23XI Seeking Needed Return To Title-Contending Form

Tyler Reddick (45) and Bubba Wallace are both hoping to return to NASCAR Cup Series victory lane with 23XI Racing this season. (Rusty Jarrett/NKP for Toyota Racing photo)

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – If 23XI Racing showed the stock car world something last year, it’s that for 2025, they looked to be ready to contend for NASCAR Cup Series titles.

However, halfway through the season following a Championship 4 appearance by Tyler Reddick, the organization’s performance across all three teams has slipped.

Last year, 23XI won three races, had 18 top fives and 35 top 10s combined from an emerging star in Reddick and one of the more popular names in the sport in Bubba Wallace. Over the winter, they added rookie Riley Herbst from the Xfinity Series, who was viewed as and still is a work in progress.

Amid having to compete each week, the organization has also made headlines on a near-weekly basis for their ongoing court battle with NASCAR over antitrust monopoly claims.

But on track, they have just seven top fives and 12 top 10s between Reddick and Wallace. Then with Herbst, he has fallen short of the top 10 thus far, despite leading his first lap of the season last Saturday at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta.

Although Reddick is sixth in points, Wallace holding the final playoff spot and with Herbst developing, the organization still hasn’t won this season through 18 weeks.

Their last win came at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in October of 2024 with Reddick. It’s the longest they’ve gone without winning a race in a season since it took Wallace 31 races in 2021, when he won his first career Cup Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

That’s not something that team co-owner Denny Hamlin is ultimately happy with, by any means.

“I just know (with) the resources that we’ve put in at 23XI, all of our drivers should win. That is the expectation that I have of them. Obviously, it is a result-based business … and if you don’t win over time, you consider your options,” said Hamlin during a recent media availability.

“Overall, I’ve seen enough progression … specifically from the No. 23 team and Bubba, that I can see where this can go,” added Hamlin. “Obviously him putting himself in a playoff position year after year is good, but winning makes it better. It makes it good for the team, and it makes it good for your sponsorships.”

Wallace last won a Cup Series race in 2022 at Kansas Speedway. Last year was a career year statistically for the Mobile, Ala., native, but he did miss the playoffs due to not finding victory lane.

To start 2025, he came on strong to begin the year with consecutive third place results at Homestead and Martinsville, but since April he’s struggled with consistency. Granted some of it is bad luck, but at the end of the day he’s fallen from near the top 10 in points to just 23 points above the cut line with eight weeks until the playoffs.

But it isn’t just the 31-year-old Wallace that has struggled recently. Reddick at Atlanta just captured his first top five since Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in May.

Adding to the organization’s recent shaky run, Herbst remains outside the top 30 in points.

“The progression is smaller, but growth is still happening with Riley Herbst as well. We started at the bottom of the cellar, and it is slowly but surely getting a little bit better. That is what I’m looking at as an owner, but certainly, I need all my cars to win at some point,” Hamlin continued.

“There are just too many resources, too many good people over there not to win more races, and certainly, I think we’ve underperformed as far as actually winning this year. We expect more, but for a lot of it we carry that burden.”

Being winless with eight weeks to go until the postseason, the road map toward success can be hard. The first factor, without considering any upcoming dates, is that there are only four spots left in the postseason field. Reddick is sixth in the overall points, but without a win he is 12th on the playoff grid.

Wallace has been an anchor toward the cut line, and with outsiders like Ryan Preece, the Legacy Motor Club duo continuing to impress, and wild card tracks coming up, he isn’t safe by any means.

The Cup Series heads the Streets of Chicago on Sunday, then continues a small road course stretch at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway the following week. While Wallace is an improved road racer from his rookie season in 2018, he has struggled at Chicago and Sonoma, with an average finish of 22nd and 24th, respectively.

Looking further out to Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway, Wallace hasn’t shown race-winning speed at either venue throughout his career. Then in August, there is a third road course before the fall in Watkins Glen (N.Y) Int’l, where his best result is 12th.

His best shots at clinging to his playoff spot and contending for a victory are likely at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Brickyard 400, where he has three straight top tens in the crown jewel, and then at Richmond (Va.) Raceway in August where he was fourth last summer.

“A third of the races Bubba has DNF’d in and he is still in the playoffs. He hasn’t even existed for a third of the races when it comes to finishes. I think it just shows how strong that they are, and what they are capable of doing,” Hamlin said.

For Reddick, he’ll need to find the speed he once had at road courses last season, like when he had four finishes of 11th or better turning left and right. He has an average finish of 12th at road races since 2022.

At Chicago last season he qualified fourth and finished second, which could lead to a positive weekend considering he’s coming off a fourth place result from a week prior in Atlanta.

Another track where the odds could be Reddick’s favor, like Wallace, is at Indianapolis. The Corning, Calif., native led 40 laps and was second to Kyle Larson at Indy last year.

23XI has talent and the capability to win races, but it’s all about execution now. For Reddick, he was in the title race last year and won the regular season championship, but is still hunting victory lane. Wallace is on his third crew chief at 23XI and his sixth in eight seasons.

Then for the rookie Herbst, completing all the laps and contending for the top 20s are moral victories in themselves at the halfway point in the season.

But the team that was supposed to take that next step toward becoming a championship organization hasn’t done so yet, though they still have time to turn it around.

Coverage of the Grant Park 165 in Chicago begins Sunday, July 6 at 2 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.