Former teammates move on after incident in Kansas

DARLINGTON, SC – Lost in the excitement of closest result in NASCAR history Last weekend at Kansas Speedway, former teammates Tyler Reddick and Auston Dillon came into contact on the final lap.

The result was Dillon sliding through the infield grass and finishing 25th. Reddick finished 20th.

This was not the first such incident between the two, who were teammates at Richard Childress Racing from 2019 to 2022. Last summer in Pocono, Dillon threw his helmet at Reddick’s car after they made contact and Dillon crashed.

The Darlington’s Cup race concludes NASCAR’s Throwback Weekend.

Dillon said Saturday that he doesn’t view last weekend’s incident with Reddick in the same light as her Pocono contact.

Dillon explained what happened to NBC Sports: “At the end of the race I got into trouble in Turn 4 and had to lift the wall or smoke. I lift a little and then Tyler did a great run and turned me around. I wasn’t as frustrated with Tyler as I was with our race car.

“I could have made this corner because the air in front of me wasn’t bad. I just got tight and it would have been nice if he had lifted. He apologized afterwards. I said it would have been nice to be there, but in the same sentence I would also hope that we could have made that corner with new tires. There’s nothing really there other than the fact that I wish we could have turned the corner.”

Here’s what Reddick had to say about the incident:

“Austin and Corey (Heim) were riding side by side and I went into the top lane to try to make a good run out of the corner and Austin just checked more than I expected,” Reddick said. “Yeah, I completely ruined it. To be honest, I just made a terrible day worse. I tasted spots. I cost him a race car and a place in the top 20. That was just the icing on the cake for a hard day.”

Reddick admitted it was “difficult” to talk to Dillon since this wasn’t her first recent incident.

“A few weeks earlier in Texas we were fighting for a restart and we came together,” Reddick said. “Luckily we didn’t break down, but we came together there. I kind of put him in a bad spot and then Kansas, I didn’t really put him in a bad spot, I ran into his back.

“You don’t want to see a trend like that with anyone, especially someone who was your teammate for several years.”