance to become a rare two-time winner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, a chance to win back-to-back titles and a chance to name his child -- and he thrived under pressure. Reddick, who led fewer laps than anyone else in the Championship 4 all season, led 85 laps at Homestead-Motor Speedway, including the 200th and final to win his second straight Xfinity championship.
“I had a lot of extra motivation coming into this,” Reddick said, “and that was just the extra bit of motivation I didn’t know I needed, but it definitely sure helped.”
Reddick spent the final 50 laps battling Cole Custer, another Championship 4 driver, and ultimately finished 1.038 seconds ahead of him. Christopher Bell and Justin Allgaier, the other two Championship 4 drivers, finished fifth and 14th respectively. Driving the No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing, Reddick is the ninth driver to win NASCAR’s minor-league series multiple times and the first to win it with multiple teams.
All four in the Championship 4 were in contention at various points Saturday. Custer led 15 laps and was out front among the Championship 4 at the end of Stage 1. Bell led 37 laps and took the lead coming out of the final caution with less than 80 laps remaining. Although Allgaier never led, he was part of a four-way jumble of championship contenders when Reddick and Custer came out of a pit stop with 38 laps to go.
Reddick, however, ran the cleanest race. Custer had to regroup from a loose tire in Stage 2. Bell missed pit road at one point, costing him valuable time when he hoped to make his pit stop before Reddick and Custer. Allgaier only had the brief moment when he was in the championship.
While Custer tried to make up ground in the final stage, Reddick and and Bell began a duel coming out of a caution after the 122nd lap. Bell led at the end of Stage 3 and pushed ahead once the final stage began. They spent the first dozen or so laps of the final stage separated by fractions of a second with Custer sitting just a beat behind them, too. Bell kept his distance from Reddick as Custer gained on the two. With a little more than 60 laps to go, Custer pushed up to Reddick’s bumper and positioned himself for a potential pass. With 50 laps left, the three drivers were separated by less than half a second.
With 46 laps left, the lead changed again. Bell had led for 23 straight laps, but Reddick pushed past him to take the lead and so did Custer to move into second. Reddick and Custer both took a pit stop a few laps later, and Custer beat Reddick coming out of pit road. The early pit stops by Bell and Allgaier paid off temporarily as all four were briefly locked in competition, before Reddick and Custer separated themselves again.
Custer took the lead on the 167th lap and held the lead for 15. With 19 laps to go, Reddick pulled off a nifty crossover move to pass Custer and he hung on the rest of the way.
“Last week, me and Justin Allgaier were kind of doing the same thing, downshifting, crossing each other over,” Reddick said. “Because of that with Justin the week before and how much fun that was, I just had a feeling Cole was going to do it — I mean, he was really good racing by the fence — so it just worked out. I saw the shape he got and I pivoted, turned and I got back to the gas. And it took off. It got off the corner really well.
“There was nothing sweether than when I saw the 00 get back far enough to where I could slide up in front of him.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 6:46 PM.
