Reddick confident ahead of NASCAR Xfinity return at Michigan

The "California Kid" moved to the Midwest from Corning, Calif., in 2008, because, at age 12, he was too young to race at many of the tracks back home. After cutting his teeth in mini sprints, midgets, sprints, dirt late models and the World of Outlaws, Reddick headed south in 2012 to dabble in ARCA and the K&N Pro Series East Series, where he won at Rockingham in his first start.

Two years later, Reddick, 21, was recruited by Brad Keselowski to drive the No. 19 entry in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In his first full season, he won two races and finished second in the 2015 standings. Now, he’s sharing driving duties with his former fellow Northern California competitor Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chevy.

Coming in with momentum 

Coming off of his first career top-10 finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Reddick is looking forward to his sixth start of the season this weekend at Michigan Speedway. He admits the transition from trucks to cars has not been easy.

“It’s been quite the process, especially now considering that the cars don’t have as much downforce,” Reddick told Motorsport.com. “I’ve really had to lean on Kyle and (teammate) Brennan (Poole) to get a better idea of how these cars like to be driven. We took big leaps and gains from our Charlotte test to the race a couple of weeks ago. We went from being a second off the pace to being competitive.

“That felt really good to me. (Crew chief) Mike (Shiplett) worked really hard. The guys worked really hard to figure out what I needed in the car to be able to get that lap time. Obviously, I got a little ways to go. But at Charlotte, we took a big jump and got a lot closer. Going to Michigan, the things I worked on at Charlotte are going to be really important. So far, so good. We’ve had speed early in a lot of the races. But we’ve yet to a good, proud finish.”

For his first time on the Xfinity tour, Reddick’s qualifying has been strong. His average starting position in five races is a solid 11.8. Reddick finished 20th in both restrictor-plate races and 14th at Phoenix Raceway in his second start. At Texas, he finished in the top 10 in the first stage, but 10 laps later, he was swept up in a five-car wreck that ended Poole’s day. Reddick finished the race 33rd, 52 laps off the pace.

Running part-time

Unlike most drivers, Reddick doesn’t mind running part-time. He knows the opportunity to be mentored by Shiplett and Larson and race with an accomplished team is a bonus. Testing at Darlington and Charlotte last month helped considerably, as has time in the simulator.

“Everyone is all in on trying to help me in every little area that I might be needing it,” Reddick said. “Mike has been really great at calling the races. He’s a really good coach. He’s constantly reminding me to roll the center. Don’t over-drive it. Don’t rush the throttle. Just the little things around the race track that add up to two or three-tenths on the clock.

“They just help me a lot. That’s really cool. Obviously, they want to run well with me and Kyle, but it’s great having the feedback.”

Reddick also raced on a limited basis with Poole in the ARCA series prior to teaming up with him on the Xfinity tour. Poole has been impressed with how much speed Reddick has so early in his Xfinity experience.

"He's super fast," Poole said. "So he's been able to bring a lot to the table in the limited time that he's been in the car. We can kind of bounce some things off of each other. He works really hard. He's at all of our team meetings. He's always in the gym with me -- and when I'm not there, I've seen him working out by himself. I've walked in there and I'm like, 'Man, he's here working.' He's a really hard worker. He has speed. He's determined. I like having a teammate like that. It's a lot of fun."

Owner's title

Although the No. 42 Chevy doesn’t qualify for the driver’s title, the team is still running for the owner’s championship. And with Larson’s success — three wins, two poles, six podiums finishes and an average result of 2.6 — Reddick’s pressure isn’t nearly as high.

“Kyle has fortunately taken a lot of the stress off of my shoulders,” Reddick said. “Winning is nice. It gives me the summer to hone in on what I need to do. And we can rely on him in the playoffs, if we need to.

“I’m just trying to get adjusted as best as I can as quickly as I can. We’ve been on superspeedways, a short track and two intermediates. I feel like our speed is there. It’s just little things. One adjustment, making sure we have good pit stops, getting better on restarts, things that puts us in contention at the end for the victory.”