Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
The Brad Keselowski Racing teammates would pull off the perfect strategy in holding the top two positions all night as they orchestrated restart after restart to have both trucks on the bottom of the track. In the end, it’d be Tyler Reddick capturing his first career Camping World Truck Series victory in his 18th career start.
“It feels amazing,” he commented in victory lane. “I can’t begin to say how thankful I am to be apart of BKR. All of these guys made this possible – we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. My teammate, I wouldn’t be here without his teammate. It was outstanding tonight. We got it to victory lane here in Daytona.”
Reddick added thanks for his teammate Austin Theriault, saying, “He would’ve done anything to get them from getting to me, and I really got thank him for that.”
Erik Jones would try to make a move on the last lap to win the race, jumping to the outside from third spot, but would come up short as he finished second.
“I would’ve liked to win, as man, second sucks,” Jones commented. “It’s nice to start the season so strong. I’m excited to get to Atlanta and get the year started as I feel we have a strong mile and a half program.”
Scott Lagasse Jr. also made a move on the last lap coming to the flag to finish third, while Reddick’s teammate Theriault finished fourth.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” Theriault said. “They brought an unbelievable fast truck tonight. It was packed with some power. Really excited for Tyler. He’s running for a championship and this is some pretty good momentum for them. Solid finish in Daytona.”
Ray Black Jr. would round out the top-five with his best career finish.
“That was wild,” Black said of the final sprint to the checkered. “I figured I saw them all going up there so I thought it’d try, but I came back down and tried to get underneath.”
David Gilliland finished sixth, followed by Bryan Silas, Matt Crafton, Daniel Saurez and Johnny Sauter. Silas would cross the flag with no hood on his vehicle following damage in a wreck. Ty Dillon, who led the majority of the first half of the event, finished 11th.
For the most part, the field ran single file throughout the second half of the event and that was due to the big wreck that occurred at lap 48. Ben Kennedy had a tire going down as a result of damage earlier in the event, and tried to get up out of the way.
“Going down the backstraightaway, I had a left rear tire go down,” Kennedy commented. “It was either wreck left and take out the field, or wreck right. So I just walled it.”
Theriault slowed, causing a chain reaction that resulted in 12 cars in total sustaining damage. Spencer Gallagher, Timothy Peters, Cameron Hayley, Chris Fontaine, John Wes Townley, Todd Peck, Daniel Hemric, Sauter, Ryan Ellis, Black Jr. and Buescher would all find themselves with damage, the majority of the list done for the event. It marked Peters’ second wreck of the day as he wrecked during qualifying.
“It just goes to show you that the back-up was just as good as the primary,” Peters commented. “Thanks to everybody at Red Horse Racing. We thought we had a strong truck that we didn’t even run the final practice. I’m proud of everyone’s effort and we’ll now head to Atlanta and hope that we have a good run there.”
Kennedy’s damage came as a result of a wreck that happened on lap 14 when Austin Hill would have a tire go down, spinning in front of the field, collecting Kennedy, Justin Boston, Donnie Neuenberger, Joe Nemechek and Justin Marks. Boston and Kennedy were able to continue, but Boston found himself in the backstretch wall at lap 26 due to something breaking in the steering.
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RT @OnPitRoad_: NCWTS: Tyler Reddick Breaks Through To Win NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona by @ladybug388 http://t.co/E87u1Kww3t