Tyler Reddick rallies for Truck Series victory at Dover
Tyler Reddick passed Erik Jones for the lead with seven laps to go in the Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway, and then went on to win the Camping World Truck Series race on Friday.
It was Reddick's second win of the season. He also won the season-opening race at Daytona.
"We played it smart, kept it in one piece ... and brought our truck to Victory Lane," Reddick told FOXSports.com in Victory Lane.
Suarez ended up passing Jones to take second, with Jones being forced to settle for third after gambling and taking on only two tires to gain track position during the final round of regular pit stops. That enabled Jones to take the lead on the restart and he held it for the 52 laps before Reddick, who took four tires on the final stop, passed him with seven to go.
Jones, who turns 19 on Saturday, finished third for his 11th career top-five finish. Suarez and Jones helped make it a two-three finish for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Earlier in the race, Reddick drew the ire of driver Jennifer Jo Cobb, who was called to the NASCAR hauler after she left her truck and walked up the track with the race under a caution. Cobb waved her arms and gestured toward Reddick. She believed he was responsible for the accident that knocked her out of the race.
NASCAR barred its drivers last year from approaching the track or moving cars after an incident during the race.
Daniel Hemric finished fourth and Matt Crafton, the series points leader, rounded out the top five after battling back from a costly pit-road speeding penalty on Lap 138 of the 200-lap event.
Reddick cut into Crafton's points lead and now trails him by 11, while Jones is third in the standings, 14 points behind Crafton.
Jones, who turns 19 Saturday, has now led 57 percent of all the laps run in the series over the last three races -- but has no wins during that stretch to show for it.
“We just couldn’t finish it out. It just got tough working through the lapped traffic and had to use up a lot of tire and didn’t quite have enough left," Jones said. "We had a good (Toyota) Tundra and we fought hard all day. We came pretty close -- we’ll win one soon and keep getting better every week. It was a good points day and we’ll just keep moving along.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
