After announcing big career news this week that he would be moving up into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ranks beginning in 2020, Xfinity Series championship contender Tyler Reddick addressed the media and offered his thoughts on the significant move in his career.
Reddick is the defending Xfinity Series champion – earning the title last year with JR Motorsports before moving to Richard Childress Racing this year. And Reddick has not slowed down. He won the regular season championship and is ranked third in the Playoffs coming to Saturday’s Use Your Melon Drive Sober 200 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – the final race of Round 1 of the Playoffs.
“Richard [Childress] has been pretty open with everyone when asked if he wanted to put me in a Cup car,’’ Reddick said Friday. “I think he realized if I wasn’t going to be able to race for him in the Cup Series I was probably going to be picked up by someone else. They really wanted me to stay.’’
Reddick will be replacing Daniel Hemric in the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet next season. Hemric is a longtime RCR driver who started with the team driving in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series before moving into the Xfinity Series for two years and finally up to the Cup ranks. Hemric actually leads the Cup Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings but has only a pair of Top-10 finishes in his first full Cup season.
Reddick has five victories and a series best 21 Top-5 and 24 Top-10 finishes. He won at Las Vegas three weeks ago and was runner-up at the Charlotte ROVAL Playoff race last week.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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