CONCORD, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Tyler Reddick raced Sunday with his championship hopes on the line at the same time his infant son has been diagnosed with a tumor in his chest that is affecting his heart.<\/p>\n
Rookie Reddick, the second of Tyler and Alexa Reddick\u2019s two boys, was born in May and Alexa revealed last week that he has been dealing with serious health complications. The couple provided an update ahead of Sunday\u2019s race at The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Reddick was starting from the pole and needs a victory to remain in contention for the Cup Series title.<\/p>\n
Alexa Reddick posted a social media update on Rookie\u2019s condition after Reddick\u2019s pole-winning run, saying he has a \u201ctumor that\u2019s \u2018choking\u2019 the renal vein & renal artery. Telling the heart \u2018Hey I\u2019m not getting enough blood\u2026 pump harder.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it has caused an enlarged heart, and the 4-month old will need a kidney removed because doctors determined it is no longer functioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will undergo open surgery to remove his right kidney. We\u2019re just not sure when,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWaiting is ok right now to give his heart a break while he\u2019s on BP medication. They expect his heart to fully recover because it was just an innocent bystander. We have answers but a journey ahead to bring our little Cookie home.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that her son was happy spending time blowing bubbles, playing and \u201cinteracting with every nurse & doctor that comes in his room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reddick had kept his son\u2019s health situation private until his wife went public before last week\u2019s race at Kansas Speedway when she revealed that Rookie was at Atrium Health Levine Children\u2019s Hospital in Charlotte showing signs of heart failure.<\/p>\n
Reddick finally addressed Rookie\u2019s health at Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealthier is probably not the right word, but I\u2019ve never seen him happier. His color looks good. He\u2019s gained weight. A lot of things are going well,\u201d Reddick said. \u201cAll that being said, some of the the tougher moments are definitely ahead. We\u2019re definitely not in the clear. There are some things we need to get through first.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, on one hand, I\u2019m really happy and it makes me feel great that he\u2019s doing much better right now, but certainly we have some hurdles we have to get through first before we\u2019re even thinking about leaving the hospital or thinking about what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reddick, who made it to the championship-deciding finale, enters Sunday\u2019s race below the cutline of drivers who will be trimmed from 12 to eight after the race. The bottom four \u2014 Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric \u2014 all likely need a victory Sunday to avoid elimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this weekend where we\u2019re at in points, it just is what it is,\u201d Reddick said. \u201cI\u2019m going to go out there and give it my best effort while I\u2019m here certainly. For me, this week, the elimination, everything that is happening in the racing world is taking a back seat as it should.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin, co-owner of Reddick\u2019s car, said 23XI Racing has been supportive and involved in getting Rooke the best care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to do everything we could as a company to tap into all the resources that we possibly can, to get him second, third opinions, all the things, get him in contact with specialists,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cWe feel not a relief, but it is a little relief that they kind of understand now what the path is forward, versus, kind of not knowing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not imagine being in their places. He\u2019s got enough to think about. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s probably breathing a little sigh relief that he still goes there to do his job at a high level, given everything that\u2019s going on off the track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reddick will start alongside Shane van Gisbergen, who has won four races this year on road and street courses. The New Zealander is the heavy favorite and any driver hoping to avoid playoff elimination will have to beat van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n
Reddic, meanwhile, was grateful for the support he and his family have received and reflected on the emotional impact this has had on his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust countless individuals have helped out,\u201d Reddick said. \u201cCountless individuals have reached out, provided support whatever it might be. It\u2019s been really eye-opening. I agree with my wife this is the hardest thing that I\u2019ve had to go through. \u2026 Certainly being away (last week) wasn\u2019t ideal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a decision me and her came to a conclusion on when I was in Kansas. He was going in the right direction. Yes, like I said, big things ahead that we have to fix, but for that past weekend he was stable and going in the right direction. It was difficult to stay and race (at Kansas), but we were on the same page about it. I just wanted to get off that plane so bad on Sunday night and get back to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/p>\n
Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CONCORD, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Tyler Reddick raced Sunday with his championship hopes on the line at the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-191739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}