NASCAR star Tyler Reddick nearly named his son after a Star Trek character

Tyler Reddick on Twitter

Big-time sports stars coming out as Star Trek fans is becoming a bit of a thing. Back in September, All Elite Wrestling’s Cody Rhodes wore Star Trek command red at their All Out pay-per-view event. And yesterday, a piece from NBC Sports revealed that NASCAR champion Tyler Reddick is a fan...so much so that he nearly named his son after a Star Trek character.

After Saturday’s Xfinity championship race in Miami, Florida, Reddick told NBC Sports that it was a double win: the championship win meant that he also won a friendly bet with his girlfriend, Alexa De Leon, over the name of their unborn son. He wanted “Beau”, but she wanted “Ryker”. De Leon had found the name on the internet, but Reddick was sold on it: “Every time I hear the name, I think of that character,” he said, referring to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Commander Riker.

Reddick attributes his love of Trek to long days on the racing circuit. “I would travel on the road dirt racing or whatever,” he said. “I would sit on Netflix and watch all of the series, kind of in the order they’re supposed to come out. There was about a year straight...that’s all I watched when I was at the house.”

Reddick had his reservations about naming his son after a Star Trek character, though, so in the end, it was a good thing they went with Beau. He said, “I don’t know, I’m worried people are going to pick on me for naming my son after a Star Trek character. As crazy as it sounds, it was one of the reasons I didn’t like the name Ryker, because I watched Star Trek so much.”

Reddick also told NBC Sports that his favorite Star Trek captain is Captain Picard. “It’s gotta be Picard,” he said. “He’s smart, he went about things differently and thought a different way. He’s a very, very good character.” And it’s a good thing, too: Beau Reddick is due to be born in January of next year, just before the premiere of Star Trek: Picard on January 23rd.