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NASCAR XFINITY SERIES MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 15, 2018

Tyler Reddick

Q. What's the support been like coming into this weekend?
TYLER REDDICK: You know, he reminded me right away once we knew we were going to be going to Homestead, he's like, hey, don't forget, you've got‑‑ you've got a great group of guys around you that believe in you that just‑‑ even if things aren't going great in practice or at any point during the week, just remember, everyone around your team believes in you. You know, that's why we're here. We've got a group of guys that have been there for me when we've struggled and kept me motivated when I've needed it most, and this playoffs was a nice reset button for us, and we've been running pretty good ever since.

Q. Has William reached out to you at all this season, especially leading up to this weekend because he was in the same situation last year?
TYLER REDDICK: You know, William is a really good note taker. He left a lot of great stuff. Most of my questions, you can just go right to his debriefs or whatever he may have had after the races. For the most part, debriefs, and then Dave worked with him really well. So having those notes and just talking to Dave for the most part has been our plan of attack. Me and William drive a lot different, so it's been really hard to compare everything for the most part, but it's definitely been nice to have those notes in case I've needed them.

Q. What would it be like to win the championship this weekend?
TYLER REDDICK: It would be fantastic. You know, this year didn't really go as planned, like we were wanting it to. We had speed at a lot of‑‑ we had speed most of the year at certain racetracks, and just didn't capitalize on the moments that we really should have. You know, this playoff system and format has been very nice for us. We were able to kind of reset, and the last six races we almost wanted to rip our heads off in practice, but we found a way to perform and make it to the next round in each of the rounds.

Q. With that said, are you surprised to be here?
TYLER REDDICK: I wouldn't say with how we ran I'm surprised that we're here. You know, I feel like we could have done better in certain areas throughout the playoffs to give ourselves a little bit better of a cushion and through the regular season. We definitely got some help with Justin and Christopher Bell having issues early on in each of the rounds, but we still had to run good. We still had to be consistent. We had to get stage points, and we did each of those things to just barely survive. It just ended up working out.

Q. The last two years, Elliott and Justin have obviously been in the championship race. Have you leaned on them at all, their experience?
TYLER REDDICK: I wouldn't say I've had to necessarily lean on them verbally, but they've got a great notebook here. They know what they have to do to run good at this racetrack. Beans that we got to and test in August. We're kind of going off of what we tested and what we learned from that more so than really talking to them a whole lot. But here Friday when we go‑‑ when we practice, we're going to kind of wait our turn, let them go out and get a feel for the racetrack, obviously, is our game plan, see what they've got and kind of adjust from there because two sets of tires at most places you can work on a lot, but at Homestead, the tires fall off so much, and each cycle on the tires the car changes a lot. They're going to continue to be as much help as they can. Obviously the idea is to win a championship for JR Motorsports every year, every year out. They're not at Homestead racing for the championship, but they're still going to do everything they can to help put us in the best position possible.

Q. A lot of people would have probably said the 1 or the 7 would have been the favorite to make it to Homestead. How does it feel to be representing that organization?
TYLER REDDICK: It feels good. Yeah, if you look back at the year, the 1 and the 7 have definitely been way more consistent than we have. We've had our moments to compete for wins, but Justin has been able to close on each of those races that he was running really good at. He got the deal done, where I unfortunately have made a mistake or hit the wall, wrecked the car, had a bad pit stop, got caught up in somebody else's mess or just given it up on the last lap. I've done that a couple times this year, too.
Learning from all those tough moments have fortunately made us stronger, and going through those rough patches will make it pretty tough come Saturday.

Q. What do you think you have to do on Saturday to put yourself in front of those three competitors and win a championship?
TYLER REDDICK: The simple answer is just be fast. But this track, there's a lot of tire falloff. You have to move around to find speed. Ever since I've been coming here since day one, this track has just kind of fit my style, whether it's running high, low, whatever you've got to do to find speed. It seems more so running high for me has been helpful. So really excited to‑‑ Daniel was just joking about it, dust the top off. We'll be up there working on it because that's where we'll be racing. Excited to see what speed we've got up there and how much what we learned at the test will transfer over to the race on Saturday.

Q. Do you think they should come here twice a year?
TYLER REDDICK: It's hard to say. It's hard to say. I definitely like that it's the last race. But I like the track a lot, so I've got a biased opinion.
When you think about Homestead, it's one of those races where the fourth place guy can't stay out on tires and magically win the race by getting track position on everybody else. The track is wide; if you're better than somebody, you can go around them to the top, to the bottom, whatever you've got to do. It's a good track to have the last race. Sometimes it stinks when someone stays out on old tires like we've seen a couple times in years past. But it's truly a drivers' track. You can't luck your way into a victory at Homestead‑Miami for sure.

Q. You like running the top, like you said, so is there a track on the circuit that you can kind of test for that?
TYLER REDDICK: You know, this place is a lot different than the rest of the mile‑and‑a‑halfs we go to. Every other mile‑and‑a‑half we go to, I believe, has got some form of a tri‑oval or quad‑oval or a rounded front straightaway. And with that, you're carrying a lot more center corner speed and you're having to lift substantially less than you do here, whether it's on cold tires or wore‑out tires, and you have more falloff here than I do almost anywhere else we go, with the exception of maybe Darlington and Chicagoland and Fontana. I've been able to learn some things about the car. The team has been able to learn some things about me at some of those other tracks that are wore out and have those characteristics. Fortunately for us, I think at tracks like this‑‑ California is a lot like it. We've been really fast there. We didn't lead laps but we were right behind the 22 most of the day. We led laps at Chicagoland. We were fast there. We were good at Darlington. Those are tracks that come to mind to me. We were pretty good at Kansas, too. Really confident about what we've got on these racetracks and how we're going to attack this race on Saturday.

Q. Do you feel like you're the dark horse, underdog, whatever you want to call it?
TYLER REDDICK: Definitely on paper whenever you compare stats. Statistically, yeah, we haven't ran as good as the other three drivers. But I'd be curious to see what other drivers' takes would be, if you asked them of the four drivers who do you think has the best chance of winning their championship. We definitely get around these older tracks pretty well. I really don't feel like we're a dark horse. I feel like it's a level playing field and everyone has got a pretty equal shot. Everyone has got their strengths and weaknesses. Christopher has got a lot of speed. Cole was really good here last year. Daniel was good here last year, too. He was very consistent, very smart driver, knows how to adjust on his car. It's going to be a tough fight. I think each of us have a very good shot at winning this.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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