Yahoo Finance Oops: Tyler Reddick slowed down with one lap to go at Homestead because he thought the race was over
When you’re racing around a track hundreds of times, it’s easy to lose count of laps. And Tyler Reddick lost count with one lap to go Sunday night at Homestead.
Reddick slowed down after taking the white flag on Sunday thinking that he had just run the race’s 267 laps. But he had completed 266 laps. He needed to race one more.
You can hear him in the video above get off the throttle and start to thank his crew members. Then spotter Derek Kneeland and crew chief Randall Burnett immediately get on the radio and tell Reddick to keep going.
“Keep going, keep going,” they both urged Reddick.
Reddick then thanked Burnett and his crew for a great car and a solid fourth-place finish.
“Go, it’s the last lap dog!” Burnett replied. Kneeland then responded with a “go, go” of his own.
If you’ve ever driven past the turn or exit you were supposed to make while driving somewhere, you can totally relate to Reddick’s brain fart Sunday night. And that’s all of us who have driven a car. We’ve all been there. But just not in a NASCAR race.
Reddick was so far ahead of Aric Almirola on the last lap that he still maintained fourth despite slowing down. Per NASCAR’s timing and scoring, his lap of over 143 MPH on the final lap was approximately 10 MPH slower than every other driver in the top five.
Reddick is in his first year in the Cup Series after winning back-to-back Xfinity Series titles in 2018 and 2019. He’s now 17th in the points standings and ahead of fellow rookies Christopher Bell and Cole Custer.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
More from Yahoo Sports:
