With only four laps to go in the NASCAR Cup Series race at San Diego, Tyler Reddick made a head scratching decision. He had just bumped into his teammate, Corey Heim, while battling for the lead. Instead of continuing onwards, Reddick decided to slow down and allow his teammate to have a fair fight. Many thought it was a ‘classy move’ given the team-first perspective, but Kevin Harvick is not one of them.
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“I honestly hated it. Hated everything about it,” Kevin Harvick scoffed at Reddick’s actions during his podcast, Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “Look, I like both guys. I think they’re both great race car drivers, but it makes me sick to see somebody let off the gas when you’re racing for the win. I think it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t even know how to get to the point of saying, ‘Oh, I’ll slow down. I’m going to let him save it.'”
Harvick has one thing to tell to everyone who thought it was a good move: “Is that what Denny Hamlin would have done?”
Things also make less sense given Reddick is a championship contender, compared to his teammate, who is only running part-time this season. So, such a sacrifice doesn’t seem well thought out, and of course, that had repercussions.
While Heim pulled clear, Reddick suffered a fracture and then finished 25th. In hindsight, though, while it might have ruined his day, it also spared him a multitude of ‘what ifs’ that could have been thrown his way. Reddick is now only eight points ahead of his team owner and Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Denny Hamlin.
Also, not just Kevin Harvick but Heim’s rival himself during the San Diego race was left stunned by Reddick’s kindness.
Hocevar blames Reddick for hurting NASCAR’s credibility
“I feel like NASCAR struggles from the prestige side and the credibility side,” Hocevar says about Tyler Reddick on the Dale Jr. Download podcast. “This is a massive race, and you pretty much showed that winning is not that important, at least to the fan perspective.”
He couldn’t believe his eyes that his rival, who had sideswiped him and crashed him out for the victory, would get a free pass to lead the race, just like that. Only a few laps ago, before this gratuitous move by Reddick, Corey Heim had brutally ended Hocevar’s race.
While trying to block him aggressively, Heim sent Hocevar spinning at the final chicane with only 12 laps to go. Naturally, Hocevar was sour about the same. But more than that, he was sour about the fact that Heim didn’t get a taste of his own medicine, only because Tyler Reddick was his teammate.
“Reddick gave him six car lengths; you pretty much turn your TV off, or you know already that it’s over.”
The situation that should’ve made Reddick look like the bigger man ended up crumbling down on his head here. It goes on to say how selfish motorsports are in general. It will take a long time for Reddick to make up for the respect he lost against Heim.