Tyler Reddick won't be competing full time in 2017, but the former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racer expects to log just as many laps this season as he did this past year.
After two full seasons of seasoning with Brad Keselowski Racing, Reddick will split seat time with Kyle Larson this season in the No. 42 NASCAR XFINITY Series entry fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
BBR Music Group will provide sponsorship for multiple races with Reddick.
His first scheduled start with the team will be the season-opening Powershares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, Feb. 25, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.)
"A full-time schedule in the Truck Series is 23 races," Reddick told NASCAR.com. "The partial (XFINITY) schedule will be 18-20, so when you think about that ... and add up all the laps, you're probably going to get more seat time than you would running a full-time truck schedule, you'll probably have more tires for practice. So actually I'm probably going to get about the same or maybe a little more seat time than I did running full time in the Truck Series. That's still a lot of great opportunities to learn and get better and hopefully have some good runs with the team."
Reddick, 21, won three times in the Truck Series. He finished second in points in his first full season in 2015 with wins at Daytona and Dover. He added a victory at Las Vegas last year but slipped to ninth in points.
"I could have worked out an opportunity to where I possibly could have remained at BKR one more year but there were definitely some other things going on and some other opportunities to be had," he said. "Fortunately, the right person kind of got us pointed in the right direction, got us talking with Chip's people and got the ball rolling there. ...
"We were just really fortunate that the guys with Ganassi wanted me to be in their vehicle."
Larson and Justin Marks shared driving duties last year for the No. 42 team, which will continue to be led by crew chief Mike Shiplett. Larson also drives the organization's No. 42 Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series; he picked up XFINITY Series wins at Pocono and Texas while Marks earned the victory at Mid-Ohio last year.
Ganassi also fields additional teams in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, with driver Jamie McMurray, and the XFINITY Series, with Brennan Poole.
It's that depth and talent, Reddick said, that makes running a partial schedule just as attractive as running full time elsewhere.
"There are a lot of really good people in the shop and on the road that are within Chip Ganassi in the XFINITY and on the Cup side," he said. "Whether it be a partial schedule with this team or someone different -- the advantage with this team is they have Cup cars, they have XFINITY cars and they are more than a single-car team. There's a lot of good people involved here.
"The other big gains from this are having someone like Kyle Larson that I'm sharing the car with. Being able to go to the race track and when I'm outside the vehicle, being able to take in a different perspective just from afar."
It's a similar situation to his move into the Truck Series, when he initially ran a partial schedule for Keselowski in 2014 and shared seat time with the owner/driver as well as fellow racer Joey Logano.
"I got to learn a lot just from those guys," Reddick said. "Sitting outside and watching them work with the guys ... seeing how they worked with them, how they go about their race, what their race plan is and how they communicate with one another. You wouldn't think it would do much but it really helps to get things moving in the right direction. I thought it really helped me on my first year."
It's not the first time Reddick and Larson's paths have crossed. Both grew up in California -- Reddick hails from Corning, while Larson is a native of Elk Grove -- and the two often competed in the same events. Larson eventually migrated to Sprint cars while Reddick, at his family's urging, chose the dirt late model route.
"My family was scared to death of Sprint cars and scared I was going to get hurt so we decided to go dirt late model racing," he said. "That's where our backgrounds split. But where we learned how to race and drive was pretty much the same -- in those early outlaw cars.
"So similar backgrounds; obviously we took two different paths there toward the end but somehow we've ended back up in the same place."
Although he will only run between 18 and 20 races with the team this season, Reddick expects to be competitive. The No. 42 entry finished seventh in the owners' championship a year ago and Reddick said that's a team goal from the outset.
As for his goals, Reddick said he hopes to step in and compete for top-five finishes out of the box.
"Top 10s would be great but I know this team is capable of that with anybody in the car. I want to get these guys top fives right off the bat," he said. "They are capable of it and I have to do my part. I know this team has won races with Kyle and Justin."
A win, he said, would be "very reasonable."
"I'm not just trying to say 'Oh yeah, I can win a race' or come across as being boastful or ... arrogant," he said. "That's how good this team is -- they're very capable of that and I'm not going to sell it short. They won multiple times last year.
"If I do my part and don't make any mistakes throughout the course of a race, that's something that's very reasonable that we can accomplish. No pressure, right? I just have to do my part and be smart about it."