Tyler Reddick’s No. 2 Chevrolet carried a Dolly Parton sponsorship at the 2019 Alsco 300—and the result was a distinctly Bristol kind of tribute.
Rest in peace, Dolly Parton. Racing has lost no driver, team owner, or championship winner—but it did lose a figure who understood the people, places, and unapologetic showmanship that make NASCAR feel like NASCAR.
That connection came into focus on April 6, 2019, at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Tyler Reddick arrived for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 Chevrolet, carrying sponsorship from Parton. Before the race, Reddick leaned fully into the moment, appearing in a curly blonde wig during driver introductions. It was a playful gesture, but it was also a natural fit for a race weekend in East Tennessee, near the Smoky Mountain communities that remained central to Parton’s public life and business ventures.
Then the green flag dropped, and the weekend became a real race story.
Reddick qualified second, finished second in both of the opening stages, led 61 laps, and came home second behind Christopher Bell. He missed the Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash bonus by 0.906 seconds, but the No. 2 Chevrolet was one of the day’s defining cars. NASCAR’s race report documented both Reddick’s on-track run and the wig he wore as a nod to the Dolly Parton sponsorship.
For Parton, the connection was more than a random licensing deal. Bristol is a short track planted in a region shaped by the same East Tennessee culture that informed her music, her tourism projects, and the way she spoke about home. A Parton-branded Chevrolet running near the front at Bristol made sense because both names carry a specific kind of regional recognition: big personalities, deep local roots, and a refusal to be understated.
Reddick was 23 at the time and already one of the Xfinity Series’ leading drivers. The race did not end with a victory, but it was a performance worthy of the sponsorship. The No. 2 started second, ran second when each stage ended, and finished second after a late restart left Reddick chasing Bell to the checkered flag.
The result also belonged to a pivotal period in Reddick’s career. He went on to win the Xfinity Series championship later that season, and he later scored his first Bristol Xfinity victory in August 2019. Bristol Motor Speedway’s report on that win records how Reddick recovered from a pre-race inspection penalty to take the Food City 300.
That makes the Dolly-sponsored spring race more than a novelty footnote. It was part of a championship year for a driver who would go on to become a NASCAR Cup Series winner, and it happened at a venue where the connection between racing and East Tennessee identity is impossible to miss.
Parton’s place in the sport should be described accurately. She was not a NASCAR driver, owner, or a long-term team principal. But her name helped create one of those rare racing moments that lands because the setting is right: a Tennessee-born global star, a Chevrolet at Bristol, a driver willing to wear the wig, and a front-running performance under the lights and noise of short-track NASCAR.
In racing, sponsor paint schemes can be forgotten as soon as the next one arrives. This one endured because it felt like a proper meeting of worlds. Dolly Parton belonged to East Tennessee. Bristol belongs to East Tennessee. And for one Xfinity Series afternoon in 2019, the No. 2 Chevrolet carried both that connection and the expectation that the show ought to be fun.
Rest in peace, Dolly. All hail the Queen.
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