CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Tyler Reddick was so ill at Darlington Speedway that he was desperate to expel his stomach virus during the race because he didn't think he could make it the 500 miles to the finish.
But the regular-season title was on the line — a bonus worth 15 playoff points — and Reddick was determined to stay in the car even if it meant getting sick in his firesuit or his helmet.
“Someone was going to probably have to pull me out of the car,” Reddick said Wednesday, three days after beating Kyle Larson by a single point for the regular-season title.
He had Corey Heim on standby just in case, but a few hours before Sunday's race, he felt that whatever bug he'd caught from his young son, Beau, had passed and he was healthy enough to close out the title.
“The worst of it was behind me, so I really thought I was going to be OK. Leading up to the race, getting in the car was the best that I had felt in days,” Reddick said. "Once we got going with that extended period of time, with the heat and the bumps off of (Turn) 2, it started going a really bad direction during the race.”
At one point he radioed his 23XI Racing crew that he was going to get sick from both ends, and the team scrambled to make him a care package for his next pit stop. While his gloved hands could get the Tums into his mouth, he dropped the smaller Imodium pills all over the floor of his Toyota.
“I can hardly remember sections of the race, I was so out of it at times, but as I remember it, I thought (my crew chief) was asking me if I was more worried about puking or the other, whatever you want to call it,” Reddick said. “I think he was asking me what I was more worried about, but truly I thought at any moment I was going to have both. I genuinely tried to go — I tried to let it out.”
Only problem? Reddick had stuffed himself full of diarrhea treatment in the days leading up to the race.
“That was probably what made it so awful — stuff was trying to get out of my body one way or another, and it couldn’t go out that way,” he said.
He made it to the finish — 10th, no less — and by Tuesday was feeling well enough to put the entire episode behind him. NASCAR's 10-race playoffs begin Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Reddick wasn't sure if racing in that condition is considered safe — the average speed for the race that lasted just under four hours was 127.87 mph — but he felt that he didn't make any errors and showed that he could complete the 500 miles.
“I wasn’t 100%, but I didn’t lose consciousness. I didn’t take someone out during caution or make some crazy moves on the racetrack to take anyone else out," he said. “So I think I was in a good enough frame of mine to be OK.”
But part of that is his affinity for Darlington, the South Carolina track where his average Cup Series finish is 13th and his average Xfinity Series finish is 10th. Had it been another track, Reddick isn't sure 23XI would have handled his illness the same way.
The one thing that did concern Reddick was potentially vomiting inside his helmet, which he feared might impair his vision while racing.
Larson said he had no idea Reddick was ill until he couldn't find him postrace to offer congratulations.
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