DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Tyler Reddick said he remembers, "looking out my rear-view mirror more than I did my front windshield the whole race it seemed like."
That'll be the case when you lead the final 33 laps at Daytona International Speedway, the 2.5-mile superspeedway that plays host to NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series opener Friday.
Keeping tabs on those behind him, hoping for the uneventful as the laps wind down.
Reddick, 20, earned his first career victory in the series here last season. Now the driver of the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford (he drove the team’s No. 19 last season), Reddick will be looking to score a second consecutive victory in the season-opening event, the NextEra Energy Resources 250 (Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
"It was very nerve-wracking because you're out front and you don't know what’s going on behind you," Reddick said Thursday at Daytona. "Fortunately, I had a really good teammate (in) Austin Theriault; he did an outstanding job. We worked together really good all race long. … He went for it and it didn't work out for him on the last lap."
Theriault will be back as a teammate this season, in a one-race Daytona deal with BKR, while Daniel Hemric also returns and will be in the organization's No. 19 Ford.
Reddick, a native of Corning, California, finished second in points to Erik Jones (Kyle Busch Motorsports) in the NCWTS last season. In addition to his Daytona victory, Reddick also scored a win at Dover International Speedway.
The Daytona victory, he said, taught him a lot about racing on the big track.
"The biggest thing is you have to qualify (well)," he said. "The qualifying is different. Once again we have to do everything we can on our single-truck run to qualify up front. But also, we have to have clean pit stops. We have to do everything we can to make sure we do not lose positions under caution. It's really hard to gain them back in the Truck Series … unless you get a really good group of guys going on the outside to get up to the front of the pack.
"You have to really control your race, not make any mistakes, be passively aggressive I guess. You can't just jump out of line; you have to make sure you have someone to go with you if you want to go to the front. Hopefully we're up front all night long and we don't have to worry about it."
A new over-the-wall pit crew will service the No. 29 as last year’s group has been promoted to the XFINITY Series where they will pit Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford. "It's going to be a learning process," Reddick said. "We're going to have to grow together as a team."
Reddick's 2015 victory stopped an eight-race win streak by Toyota teams in the season-opening event. … Former series champion Todd Bodine is the only driver to score multiple wins in the race, winning back-to-back Daytona races in 2008-09. … Friday night's event is scheduled to take the green flag at 7:52 p.m. ET.