NASCAR details Tyler Reddick penalty at Sonoma
Tyler Reddick made a heads up move when the left front tire of his No. 45 Chevrolet went flat with 14 laps remaining in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
Having already left pit road in his rearview mirror, Reddick had a decision to make: Make the trek around the 1.99-mile road course, or make a quick right-hand turn across the track to make it onto pit road. Reddick chose the latter — a clever move, yet one that didn’t come without a cost.
NASCAR issued a penalty to Reddick for cutting the course and made him serve a pass-through penalty. Speaking with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Tuesday, NASCAR Cup Series director Brad Moran explained the decision to penalize Reddick.
“Obviously, it changes it time and distance of the race,” Moran said, via Racer. “So yes, he did go down pit road and got his tires changed, but came back well ahead of where he would have. We appreciate the fact he didn’t tear stuff up down the racetrack, but unfortunately, we have rules that you cannot shortcut the course, and that was a shortcut back to pit road. He saved about 90% of the racetrack.
“We reviewed it and made sure we were on the same page. But under different circumstances, that could have looked a lot worse. It was heads-up driving by Tyler to do what he did. He probably gained some time even in doing that with the stop and the drive-through. Unfortunately, that one’s in the rule [book], and we would have had to enforce that, and after reviewing that, we made that call.”
Tyler Reddick has rough go at Sonoma Raceway
Reddick said he’d do it again if it meant not ruining someone else’s race.
“I thought morally it was the right thing to do,” Reddick said. “I didn’t know who was leading at the time… Knew there was no way I would have made it around that racetrack had I gone the full course. By the time I got to pit road, I would have gotten in the way of the leaders. And it would have been a real mess.
“I’d do it again, even if I get penalized or penalized worse. I’m not going to ruin someone’s race; especially as it turned out being Martin Truex’s day. I’m really glad we didn’t bring the caution out there by going around the racetrack and potentially changing the outcome for those guys.”
Reddick finished 33rd, his second straight finish outside the top-30.