Tyler Reddick's 11th-place finish in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series at Kansas Speedway was a big recovery but not as big as it could've been for him.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Tyler Reddick nearly scored the ultimate comeback in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway until a late-race issue on pit road foiled it.
Reddick finished 11th after being 34th at one point in the first stage and making it all the way to fifth just after the final stage started.
Reddick entered the race seventh in the championship points standings, 61 points behind leader Kyle Larson. With that points position and finishing 18th, three laps down, at Bristol Motor Speedway, plus inclement weather setting the lineup by the metric, Reddick started Sunday's race at Kansas in 15th.
For a while, however, nothing got better than that for Reddick. He lost five positions on the first lap, dropping back to 20th. After stabilizing for a lap, he dropped to 22nd on the third lap, 24th by the fourth lap, 29th by the fifth and 30th by the seventh. Then, after stabilizing there, he dropped to 32nd by lap 12, 33rd by lap 13 and finally to 34th by lap 15.
The start mirrored what happened at Bristol where Reddick dropped through the field and risked going a lap down. However, a competition caution on lap 35 saved him from losing a lap, despite his team saying it was going to be "close."
Reddick reported he was loose. Under caution, he gained a spot and gained four more to be 28th five laps after the restart. Still struggling, he finished 28th in the stage.
During the stage break, Reddick's team made big swings to adjust the No. 45 Rockstar Energy Toyota. Yet, he only gained one position during a 29-lap green flag run, finishing the run in 27th.
Reddick's big break came on the subsequent restart when he missed a multi-car wreck and jumped to 23rd. On the restart after the wreck, he jumped to 18th and had enough speed to get to 13th by the end of the second stage.
The final stage restarted with Reddick in 11th but he didn't stay there for long. Looking like he chugged his sponsor's product and had it kick in instantly, Reddick went three-wide and jumped up to sixth. A couple laps later, Reddick was in fifth -- completing a huge comeback.
Going into what was likely to be the final pit stop of the race, Reddick still ran seventh and was primed to earn just his second top-10 finish in four Chase races. However, Reddick spent a total of 18 seconds on pit road -- versus 8-9 for everyone else -- after the left-front tire wasn't secure when the jack dropped to indicate he could leave his stall.
Reddick ultimately finished 11th. He's still seventh but now 111 behind Larson after failing to earn stage points.
Next is Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Reddick has just two top-five finishes in 13 Cup starts.
