What a difference a week makes…

On the last lap of the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Easter Sunday, Chase Briscoe moved to the inside of leader Tyler Reddick in an attempt to pass for the lead; instead Briscoe and Reddick made contact spinning out both drivers. Third place driver Kyle Busch came up to win the race with Reddick finishing second and Briscoe ending up back in the pack in 22nd.

Briscoe described the on track events saying, “he’s (Reddick) one of the guys I feel like you can race hard and he appreciates racing hard. And I think he knows that I wasn’t even trying to wreck him. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I was sick to my stomach as soon as I saw I took him with me. I felt like I was probably going to spin out as soon as I got in there. He drove it in so hard trying to protect the slider from me, and that’s what he was supposed to do. It was my fault I hit him, so I hate it for him obviously. Glad he was still able to salvage something out of it.”

FOX Sports was interviewing Tyler Reddick after the race when Chase Briscoe approached Reddick expecting to get hit; but instead the two drivers shook hands and exchanged friendly words. Chase Briscoe said, “I walked over there with the intent if he punched me in the mouth, I deserved it, right?”. He added, “so, I walked over there and just apologized. And he said, ‘I totally get it, I would have done the same thing.’ And he wasn’t mad at all.”

In response, Tyler Reddick said, “It’s Easter, for one. And two, I mean, I just look at it like I could have done a better job the last couple of laps to keep distance between us, a gap between us honestly.” He added, “I get it. I literally would have done the exact same thing if I was in his position, if I had gotten to the leader’s bumper coming into Turn 3 for the final time.”

Last week at Martinsville Speedway in the Xfinity Series race, Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer had an on track incident that escalated into Gibbs displaying some reckless driving on the track that continued on to pit road and then came to blows. Gibbs was fined $15,000 for his actions on pit road.

Tyler Reddick had led all but the final lap in stage three.