Reddick Comes Up Just Short Again On Chicago Streets

Tyler Reddick in action at the Chicago Street Course. (Peter Casey/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

CHICAGO – For two straight years, Tyler Reddick came close to winning on the streets of the Windy City.

In 2024, a driver’s error in the closing laps kept him from the trophy. This time, he didn’t make a mistake, but ran out of time all the same.

Reddick came home third in Sunday’s Grant Park 165, securing his second top five in as many weeks after a fourth place effort at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta.

It’s also his second road course podium of the NASCAR Cup Series season, after he was third at Circuit of the Americas in March. Sunday was a strong run, yes, but not the win he’s been searching for.

“Shane van Gisbergen was just a little too far ahead. When we did hit pit road on lap 56 and put on fresh tires, Kyle Busch got spun and a couple cars got spun on the restart and we were just in the wrong lane,” said Reddick. “We stacked up behind them, and a lot of the cars that ran the same strategy as we did finally fell behind.

“I lost time to the front cars trying to pass them as well as trying to pass the cars on the older tires. It’s just a part of chaos on a street course at the end, but I was really proud of our whole 23XI Racing team,” Reddick added. “This Jumpman Toyota Camry was really fast; we just needed that restart to go a little differently.

“I definitely think we had the pace to get to Shane. It was hard to say how much he was saving or not, but it felt good to have a shot of it.”

In recent weeks things haven’t been easy for Reddick, as inconsistencies from a lack of execution have kept the No. 45 out of victory lane all season. But after his Atlanta top five last weekend, his momentum continued in Chicago.

Reddick rolled off the hauler ninth in practice and qualified fourth on Saturday. Then, he gained 16 stage points, with third-place finishes in both stages during the race. Things began to align for the 29-year-old, as he posed one of the biggest threats to eventual race winner Shane van Gisbergen.

However, Reddick and fellow top 10 contender Alex Bowman were playing a different strategy. They both pitted for fresh tires off cycle from the other lead cars. Reddick came on lap 56, with 19 laps to go and restarted near 20th as he began his march back toward the front.

He worked his way up to 10th place, got past Bowman – who had come in five laps later on a similar tire strategy – and set his sights toward the top five.

But the sand in the hourglass for his first win of the season began to run thin. Reddick had better tires than Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, and van Gisbergen, but having to pick each car off one by one took chunks of time away.

He managed to get all the way up to third, behind Gibbs before his run stalled and van Gisbergen’s lead became too much to overcome.

“We kind of ended up in a tough spot there on the penultimate restart, I guess. Some of the cars were spinning – I can’t name them all but unfortunately, we kind of just got stuck in the wrong lane where I had to check up,” he said. “Those cars that were on the same tire strategy as I was got behind, so we just lost a bit of time there passing those cars back.”

In 2024 Reddick was chasing leader Alex Bowman for the win, but clipped the inside wall, which scrubbed time toward his pursuit. He finished second last year, and this year he ended up third.

Reddick has consecutive top three finishes in his last two Chicago starts, and while it’s unclear if NASCAR will return to the street course, he has made the most out of track’s three-year tenure.

“It’s great to finish third, but it’s for sure a bummer when you look at how much ground we made up. It’s really cool to bring this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry to Chicago and have it run on the home streets again,” Reddick continued. “ It’s been fun over the years and unfortunately, we just haven’t gotten the job done but we’ve shown a lot of speed pretty much every time we’ve been here.”

In the regular season points battle, Reddick climbed from sixth to fifth and now sits just 48 points back of series leader William Byron. That can be attributed to Reddick gaining 50 points in total on the day.

Now, the Corning, Calif., native will head home to his home state as the Cup Series heads to Sonoma Raceway. Reddick has qualified inside the top 10 in all four of his starts on the Golden State road course, and secured an eighth-place finish there last year with 23XI Racing.

While he still hasn’t found victory lane yet this year, Reddick sits 142 points above the playoff cut line. Although not there yet, Reddick is getting close to finding victory with seven races left in the regular season. His average finish on road courses in the Cup Series is now 12th place.

“We’re improving. We’ve always been able to come here and have a lot of pace certainly,” he noted. “It’s nice to be able to run that strong, but obviously we’re for sure chasing wins.”

Coverage of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Sonoma begins Sunday, July 13 at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on TNT Sports, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.