Fresh off Daytona win, Reddick focuses on Atlanta

Posted on February 27, 2015 by

Reddick: ‘I (have) more confidence in our mile-and-a-half package’

HAMPTON, Ga. — An understated piece of history happened last weekend at Daytona International Speedway when Ford Racing swept all three NASCAR national series races to open the NASCAR season, fresh off a victory in the prestigious Rolex 24 a few weeks prior.

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For the NASCAR national series portion, it all started with 19-year-old Tyler Reddick.

The Brad Keselowski Racing driver wasted no time picking up his first win of the year — first of his career, too — when he took the checkered flag in the Camping World Truck Series season-opening NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway last Friday. The victory continued a dominant Daytona showing for Ford, which, following the Jamie McMurray/Kyle Larson-fueled Rolex win, saw a one-two Roush Fenway Racing finish for Ryan Reed (his first, too) and Chris Buescher in the XFINITY Series opener Alert Today Florida 300 and Joey Logano’s first Daytona 500 win on Sunday.

"It was really awesome for Ford to be able to sweep at Daytona," Reddick said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "I believe it’s the first time a manufacturer has been able to … and it was nice to be able to break the Toyota streak at Daytona for the Fords, and was able to get them a win in the Truck Series, which is great.

"It was an ideal weekend for Ford and I was just really happy to just be a part of that and be the second step out of the four. I’m just really happy for everybody. Doug Yates, Jeff Clark, there are a lot of great people over at Roush Yates and I’m just really happy to get (a win) for them and the rest of the people over at Ford.”

As exciting as last week was for the young driver, he’s already got Georgia on his mind — specifically Saturday’s Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 (5:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1).

The Truck Series didn’t run at Atlanta in 2014 — this race will be the second of a rare NASCAR national series double-header, combined with an earlier XFINITY race — so it’s not like we can look at last year’s results to see how Reddick will fare at the 1.5-mile track.

Looking at his stats, however, it’s clear the California native is comfortable on this configuration, as two of his three career top-five finishes before Daytona came at Chicagoland Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.

Not only that — the BKR prodigy noted that his Ford F-150 team’s intermediate package is even better than their superspeedway set.

"Honestly, I (have) more confidence in our mile-and-a-half package," Reddick said. "We had a really outstanding superspeedway package, but superspeedways are kind of a wild card and anything can happen on those type of race tracks. I was more looking forward to getting back to the mile-and-a-halves than anything. We were really good on them as we closed out the year.

"I’m really excited to be at Atlanta for the first time. I’ve seen a lot of great racing here over the years. There have been a lot of great finishes and hopefully we can add to that list of great finishes and good runs Saturday.”

In an ideal world for Reddick, he’d finish first and his boss — Brad Keselowski, also running the race — would be right behind him in his own No. 29 BKR ride.

Knowing Keselowski’s goofy, joking nature, you’d almost expect the 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion to be ribbing his young protégé all week at the shop, but Reddick laughed off any good-natured trash talk, "no, not at all."

It might be because Keselowski thinks so highly of him.

"Tyler is just a natural behind the wheel, plain and simple," Keselowski said Friday in his blog at BradRacing.com. "You can’t teach some of the things he can do in a race car."

Trash talk or no trash talk, Reddick knows having his boss out on the track with him is going to be an invaluable experience.

"I’m really excited to be racing against my boss Saturday night," said Reddick. "It’ll be nice to race against Brad and I’m definitely gonna be able to get a lot of help from him. If it would go perfectly I’d like to build on (the Daytona) win with another win, but, realistically, we’ve got to come in here and do everything we can to leave with another top-five finish.

"I’m really confident in my crew and in our truck," Reddick said before adding one last quip. "I’ll see you guys back here (in the media center) on Saturday."

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Posted on February 27, 2015 by

Sets out to inform others about being prepared for organ donation

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HAMPTON, Ga. — Athletes far and wide often have charitable causes that are important to them — many of which actually hit home because of a personal experience.

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Between Brian Vickers’ Blood Clot Awareness commercials for Xarelto and several drivers who have worked with various Autism Awareness programs because of family members affected by the condition, community outreach runs deep in NASCAR, too.

Twenty-two-year-old NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Joey Gase may not yet be one of the sport’s household names, but he and his cause certainly deserve to be.

When the Cedar Rapids, Iowa native was 18, his mother, Mary Jo, succumbed to a brain aneurism and passed away. With his parents having been divorced, Gase was then faced with a decision more difficult than anything someone that age should have to make.

"I’d just turned 18 years old and my mom was single and the doctors asked us if she would want to be an organ/tissue donor," Gase said Friday morning at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"At the time, we didn’t really know what my mom would want. We knew she was a really healthy and caring person. We said yes and after that, I found out she was able to help and improve the lives of 66 people and that was just amazing to us, knowing that she was able to help that many people and that she was able to keep on living on through them."

The driver of the No. 52 Chevrolet mentioned that he wanted to do something to honor his mother after she passed, so he decided to figure out what he could do to promote donations knowing how many people she had helped. He went to all of his local Donate Life centers — such as LifeLink — to team up to promote donation options "so hopefully no one is ever in the same situation I was in, but if they are again hopefully they’re more prepared and know about donation to be able to make the right decision for their loved one."

The No. 52 will sport a special logo this weekend at Atlanta, along with the photos of donors, recipients and those on the wait list.

Gase has also gotten families who’ve had organ and/or tissue donation impact their lives to come to the racetrack with him, saying that it’s cool because it’s not to often he gets to meet someone who knows or has experienced what he has.

With NASCAR as his platform, the driver is set on increasing the general population’s awareness of how many people can be helped through organ donation and what it’s all about, other than "just a quick yes or no question … at the DMV.

"NASCAR has helped a ton. They were able to set up an ESPN interview two years ago that was shot during the pre-race show at Iowa Speedway and that got us … so much attention for donation. My Twitter and Facebook and everything blew up. Even got the attention of Jeff Gordon and he even made comments on it and that was really amazing and special to see.

We even got him on board with it now. NASCAR just helps us so much. All of the people at the races and the races being live on TV helps a ton."

On Thursday at a local hospital, the driver met a little boy in need of a heart whose grandfather actually raced at Talladega Superspeedway in the 1940s, winning the race for a grand prize of $450.

These invaluable experiences that Gase has encountered since becoming involved are clearly important to him, but none more special than when he was able to meet Jordan Shaw at Iowa Speedway last year ahead of the U.S. Cellular 250 XFINITY Series race — the same Jordan Shaw that is living because of the kidney Gase’s mother donated.

"It’s so amazing and special when you meet (people that have received my mother’s organs)," said Gase, who has also met the recipient of his mother’s liver. "You know your mom’s inside them and not only that; if it wasn’t for my mom, they most likely wouldn’t be here and alive today. Seeing how thankful they are and how good of people they are, it just makes it … I won’t say it makes it better, it makes it a little bit easier knowing that your mom was able to help them.

"She’s still living on through them."

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