DOVER, Del. — Recap by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Sean Gardner/Getty Images North America photo —
Tyler Reddick started off 2015 with Brad Keselowski Racing as a young man with a dream.
Now, he’s a two-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Reddick took his time, used extreme patience and played lapped traffic to perfection Friday evening at Dover International Speedway, using the strength of four fresh tires to charge to the inside of Erik Jones with eight laps remaining in the Lucas Oil 200 before driving away to his second career Truck series victory and first at the Monster Mile.
“We just wanted to stay on the same page as Crafton, [Jones] and the rest of those guys,” Reddick added of crew chief Doug Randolph’s decision to take four tires on their final pit stop. “We just bid our time and I was very patient early in the going. People were getting very aggressive and as hard as it is to back it down a notch and keep your stuff in one piece, we did that. A lot of stuff got torn up very early on and it could have been us, but we played it smart, kept the truck in one piece and brought it to victory lane at Dover.”
(Sean Gardner/Getty Images North America photo)
The win makes Reddick the second multiple winner in the series this season (joining Matt Crafton), and the young driver called the victory “redemption” after struggling late in last May’s Dover Truck race before finishing eighth.
“I came here last year, and I’m not happy with how that one ended. I had leg issues — my leg went to sleep — and this place is so demanding; I wanted to come back here and prove that I had the stamina to win the race. We did that today.”
Reddick’s Brad Keselowski Racing teammate Ryan Blaney led from the pole in the early stages as outside polesitter Jones fell from the front row to fifth in a chaotic opening stint that saw him slap the wall on lap four. However, that would be the most of the opening excitement until lap 14, when Reddick got extremely close to the No. 10 truck of Jennifer Jo Cobb, sucking Cobb’s truck around and causing it to slam the inside wall nose-first.
The incident drew the first yellow of the afternoon, and Cobb walked up onto the track to express her displeasure with Reddick after exiting her mangled machine.
A second quick caution at lap 27 for a spin by Spencer Gallagher slowed the early pace before the first multi-truck incident of the day following a lap 32 restart saw Jesse Little push up into Mason Mingus, triggering calamity that swept up Justin Jennings and John Wes Townley in the aftermath.
“It was my fault,” Little said after being released from the infield care center. “I knew the truck would get loose when I got up that close to someone but I didn’t think it would get that loose, and it just sucked me around. That’s exactly what I was trying not to do — I hate it and it sets us back — but I learned [from this] and we’ll just go forward to our next start this season and improve from here.”
“From my point of view, he just drove in over his head and got loose, got up into us and we both got in the wall,” Mingus countered. “It’s a shame that he was going that hard so early in the race. It’s his first Truck start, so I guess he’s got to learn just like we all did [as rookies], but clearly he wasn’t quite ready for it because he put someone in that position. It’s ridiculous, because now we’re going to take home a junked race truck two weeks in a row. It’s a shame.”
That caution saw slightly different pit strategy for eight drivers allow them to leapfrog to the top of the heap, led by Cole Custer and the JR Motorsports No. 00 Chevrolet, at lap 34. Custer would duel with veteran Timothy Peters on the ensuing restart at lap 40, before bolting away to dominate the second short green flag stint of the afternoon. That stint would be so short-lived due to John Hunter Nemechek smacking the wall off of turn four and leaving debris on the frontstretch that drew the fourth caution flag of the day.
That yellow would also set up a three-lap battle on the restart between Custer and Peters, which saw the duo flip-flop the top spot twice between laps 52 and 54 before Custer reassumed the point again — caution flying for the fifth time at lap 66 for a wreck involving Justin Boston and Brandon Jones characterizing the chaotic first third of the event.
From there, a 25-lap green flag stretch from lap 80 to 105 would see Custer dominate out front before a second spin by Gallagher would shuffle up the pit strategy a second time and see points leader Matt Crafton stay out to assume the lead for the first time. Crafton would give up the top spot to Reddick on the lap 111 restart and the Daytona winner would lead until a two-tire play on a lap 143 pit stop handed the top spot to Jones.
Jones would stretch his gap out to almost two seconds at times over Reddick — but lapped traffic and two tires versus Reddick’s four on the final 57 lap green flag run would be the deciding factor. Once Reddick got by with eight laps to go, he never looked back en route to victory lane.
Jones would also be passed by teammate Daniel Suarez in the final laps, forced to settle for third behind Suarez and watching another potential victory slip away. Jones has now led 57 percent of the laps in the last three NCWTS events, with no trips to victory lane to show for his efforts.
“[Tires] were the difference at the end,” Jones admitted. “We just got too free at the end. I couldn’t hang onto it. I feelterrible for these guys [on the crew]. I did all I could, and it’s just too bad [that it ended the way it did]. It’s a good points day though, we’ll keep bringing fast race trucks and see what we can do. We learned a lot today, we’re growing as a team and we’ll just keep getting better.”
Rookie Daniel Hemric finished a brilliant fourth in his California Clean Power No. 14 Chevrolet for NTS Motorsports, and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five to maintain the championship lead over Reddick (who leapfrogs Jones for the runner-up spot) by 11 markers.
Ben Kennedy, Blaney, Brandon Jones and Johnny Sauter were the remaining trucks who finished on the lead lap, with Tyler Young rounding out the top ten as the first truck one lap down.
Custer ran out of fuel with 15 laps to go after his crew did not get the fuel cell full on their final pit stop. Though he led the most laps overall (67) on the afternoon and ran in the top five for the majority of the final stint, the JR Motorsports driver was scored 13th at the checkered flag — two laps down.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action on June 5 under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway for the Winstar World Casino 400 (9 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1).
RESULTS: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series; Lucas Oil 200; Dover International Speedway; May 29, 2015
- Tyler Reddick
- Daniel Suarez
- Erik Jones
- Daniel Hemric
- Matt Crafton
- Ben Kennedy
- Ryan Blaney
- Brandon Jones
- Johnny Sauter
- Tyler Young
- Ray Black Jr.
- Spencer Gallagher
- Cole Custer
- Brandon Brown
- Timmy Hill
- Austin Hill
- Korbin Forrister
- John Wes Townley
- Travis Kvapil
- Timothy Peters
- Cameron Hayley
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Tim Viens
- Ryan Ellis
- Justin Boston
- Norm Benning
- B.J. McLeod
- Justin Jennings
- Mason Mingus
- Jesse Little
- Tyler Tanner
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
