Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship with a top ten finish in the Southern 500.
He also had to endure a severe bout of diarrhea in order to stay in the automobile long enough to complete it. Early in the race, Reddick turned on his in-car radio to inform crew chief Billy Scott that he was ‘throwing up and pooping myself’ behind the wheel. Even more astonishing was that he was in the top five at the moment, vying for the lead.
It was critical that Reddick stay in the vehicle and optimize the day since he was competing against Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott for the regular season championship and the playoff seeding implications that come with it. During a pit stop, the team attempted to feed him Tums via the window net, but they ended up under his seat.
At the next stop, they brought him a bottle of water with Tums and Imodium mixed in it. It relieved him, and he went on to finish 10th and win the regular season championship.
That’s the worst I’ve ever felt. I’m not sure, maybe just a stomach illness or something,” Reddick remarked. “My son was feeling sad last week in Daytona. We had to take him to the infield care center following the event.
On race day, Saturday, he was really battling. “Yeah, around 12:00 on Friday, I started really struggling. I hoped it’d be gone by Saturday morning. It was dreadful on Saturday. I awoke on Sunday with the same expectation that it would be gone again.
“Felt good pretty much all the way up until the race. I’m not sure, but it must have been a bump off of two or something. By the end of stage one, things had deteriorated significantly. It simply remained there the rest of the way. “I’m just grateful that we have so many terrific folks on our team.
They were feeding me the correct things in the car to help me handle as best I could. Simply brilliant individuals. I was able to add the proper ingredients to my drink to assist soothe my tummy. At one point, I just wanted to puke all over myself. Thankfully, they prevented that from happening. A lot of other disgusting stuff.”
Reddick was obviously sick, but thankfully not as severe as he claimed in real time. “I thought I was going to puke, I really did at the end of stage one, as soon as the yellow came out,” Reddick told ESPN.
So nothing out the other end either?
“I hung on for dear life all night. “I thought it would happen, but…” Reddick stated.”I simply wanted it out because it was so horrible. I took Imodium at the infield care facility earlier.
That was the worst thing for me because I couldn’t get what I desired. “It was just a rough night.” However, the regular season ended with the team winning the championship and earning the third spot in the playoff.
“It’s just a testament to all the hard work that everyone at 23XI, here at the racetrack, week in and week out, back at Airspeed, puts into this,” Reddick told the crowd. “We’re in year four of their ambitions, correct? It’s been a lot of pleasure to be a part of this journey over the last two years, getting to where we want to be.
“I mean, it takes a lot of effort to stay consistent as we go through the summer stretch. Both years felt like we had a difficult start. It’s great to be able to get to where we were in the middle of the year and begin thinking about points. I believe it allowed us to be more consistent, get in the right mindset for these playoffs, and manage risk versus return. We’ll be doing three races at a time here soon.”
