Reddick readies for Texas with his eyes on a championship

Tyler Reddick delivered a clear message last weekend at Dover International Speedway.

He let the rest of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series know that he is a bona fide contender for the championship.

Reddick cleared Erik Jones on Lap 193 of 200 and held off eventual second-place finisher Daniel Suarez for his second win of the season and the third overall for his Brad Keselowski Racing organization.

“As a team, we wanted to prove we can (win) on any given race track and we’ve now won at Daytona, Martinsville and Dover, all very different monsters in their own sense,” Reddick said. “That’s the perfect way to start the year. Hopefully we can get the 1.5-mile victory here very soon. We’ve had shots at Kansas, and other tracks we’ve been fast at, so our whole program around this whole series is really, really good.”

Reddick gets the chance to visit Victory Lane at a 1.5-mile track in Friday’s WinStar Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1). He enters the race second in the NCWTS driver points standings, just 11 points behind Matt Crafton.

The No. 19 Ford driver has made two starts at Texas. In his first race there last spring, he finished 21st following a wreck. Reddick showed vast improvement in his second Texas start, finishing fourth after capturing his second career 21 Means 21 Pole Award.

“Everyone on the team is optimistic about Texas,” said Doug Randolph, Reddick’s crew chief. “Tyler did a great job in the first race there last June but unfortunately got collected in an accident. After we made repairs Tyler was running lap times comparable to the leaders.”

Growing up racing sprint cars on dirt, Reddick is relatively new to piloting stock cars on asphalt. He’s been quick to adapt, finishing second in last season’s NCWTS Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings despite running just 16-of-22 races. This season – his first full-time campaign at any level of NASCAR – Reddick owns five top-five finishes in six races, tied for the series lead.

“We’ve got a lot to be proud of and we’ve got our focus on winning the championship,” team owner Brad Keselowski said. “Tyler ran a partial season last year and now a full season this year. It’s still his first season, so it’s nice to see that come together the way it has and it’s going to be an exciting finish from here for the championship.”