NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Tyler Reddick takes an 11-point lead into Saturday’s Careers for Veterans 200 Presented by Cooper Standard and Brad Keselowski‘s Checkered Flag Foundation at Michigan International Speedway (Saturday, 1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), an important race for his team and owner. But first before he looks ahead, he looked back Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio at the race that put him back on top.
On Lap 6 of the Pocono Mountains 150, two-time defending champion Matt Crafton and Keselowski made contact, sending both trucks into the Turn 3 wall with finishes of 28th and 30th respectively. Crafton didn’t appreciate the former Sprint Cup champion’s actions and vowed Reddick wouldn’t win the 2015 title.
“That’s your Cup champion,” Crafton said. “That’s pretty much an idiot right there right-rearing the guy racing for a championship. I guess maybe hat’s the way he wants his 19 truck to win the championship, but they’ve got a long ways to come right now. I’m telling you that.”
Crafton later added, “He’s got another thing coming, I promise that truck won’t win it. If that’s the way he want to do it, we’ll get it done.”
RELATED: Crafton, Keselowski collide at Pocono
As Reddick reflected on the August 1 race that saw a 25-point swing at the top of the title table after this third-place run, he saw the incident between the two NASCAR champions differently.
“I think if Matt Crafton took a second to think about it just like anyone else has that has seen it, he’d realize that he’s wrong and that it definitely was not an incident caused by Brad but an incident caused by Matt, his own mistake,” Reddick said. “But you know what, it’s a championship battle. It’s been tight and so it’s going to get stressful, it’s going to get more stressful as the year goes on. It’s a battle for the championship in the Truck Series. It’s a big deal.
“Everyone on their side and our side is really pumped. We really want to get that first championship for Brad Keselowski Racing. We kind of want to dethrone ThorSport and keep them from getting three in a row so we’re going to try and do that.”
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At Michigan, Ryan Blaney will take over the No. 29 ride run by Keselowski at Pocono. Like his BKR teammate this season, Blaney took a points lead into Michigan last year. After he and Joey Logano started first and second, both had problems with their noses and finished 21st and 18th, respectively.
RELATED: Nose problems for Blaney costs points lead
“Our trucks have been really good there,” Reddick said. “We had an unfortunate incident happen with our nose guards there last year, but our trucks are fast. We have speed about everywhere we’ve gone so far this year so we’ve just got to play it smart. It’s going to be a good race for us. We’ve got to stay out of trouble.”
It will be Reddick’s first race at the two-mile oval in the Irish Hills of Michigan, but with a win at Daytona to start the season and seize the points lead in the season opener before losing it to Crafton at Martinsville, he’s confident in his success on big tracks.
“I felt like most of my comfort came the fastest at the bigger tracks,” Reddick said. “Some of the smaller, technical tracks I felt like were going to be more difficult for me as I came into the Truck Series. So I feel like my strengths are on the bigger tracks, the plate and the mile-and-a-halfs.
“Michigan is a two-mile track (but) it’s a big mile-and-a-half, big really fast mile-and-a-half. But it is a two-mile track so we’ve been really good on the big tracks. Our guys have a really good package so I’m really excited to get there and feel it out for myself this time.”
While Reddick runs the DrawTite Ford, Blaney will sport the Cooper Standard Careers for Vets colors as the Cooper Standard Foundation and Brad Keselowski‘s Checkered Flag Foundation joins forces for the second year to sponsor the Michigan Truck race. This year, proceeds from the event will go to Macomb Community College in Keselowski’s home state as the institution looks to launch a veteran transition training program.
Cooper Standard has partnered with Inforum, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Manufacturing Institute for the curriculum, which will combine Inforum’s Next4Vets training with the NAM and the Manufacturing Institute’s Get Skills to Work program and form the foundation for Macomb’s veteran initiative.
As Reddick battles Truck Series veteran Crafton, he’s confident that his BKR team will deliver a title to owner Keselowski, who already has driver titles in NASCAR’s other two national series XFINITY (2010) and Sprint Cup (2012).
“It would mean the world to me, and when I say that, I speak for my team as well,” Reddick said. “They’ve worked very hard for this, and this championship is definitely what they want and I’m going to do everything I can for my team that they are doing for me to get that championship for them. It’s a big team effort, and we’re working our tails off for it.
“We could have fell back a little bit here in these last few weeks, but we haven’t. We’ve stayed true. We’ve stayed strong, and we keep nailing away at it. That’s what it’s going to take all the way to Homestead, and our team is definitely capable of it.
“We had a big jump going from our moving shops in the middle of the race season which is very tough and our guys did an outstanding job. We didn’t falter during that period. They’re working really hard. They’re definitely putting their dedication into it so I’ve got to do my part as well on my end to pay back and reward them for their great hard work.”