As trucks fanned out four-wide behind him, Tyler Reddick took the first checkered flag of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Friday night’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
Behind the race winner, Erik Jones charged to the outside to grab the runner-up spot, followed by Scott Lagasse Jr. and Austin Theriault, Reddick’s Brad Keselowski Racing teammate.
Teamwork between the two BKR trucks was crucial to Reddick’s maiden win.
“I just had all the confidence in the world in our trucks going into the race,” Reddick said. “If we were able to get together, we were going to be able to do some great things together and help each other out. Once I knew we finally we got together on the front row for those restarts, I had a pretty good feeling that we were controlling the race and controlling the pack.
“I just can’t tell you how much it means to have a teammate there helping me get my first win. I just hope I can do the same for him on down the road.”
“He owes the 29 (Theriault) big,” Lagasse agreed, “because the 29 did some door-slamming to help him.”
Jones surged from fourth to first off the final corner, after he and Lagasse lagged back to get a run on the leader.
“Scott and I were kind of dragging back, trying to see if we could get a run to the top there,” Jones said. “When the 29 and the 19 (Reddick) came off of (Turn) 4, the 29 never lagged back. He just tried to pull out and make the pass on the 19.
“When he did that, it just opened the door for Scott on the bottom, and I was dragged back a little bit more than he was and got the pull off both of them. I went to the top and saw the opening and (ended up) running second. Just kind of a typical Daytona thing, I guess.”
A massive wreck on Lap 49 of 100 wiped out a third of the field, but the two Brad Keselowski Racing trucks managed to stay out of harm’s way by staying up front for the vast majority of the race.
By the time the hood flew up on Bryan Silas’ No. 99 Chevrolet, covered the windshield and forced the truck to pit road, there were 13 trucks on the lead lap, with Reddick and Theriault in the top two spots.
Silas returned to the track sans hood, but on Lap 85 the air cleaner dislodged from the top of the engine, landed on the racing surface and caused the fifth caution of the evening.
Reddick and Theriault paced the field to a restart on Lap 89 and held the top two spots until Ryan Ellis’ Chevy slowed on the track and caused the sixth caution with eight laps remaining, setting up the scramble to the finish at the end.
Defending series champion Matt Crafton finished eighth … Rookie Ray Black Jr. ran fifth, despite sustaining damage during a Lap 13 accident that caused the first caution of the evening.
