This Week’s Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Auto Club Speedway … Tyler Reddick has one previous NASCAR Cup Series start at Auto Club Speedway under his belt. His first and only start came in 2020 for Richard Childress Racing, when he started 19th and finished 11th. Reddick also made two starts at the Fontana, California track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In 2018, Reddick started 16th and finished seventh and in 2019, he started from the pole position and finished fourth.
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TYLER REDDICK QUOTES:
Describe what you think the racing is going to be like this weekend at Auto Club Speedway.
“Heading back to Auto Club Speedway for the first time in two years and with the new Next Gen car will bring a lot of unknowns. I’ve only been to Auto Club in the Cup Series once and it was in 2020. It’s just that type of racetrack, even when you’ve got the best car, it’s easy to make mistakes and step over the line. This car has already proved it’s unforgiving. You’ve got to drive the daylights out of it, but it will fight you if you don’t respect it. Maybe the drivers will play it safe, maybe I’m wrong, but I expect some mistakes. I’m expecting a tire management approach. You’re going to really have to keep the tires underneath you, especially because it hasn’t been run on in so long. All of it is going to play out really quickly in our warmup and leading into qualifying but it’s going to be an exciting start to this format that we have because you’re only going to really get maybe 10 to 12 laps, maybe 15 laps, in a practice session. That’s a good amount of time to kind of get an idea of what your comfort level is but it’s barely enough time to know if you have the right setup underneath you.”
Where does Auto Club Speedway rank for you among the West Coast swing races?
“Auto Club is my favorite track on the West Coast swing because of the many racing lanes.”
Everything is different with this new car. What is the biggest thing you had to adapt to with the Next Gen car?
“For me, the biggest challenge is pit road. All aspects of pit road, but especially entering pit road. Exiting pit road at a speedway is about the same- you just hammer down and get through gears as fast as you can, but entering the box is certainly more challenging. Just as the car is more of a fine line and less forgiving on the racetrack, it’s less forgiving on pit road, too. Once you lock up the tires coming in, you want to lock them up when you get about one pit stall away, but it’s much easier to lock them up three or four pit stalls away and then you’re rolling too fast and you roll through the pit box. I actually had that happen to us on our last yellow flag stop at Daytona International Speedway before we were out of the race. Your marks, everything, are so different. It happened a lot throughout the Duels and throughout the race. Drivers were using their old marks from the old car and they’re not even close anymore. It’s been fun learning and getting up to speed on that, but I think it’s going to play a huge role in how the races play out in the first two months of our season. Whoever can clean up the details on pit road the best will find themselves in Victory Lane.”
