Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Tyler Reddick Interview following win at Homestead-Miami | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

On this week’s ‘Victory Lap,’ Kevin Harvick is joined by Tyler Reddick after his thrilling win at Homestead-Miami! Reddick breaks down his last lap pass of Ryan Blaney and explains what it’s been like to race in the Playoffs and clinch a spot in the Championship 4.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR and Fox. And on today's victory lap, we have the race winner, Tyler Reddick, who put on an absolute show there at the end of this race. So I can't wait to hear Tyler's explanation of how it all went down. Well, Tyler, man, I think from a fan's perspective, watching those last seven or eight laps and then the last couple corners of that race, what a finish. And I think from my seat watching you, I think the determination and the grit that came with that was pretty awesome to watch. Explain to me just your mindset, that last run of the race with the used tires and then all of that cycling full circle to having a shot there at the end. Yeah. Yeah, truthfully, when we did hit pit road with 14, 15 laps to go,

You know, I was a bit deflated, right? We knew that we needed to catch the caution before we hit pit road. And then when we left pit road, we were behind the leaders. And I was like, man, I just, I don't know. But thankfully, we got by them. And at that point, I was, I really hadn't even had a chance to start riding yet, trying to take care of my tires. And Nick Payne said, gosh, and I was like, wow.

At first I was like, well, what timing this is, right? We just finally pit. And then the caution comes out. And then it took a few moments, but Billy really didn't even hesitate. He's like, well, we're going to stay out. And I was like, oh, damn, this is going to be interesting. I know it's going to have control the start. And I didn't think I was going to spend the tires on the start.

I did, but I still got a really good push from Denny. So everything was looking outstanding, great. I drove into turn one, kind of cut to the middle. I'm like, man, it's gripping up good. And then the right front gave up. And I was like, oh, God, I had to lift. and here came all the cars on new tires. So, yeah, we came off turn four.

I wasn't feeling great about my situation. I think I was getting ready to be sitting fourth. I think I was fourth going into turn one to start that second lap after the restart. And I don't know, man. I think the shade in turn one and two seemed to help help my situation. I just remember driving into that corner kind of trying to chase the nine's door, knowing I was going to have to race hard to maintain position. and the thing just had grip.

It hooked up and I cleared the nine. And from that point forward, it was like, wow, okay. I felt really bad and dirty air more so than other restarts, but I knew that if I could keep some clean air that we were actually pretty good. And things had to play out a certain way, right? Like Denny and Blaney getting to racing really hurt their momentum on the corners, get me close. And, yeah, I mean, that final lap,

I was just hoping I was going to get clean air and Blaney wasn't able to cover the bottom and Denny took such a great distance around the corner that I was able to slide up in front of them and then turn three happens. I just, the headhole last corner just kind of blows my mind. But Blaney, I think Blaney was expecting

something similar to what I attempted at Darlington with Busher. You know, I think he was expecting me to really just overdrive entry and center. and try and clear him in the middle. And I think he went to somewhat cover that attack. And once I saw that, I saw my window, my opening. And I just, I didn't lift until I got to his door.

And I didn't know what was going to happen on the other side. But I didn't know if I was going to hit the wall or lose my momentum. But I knew if I wanted to have a shot at battling for the win, I had to at least get even with him. And then my car stuck. It stuck really, really good. I wasn't even as close to the wall. on in the middle of a corner and exit as I thought I would be.

And I come off turn four and I just, it was just disbelief. I couldn't believe what just happened. I, for me, I know there are a lot of things that Blaine explained, but I was shocked that he left the top lane open because you had made all your ground.

You had to be a little bit surprised that that top lane was just wide open like that. Yeah, I thought my mind was playing a trick on me. Honestly, I'm like, you know, but when that, When that opportunity opened up, like I said, I just, I didn't think about overdrive in the corner.

