By Cole Cusumano

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway ran remarkably clean for just over 382 miles. With seven laps remaining, 10 drivers came out on the wrong end of a, “slide job gone wrong,” as coined by the race leader at the time, Kyle Busch. 

In an attempt to snag his first NASCAR Cup Series win and a spot in the playoffs, Tyler Reddick shot up the 31-degree banking in Turn 4 without having fully cleared the No. 18.

Naturally, this move sparked a series of controversial and divisive comments amongst the NASCAR community. Out of all the cars impacted by the first of two ‘Big Ones,’ half of the drivers needed a victory to advance to the postseason and all but a pair were still in search of a checkered flag for 2020.

This left competitors and fans of those respected athletes enraged following the incident. Many took to Twitter citing Reddick’s move as “too aggressive” late in the regular season finale. Perhaps the Rookie of the Year contender’s harshest critic was Ryan Newman.

“The eight car obviously just ran out of talent,” Newman said after finishing 36th. “It seems like you can win a couple of Xfinity championships and still stick your head where the sun don’t shine when the time comes right.” 

It’s easy for anyone to point fingers when they’ve been wrongfully affected by the outcome. The reality is, had many of the other 39 drivers in the field been in Reddick’s situation, they would have reacted more or less the same. In the end this was the result of a bold move with bad execution, but it takes that type of initiative to succeed at superspeedways.

“The same guys who complain about aggression are the ones who are rooting and shoving you out of the way at the next plate race,” runner-up finisher Chase Elliott said. “I’ve been on the other end of that — people jumping down your throat about that stuff. They’ll be the ones doing it to you and taking advantage of you if you don’t give it back to them. Yes, it was a little aggressive, but at the same time I think the guys who win those races are aggressive, too.”

Another competitor with a front row seat to the calamity was third-place finisher, Denny Hamlin. The No. 11 was the only Joe Gibbs Racing machine to squeak by the 10-car pileup, but he doesn’t blame the two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion for making what he thought was a potential race-winning maneuver.

“Everyone makes the moves they think are good for them,” the three-time Daytona 500 Champions said. “It’s tough when you switch lanes in the middle of a corner. These things have such big closing rates, it’s hard to slide up in front of someone. It’s just really tough with the big runs that these cars get to make big, abrupt moves. But most of the guys that win make those moves, it’s just that they make it work.”

In the end, the person who ended up being most critical of Reddick was himself. He took to Twitter at the conclusion of the event saying, “Why not try to make up for a season filled with mistakes with YET ANOTHER MISTAKE.”

What this amounted to was a genuine rookie mistake by a first-year driver in an attempt to secure his first victory and a playoff berth. The bottom line is, Reddick put himself and his team in a position to succeed and he went for it — albeit ineffective, it was an opportunity nonetheless.

People will be quick to throw out harsh comments when they’re affected by someone else’s mistake, but they’ll be the first ones to defend the same actions carried out by themselves or their driver. While a product of inexperience brought an end to many’s dreams, that’s the unpredictability of Daytona.