NASCAR Owner Richard Childress Skewers “Little Sh*t” Tyler Reddick on Team Radio

While last year’s Cup Series race at Pocono will always carry a dark cloud, due to Kurt Busch sustaining a heart-breaking, season-ending injury in qualifying, reflecting similarly upon this year’s event will forever be categorically different.
 

From Denny Hamlin’s controversial move to overtake Kyle Larson – one that Dale Earnhardt Jr. says is why the co-owner of Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing and not Kyle Busch is the most booed driver on the track – to an enraged Joey Logano losing his marbles over NASCAR towing protocols, the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway was chock-full of delicious drama, leading to Sunday’s coverage on USA Network, according to Speed Sport, to be the most-watched Cup Series race on any cable network since Darlington, more than two years ago.

RELATED: Austin Dillon Talks Kyle Busch Bringing 'A New Mentality' To RCR As Ty Reddick Exits

Still, perhaps the most memorable thing to happen at Pocono came not from a wheelman but from a team owner: the legendary Richard Childress.

What happened between Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick?

With 55 laps to go, Austin Dillon, Childress’ grandson who races for RCR, was battling his former teammate Tyler Reddick for position as the pair ran three-wide with Brad Keselowski. Caught in the middle as they came into Turn 1, Dillon appeared to maybe not see Reddick because he turned into Reddick’s piece of the asphalt.

With not enough real estate to go around, Reddick pushed into Dillon’s driver-side back tire, sending him careening hard into the wall. The brutal collision left Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro irreparable and him with a disappointing, 34^th-place DNF.

What did Austin Dillon do after wrecking with Tyler Reddick?

While the wreck had already happened, the real fireworks between Dillon and Reddick had yet to begin. Sitting in the cockpit of his mangled Next Gen car, Dillon was noticeably angry as he wrenched away his steering wheel and unhooked himself. The 2018 Daytona 500 winner managed to climb out of his window on his own volition and, with his grip clenched firmly around the jaw rim of his helmet, Dillon waited for Reddick to come around the track before uncharacteristically hurling his helmet at his former teammate in the No. 45 Toyota Camry.

How was Richard Childress involved in Austin Dillon’s wreck?

In the aftermath of on-track incidents, it’s not completely alien for a team owner to get involved or voice concern, especially when it involves another driver from a different team. Last year, Rick Hendrick issued a stiff, very public warning to Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain after the Watermelon Man wrecked Kyle Larson at Darlington.

That said, Childress is far more than just an owner to Dillon. He’s Dillon’s grandfather, so it’s not unfathomable to think that, when chaos rears its ugly head, the emotionality of family won’t flare up with it.  

Still, it’s not often that racing fans are gifted with a behind-the-scenes treat of an owner in NASCAR’s top flight teeing off on a competing driver but, in an effort to increase transparency, league brass released audio of an angry Childress blasting Reddick.

“That little sh-t just wrecked him!” fired Childress, believing that Reddick was to blame for causing the incident that ruined Dillon’s day at Pocono.

Ironically, many have pointed to Dillon as the culprit of his own demise on the Tricky Triangle this year, including Earnhardt Jr. who covered the race from the booth.

"The three [Dillon] coming down the race track… He’s coming down into the line of the No. 45 car,” Junior noted as he watched footage of the accident replay. “I know he’s upset about Reddick turning him there, but he steers down the race track, and they make contact.”

It’s interesting to consider the fact that the same person Childress torched over his team radio at Pocono is also the same guy who delivered three, much-needed wins for RCR in 2022. In his third year driving for Childress, Reddick, a back-to-back NASCAR Xfinity Series champion (2018, 2019), earned his first Cup Series win in July of last year’s Road America. He then followed that up before notching wins at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Texas Motor Speedway.

Despite the melee, Reddick garnered admiration after the event from racing fans for staying composed in the high-octane situation.

Asked in a post-race interview from Fronstretch if he was prepared for Dillon to throw his helmet at him, Reddick, who cruised to an encouraging second-place finish, coolly joked about his former teammate, “I mean, yeah – he had a wind-up; I kinda knew it was coming, so I was ready for it.”