I didn't think about anything. I just drove it in as hard as I could. And I knew that if I wanted to have a shot of battling with him off the corner, if he slid up or whatever it was, my best opportunity to defend that was being as far ahead of him as possible if that contact came. Yeah, it's just, it's just crazy, man. I mean, you're not supposed to feel to do that at all instead. No, you're not supposed to be able to do that, but you did it. And you're not supposed to be able to keep up if you have a half a lap on your tires and you did that too. And I think, you know, I go back and I look at those pit stops and you're struggling getting out of your pit stall and you're giving these speeches to your pit crew to not give up. And just the mindset that you were in on this particular day just seemed to be phenomenal. But explain to us the, A, what it's been like these last several weeks going through. through these rounds of playoffs and B, what it's like to win and actually have a week to rest your mind before you go to Homestead mentally, because I just don't think people understand

the mental side of what goes into these last 10 weeks. Yeah, it's truly a grind. You know that. But yeah, the first part of your question, you know, for us, you know, I knew that we had a really good car and so that, you know, it ended up being a deficit we couldn't quite overcome in stage two or necessarily even in stage three. But, you know, I knew that if we kind of just stayed in the mix, we'd have a shot. And, you know, the kind of the name of the game for us spent over the course regular season is just not, not defeating ourselves. If we have a little,

a moment, if we have a moment of, if we have an issue arise, we find a way to put it in the past to move forward. A lot of our best races in that regular season were days where things going into stage two or going into stage three, something goes wrong. We lose all of our track position and we have to drive back through the field. And we've been able to do that time and time again in the regular season. In the playoffs, it wasn't necessarily going that way for us, but our body of work in the amount of times that it has, we've had those days and still gotten the finishes is still there. So, you know, I just have a high amount of belief in in my team and you know a regular season championship shows that we've been capable of of overcoming

things and i knew that we were going to put what happened behind us and get ready for the next stop the next restart but yes to your second second question there i mean it's it's huge martinsville last year was so incredibly stressful um i think even back to my exfinity days when you go into phoenix when it was the cut off and around of eight um that is just a very very stressful race I mean, it feels like you lose years of your life, you know, thinking about points, trying to stay ahead of one or two cars. And so not to have to worry about that at all and just solely focus on Phoenix is going to be a huge advantage. When you look at Phoenix, tell us where you think you are as far as how you've run, what you think you need to work on going into Phoenix. Just, you know, we had Ligano on a couple weeks ago, and he talked about just the, the, the,

stress relief that will come with being able to have the tickets bought, the motorhomes parked, the plane ticket spot, and all that done instead of doing it the week of. Just talk about where you think you are going into Phoenix and just everything that you will have to deal with that you normally don't have to deal with, even though you have an extra week. Yeah, you know, that stuff is honestly fun. You know, in my life growing up racing, I've used to a lot going on and things happening and just trying to get from one thing to the next. So for me, that that'll be fine. It's not even a warrior concern. But yeah, I think back to, you know, the work that we did post-trace Phoenix in the spring. I feel like we had a pretty good idea

what we need to work on, made some good adjustments to our SIM and left it in a pretty good place. Obviously, we, I think we won stage one and Bell really came to life in stage two and three and ultimately won the race. We're able to kind of look back on that and realize some things and understand what we need to be thinking of when we go back. I don't know what it is.

When I ran there in a truck and Exfinney car, I felt okay at best, but I remember back to my first cup race there. We started like 35th, and I'm thinking I got to do some crazy stuff on the initial start, just not to go lap down. And that first race there, man, I don't know what it is in a cup car,

whether it's been next gen or Gen 6. It feels like that's been a place that kind of suits me in an intercup car. I don't know why, but, you know, just the way the turn one and two shaped, how long it is, and then just the odd nature of turns. I got them backwards. I apologize. The odd shape of three and four. You know, just the way that track lays out somewhat fits how I like to drive a car.

And it was really cool to have that speed we did in the spring. We did it last year as well, having good speed in the spring. So we got a little bit extra time to think about. know what we want to do. And I think that's a good thing for us. You know, my teams, obviously, we like circle races on our calendar and think ahead of what we need to bring the table. And Vegas and Homestead for us were two of those races where we had a really good idea. We wanted to bring weeks out. And it showed with the speed that we had. And obviously, I think my team's already been thinking about Phoenix again, right? We did our post race stuff in the spring. We keep

been in the back of our mind where we want to be. If we make it into the championship for, you know, we just got a little bit extra time to solely focus on it. Well, it was a hell of a race, man. And I tell you, that that determination and drive over those last seven or eight laps is something that the fans will have in their mind for a long time. And I love to see that grit and desire out of people. So not that you don't show that a lot, but man, you showcase the hell out of it this time.

So congratulations and good luck at Phoenix with everything. chasing that championship. Yeah, I think I just need to trick myself into thinking I'm backed into a corner every single weekend when I get to the race track and it should help me out. Well, there you go. Whatever it takes, just do it. All right, man, have a great day. Thanks for taking the time.