Tyler Reddick was so sick at Darlington Speedway that he was worried he might not be able to finish the 500-mile race due to his stomach virus.
But with the regular-season title on the line, which came with a bonus of 15 playoff points, Reddick was determined to stay in the car, even if it meant he might get sick in his firesuit or helmet.
“Someone was going to probably have to pull me out of the car,” Reddick said on Wednesday, three days after he narrowly beat Kyle Larson by just one point for the regular-season title.
He had Corey Heim ready to step in if needed, but a few hours before the race on Sunday, he felt better, thinking he had recovered from the illness he caught from his young son, Beau.
“The worst of it was behind me, so I really thought I was going to be OK. Leading up to the race, getting in the car was the best that I had felt in days,” Reddick said.
“Once we got going with that extended period of time, with the heat and the bumps off of (Turn) 2, it started going a really bad direction during the race.”
At one point, he told his 23XI Racing crew that he felt he might get sick from both ends, and the team quickly put together a care package for him to use during his next pit stop. While he managed to get the Tums into his mouth, he dropped the smaller Imodium pills all over the floor of his Toyota.
“I can hardly remember sections of the race, I was so out of it at times, but as I remember it, I thought (my crew chief) was asking me if I was more worried about puking or the other, whatever you want to call it,” Reddick said.
“I think he was asking me what I was more worried about, but truly I thought at any moment I was going to have both. I genuinely tried to go — I tried to let it out.”
