Reddick Primed For Title Run After Regular Season Success

Tyler Reddick (Matthew Thacker/NKP for Toyota Racing photo)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Two years ago, Tyler Reddick took a bet on himself, hoping his move would pay off with long-term NASCAR Cup Series success.

His decision to leave Richard Childress Racing a year early out of his remaining contract to 23XI Racing both turned heads and left many wondering if it was the right change or a mistaken one.

It got expedited after Kurt Busch sustained a concussion in 2023 and was forced into an early retirement from full-time competition. Thus, what would’ve been his first season with 23XI this year became his second go-round.

In hindsight, Reddick’s shock decision has paid off handsomely.

His sophomore campaign with 23XI Racing has produced two wins, 11 top fives, a series-leading 18 top 10s, 473 laps led and a regular season championship – the first for both him and the organization co-owned by Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan.

His success this year has positioned Reddick to potentially make a deep run this postseason, as he pursues his first Cup Series championship in his fifth full-time campaign.

But Reddick also tipped that he’s unsure whether his performance this year means there’s additional pressure to follow up his regular season run. He just wants to finish the job.

“I don’t know if there is more pressure. Just as you get closer to Phoenix, I think it just builds naturally – the longer you are in it, the better shot you have, so you kind of have to understand the moment and you have to set-up and perform and execute each weekend,” he said during NASCAR Playoff Media Day earlier in the week.

“This first round presents its challenges, but there are 16 of us – all in this together – if one of us has a bad day, there will probably be three or four of us that will too,” Reddick added. “Hopefully, we can weather the bad days and just not have them – that has been our strong suit – when things happen around us and we miss it. We will just [have to] see how it goes.”

After winning the regular season points championship, Reddick may have to rely on the points cushion he’s received. He’s third in the standings entering the playoffs, with a 23-point margin over the elimination line starting the Round of 16.

But since the Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway reconfiguration, Reddick only has one top five in Georgia – which came last year – and his other four starts are finishes of 27th place or worse.

With Atlanta being a wild card, the playoff opener also presents a tight points battle. Only 11 points separate sixth-place Denny Hamlin from 16th-ranked Martin Truex Jr. in the standings. Reddick sits just 13 points ahead of Hamlin, meaning an early wreck could deflate his cushion early in the first round.

Tyler Reddick in action at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway in March. (John Harrelson/NKP for Toyota Racing photo)

With all that said, however, Reddick tipped he actually doesn’t view himself as the favorite for the title.

“Maybe the numbers show that, but I don’t think we are carrying ourselves around like we are the baddest group around,” he said.

“I think we just do a good job of each individual on the team doing their part throughout the week – we just show up to the racetrack and we have a good amount of focus, to where we do a really good job of getting the results that we need, even on the days that we have an issue.

“That has been a nice thing about this year, that a number of times – countless times it feels like – we have things not going our way and we have been able to fight through it to still get the results.”

Reddick and his No. 45 group will look to continue that at Atlanta this weekend, taking things one step and one day at a time.

“Winning the championship is the goal, but if you can just keep getting yourself to Phoenix and into that Championship 4, you are going to continue to put yourself in position for it to work out,” he noted. “At Phoenix in the beginning of the year, we started that race off, and I felt like we were the best car, and Christopher Bell just figured it out and came to life in the second half of the race and ran away with it.

“I feel like we are close, and we can learn from what they did, and certainly, a few days removed from that race at the beginning of the year, I have a good mindset of where we need to be coming back. It’s just the first step on our road to try and win the title this year.”

The Quaker State 400 available at Walmart is slated for Sunday, Sept. 8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Broadcast coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.