Reddick holds off teammate Hemric

LAS VEGAS — Tyler Reddick crashed the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoff party. Reddick held off Brad Keselowski Racing teammate Daniel Hemric at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday night, leading 70 of 146 laps in the second Chase race. “Unfortunately I was a spoiler for our teammate, he was right behind us and could have got into the chase himself, locked into the next round,” Reddick said. “We were spot on really, from the drop of the green to the end of the race. Everyone did a heck of a job all weekend long. This was not an easy weekend.” Reddick and Hemric combined to lead 63 of the first 100 laps, and Reddick took the lead for good following a restart on Lap 98. Reddick joked he knew Hemric might be a bit mad at him. However, Hemric said he was happy his team was able to pull off the exacta. “It’s easy to be very frustrated but overall in the big picture it’s a huge night for Brad Keselowski Racing,” Hemric said. “He knows my situation, and I know his situation and we’re both doing all we can to win these races. He did everything he was supposed to do.” Cole Custer was thord, followed by Ben Kennedy and William Byron, the winner of the Chase opener last week at New Hampshire. The series will be at Talladega next week, with the eight drivers in the Chase looking to fill six spots available in the next round. Notably finishing 15th was Matt Tifft, who made his second start since undergoing brain surgery in June, when he had a low-grade glioma removed. Tifft made his return at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 16. The 20-year-old rookie has four starts this year, with his best finish of fifth coming at Charlotte in May. Shank’s No. 60 wins IMSA finale Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 Honda-powered Liger sports car won the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta Saturday night, and the Action Express Racing’s No. 31 Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype took the season title. John Pew, Oswaldo Negri, Jr. and endurance driver Olivier Pla teamed to win the 10-hour race, with the 60-year-old Pew making his final series appearance in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. “It’s the best way to go out, but it also makes it very hard to go out,” Pew said. “It makes it hard to quit. You really try to talk yourself into leaving and then something like this happens and you think, ‘Maybe not.’ I’ll take a little time to reflect. It’s been a fantastic 10 years, a lot with Ozz, and all with Michael Shank.” Dane Cameron, Eric Curran and guest driver Simon Pagenaud, the current IndyCar champion, finished fourth to win the season title. Theyt beat their No. 5 Action Express Racing teammates, Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, who won the last two championships. “It’s truly unbelievable,” Curran said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s going to take some time. The whole team and Dane and I worked so hard all year. We came so close last year, but we pulled it together this year. It feels amazing, all the guys that work hard on the Action Express team, and the pit stops were unbelievable. Most importantly, it was a tough day today, but we got through it.” In the GT Le Mans class, the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and James Calado won the race, and the championship went to the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fassler. In the Prototype Challenge class, the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Chevrolet-powered ORECA of Robert Alon, Tom Kimber-Smith and Jose Gutierrez won the race, while the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport team of Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow took the season championship. The finish in the GT Daytona class was controversial, with the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 passing the No. 33 Dodge Viper GT3-R on the next to last lap, but IMSA, the sanctioning body, gave the win to the Viper, because amateur driver John Potter did not complete the required three hours of drive time to be eligible. The season title in GT Daytona went to Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan of the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3. Nielsen became the IMSA WeatherTech series’ first female champion.