Tyler Reddick is a top NASCAR driver, but his world is bigger than racing
Tyler Reddick isn’t “much of a reflecting person” and, yet, sitting in his living room sandwiched between a jukebox awarded to him during one of his two Xfinity Series championships and a cat tree hosting his black-and-white feline friend, Tux, the NASCAR Cup rookie thought back to a time when he was watching drivers like Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on television every Sunday as a kid.
“It’s just kind of crazy how I’ve gotten to this point,” Reddick, who began competing against Johnson weekly in NASCAR’s top racing series this season, told The Observer. “I probably don’t think about it or reflect on it as much as I probably should.”
At 24 years old, Reddick has already achieved career and lifetime milestones. Last year, he won his second consecutive Xfinity championship a few months before the birth of his son, Beau. Then, he elevated to NASCAR’s top series competing for Richard Childress Racing before the coronavirus pandemic temporarily shut down the sport in March. As the country grappled with social unrest in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Reddick was one of the first drivers to publicize his support for Black Lives Matter in late May, and when president Donald Trump issued a tweet calling on Black driver Bubba Wallace to apologize for a noose found in his garage stall at Talladega, Reddick quickly came to Wallace’s defense on Twitter.
“We don’t need an apology,” Reddick tweeted in July. “We did what was right and we will do just fine without your support.”
Reddick deleted the tweet following conversations with his team, but said he stood by his original comments. Most recently, the No. 8 Chevrolet driver offered his thoughts on the shooting of Jacob Blake, which has fueled strikes in other professional sports leagues to draw attention to racial injustice and police brutality in the United States.
“Us as drivers in this position, we have a lot of people that look up to us,” Reddick said Friday. “And I feel like it will continue to be important for us to just press the importance in of (educating) yourselves and look(ing) around you, and how can we all make this place, how can we all make this world, this country a better place together?”
While NASCAR has so far remained silent on the shooting of Blake and strikes across professional sports as it moves forward with plans to race Saturday at Daytona, Wallace issued a string of tweets Thursday evening addressing social unrest. On Friday, Reddick appeared ready to meet the questions about his role in condemning racism as a public figure. His girlfriend and the mother of his son, Alexa De Leon, is Dominican-mixed.
“It is very disturbing what has been taking place in Kenosha,” Reddick said. “And it’s important for us to stay caught up and continue to educate ourselves about what is going on in this world and what can we do to make it a better place.”
Reddick said that for him, expressing his views on social justice has always been “simple.”
“It’s a no-brainer for me sometimes to take that stand,” Reddick said of his support for Black Lives Matter. “We’re all human beings.”
What has activated him this year is how he thinks of his role as an athlete. The California native was a young star in the sport, setting sprint car and dirt late model records in his teens before joining the NASCAR Trucks Series part-time in 2015. Reddick has since moved up through the Xfinity Series, driving part-time for Chip Ganassi Racing before joining JR Motorsports racing full-time in the same series. After his first Xfinity championship with JRM in 2018, Reddick switched teams. He won his second Xfinity championship with RCR last season in the No. 2 Chevrolet, then made the move up to Cup as RCR’s No. 8 driver this year.
Reddick said he’s aware of the platform his success has given him because he remembers idolizing drivers as a five-year-old fan. He said that’s part of why he doesn’t shy away from being outspoken.
“When I was a kid growing up watching races on Sundays, pretty much anything Dale Jr. said, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, whatever they said, I almost kind of lived by,” Reddick said. “They were huge role models for me, so, yes, I get that we’re out there and we’re holding a steering wheel and we race, but we’re also out there for the next generation of racers, the next generation of society.”
“I think it’s important to let those people that look up to you know where you’re at,” Reddick added.
On the racetrack, Reddick’s also developed his own brand of leadership and confidence despite the transition to a higher level of racing this year. His crew chief, Randall Burnett, described Reddick as “unique” compared with other drivers he’s worked with, which includes Matt Tifft and A.J. Allemendinger. He also said his driver was a “bit of a jokester” on the radio, although he said Reddick saves the playfulness for caution laps.
“He kinda does his own thing and he does a really good job at it,” said Burnett, who also worked with Reddick last season. “He’s an exceptional talent. He doesn’t seem to get rattled by too much.”
Burnett said he could only think of a few instances throughout the season where Reddick demonstrated what he considered a “rookie mistake,” which has allowed him to gain the respect of other veteran drivers. He’s raced in the top-five throughout the season, with multiple top-10 finishes and his best finish of the year being second place at Texas Motor Speedway, a race that was won by RCR teammate Austin Dillon.
Denny Hamlin called Reddick’s rookie class of drivers “probably the strongest rookie class” he’s seen since his rookie Cup year in 2006, which included Cup drivers Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr.
“You know you’ve got at least one of them who’s going to be part of the playoff picture,” Hamlin said, referring to Stewart Haas Racing driver Cole Custer, who locked himself into the postseason with a win at Kentucky.
“Any of them can win this weekend and put themselves in,” Hamlin said.
Heading into Saturday’s race at Daytona, Reddick said he was still contending for a playoff spot. He said he was looking to secure that through a win rather than points as he was 69 points below the 16-driver cutoff. Reddick was again direct with where he stood.
“I’ve got one goal and it’s to win the race,” Reddick said Friday. “There’s not a lot of cloudiness to it. It’s just very straightforward.”
While the team said it would be aggressive in its strategy to try to secure a playoff spot in the final regular-season race, which was expected to be a wildcard showdown at a superspeedway where Reddick has been historically strong, even if there is no championship run this year, it’s only the beginning of a promising Cup career for the No. 8. Burnett said he wasn’t counting on winning many races this season because of the level of talent in the Cup Series. The goal, Burnett said, has always been “to build on what RCR had on the Cup side” and improve the program.
“And I feel like we’ve done that,” he said. “I feel like you can see that with the (No.) 3 and the (No.) 8’s performance this year.”
For Reddick, personally, the season has been a balancing act of adjusting to the additional commitments in a higher-level racing series, the modified meeting schedules due to the pandemic, a growing platform in which he’s been compelled to speak out on social justice issues and the responsibility of fatherhood. He’s handled the changes with a level of candor and ease unfitting of a rookie.
“It’s keeping me on my toes,” Reddick said.
With his cat Tux and his jukebox, and baby Beau crying in the background, it was clear that there is a lot keeping the young driver grounded and aware of his place outside of the sport.
“Some people just think, ‘Just hold the steering wheel and drive,’ ” Reddick said. “But it’s important how we race, how we act on the radio and how we respond when we see the things going on in our world.”
Reddick reiterated that it’s important for the next generation, which now includes his son.
“Everyday it’s like, ‘Well, would Beau like that?’ ” Reddick said. “You know, it’s a game changer.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
