(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Tyler Reddick has had enough speed to win multiple NASCAR Cup Series races this season. However, execution remains another story.
Reddick had an opportunity to win last week at Michigan International Speedway before a loose wheel on the final stop of the day. Audibly upset, Reddick expressed his frustration over the radio toward his team.
A week before that, Reddick suffered a commitment line violation at Richmond Raceway. He sped in the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway but rebounded to finish sixth. A week before at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a crew member over the wall too soon sent him to the rear and resulted in a 27th-place finish. He also blew a corner and hit the tire barrier late in the Chicago Street Race.
Whether it be his fault or not, Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing team has had costly pit road problems in four of the last five races.
“It’s a part of the process. The team is young and building, and doing the things that they need to do,” Reddick said. “It’s just part of it. It can get frustrating at times for sure, as I’m sure that everyone heard, but we are working through it. We keep doing the difficult parts of it. It’s really difficult to win a race if you don’t bring fast race cars, and we’ve been bringing a lot of fast race cars – we will just keep putting ourselves in those positions and hopefully, we will grow on pit road and continue to learn from our mistakes.
“I’m not innocent either. I’ve made plenty of mistakes this year. I feel like I’ve cost our team two chances of winning from driver mistakes at Richmond and at Chicago Street Course. We all make mistakes. It’s part of it. We’ve got to learn from it and move on and we can’t repeat the mistakes.
“I think the best thing you can do is let it go, let it out. Worst thing you can do is sit on it and let it fester, right? If you are frustrated, I think there is a time and place. That situation – it is better just to get it out. Move on, debrief about [it] and get ready for a big week ahead in Indy.”
(Photo: Stephen Conley | The Podium Finish)
Before team execution became a bigger story this season, Reddick won the opening road course race at Circuit of the Americas in March. Three of his four Cup Series victories have come on road courses, including the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard last year with Richard Childress Racing.
His first Cup win came at Road America last July, just weeks before he announced the switch to 23XI. The plan was to originally join the organization in 2024, but after Kurt Busch’s concussion at Pocono Raceway, a seat opened up in 2023 and RCR bought him out.
However, the team is limping into the playoffs with their mistakes. Reddick has finished 28th or worse in six of the last nine races. He’s plummeted from seventh to 13th in points. His average finish is 17.5 despite an average running position of 13.1, which is ninth-best in the series.
The No. 45 team has cleaner races in mind with three events remaining in the regular season. Reddick will start second at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on the outside of Daniel Suarez.
“I never got to come experience a lot of racing here when I was younger – but I always watched, always paid attention,” Reddick said. “That Sunday earlier in the year when Monaco is on, Indy is on and then we go race the 600 is probably one of my favorite days of the year to be able to watch so much motorsports. I hope to be able, one day, to be here for it all on that Sunday in the future.
“This is just an incredible venue. It has been around for so long. It has so much history. It is pretty crazy to roll up on this place. My son (Beau) pointed out that I’m on the grandstands over here. It’s pretty surreal. I remember so much of it – those memories will always stay with me.
“It didn’t seem real in the moment when it happened last year, but the trophy is real. I hope to be able to do it again.”
