Chaotic Martinsville Race Unkind to Richard Childress Racing

By: Dylan Alarcon      Image: 3CHI Twitter

Sunday was simply a bad day for the RCR camp as it saw both Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick retire early from the Martinsville Cup series playoff race, with Reddick's condition currently in question.

While the talk of the international racing scene this weekend is Ross Chastain's never-before-seen "video game move", RCR's predicament may have faded into the background. On lap 323, Dillon's brakes apparently failed as he approached turn 4 and it caused him to make a hard impact into the outside wall. He appeared to suffer no serious injury but this DNF will end his three-race streak of top 10 finishes.

While Dillon's race ended with a bang, Reddick brought his car in quietly after letting the #8 team know that his head was hurting. According to a Twitter post by Reddick, he started feeling badly following a pile-up at the start of Stage two where he crashed into the back of Noah Gragson's 48 car. According to Reddick, the infield care center medical team recommended further evaluation. If the worst-case scenario turns out to be true, Reddick will be the third driver this season confirmed to have suffered a concussion resulting from an on-track crash, one of which being Kurt Busch whom Reddick will replace next season at 23XI. That said however, Reddick did write that he was feeling better as of Monday

Presently, fans can only hope the best for Reddick's situation regarding a possible concussion, which already caused Kurt Busch's premature retirement and Alex Bowman's playoff forfeiture.

On a related note, future driver of the #8 RCR Chevrolet, Kyle Busch had a remarkably abysmal race compared to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Christopher Bell notably winning this race. A tweet by Xfinity driver Ryan Vargas who was watching the race from turn two suggests that Busch may have broken a toe link after contact with the outside retaining wall. As with Dillon, this race ends Busch's three race streak of top 10 finishes.

Reddick and Dillon respectively finished 35th and 33rd, with future RCR driver Kyle Busch finishing 29th. Next weekend at Phoenix is supposed to mark Reddick's final before moving to 23XI, while it will mark Busch's final race in the iconic 18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing, with which he won two championships and over 50 races.Dylan