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Tyler Reddick arrived at the headquarters of 23XI Racing, Airspeed, early one day last week, before the sun was completely clear. Drive and notice Toyota no. 45 that he will drive this weekend at Darlington Raceway as he sat on the pristine arena-like turf, he did a double take.
Reddick had already channeled Tim Richmond with his paint job for the Darlington’s Throwback Weekend in May, but this new design transcends the greatness of a single sport and gives it a new look. On the hood, thanks to a new collaboration with Upper Deck, were the images of 23XI team co-owner and NBA legend Michael Jordan, golf superstar Tiger Woods and hockey immortal Wayne Gretzky
“I got to the store 6:30 or something, I walked in the door and I was looking at the car like, what? Like, wow, OK,” Reddick said. “I think I’m hallucinating. I mean, it was early in the morning, wasn’t it, like I hadn’t had my coffee yet. I look at the car, as if thinking: “Do I see something?” When a 23XI colleague who works at the shop assured him that his Darlington car was the real deal, Reddick said he would take it.
The expectations of “no pressure”, however, are in a different realm. “What could I have done to deserve this?” “I’m going to get out there and do something spectacular.” There is no direct comparison to hitting the winning shot in the NBA Finals, wearing the green jacket to the Masters, or lifting the Stanley Cup, but Reddick still has title aspirations in the season finale. regularly this weekend at the historic Darlington Oval.
He’ll be chasing the regular-season Cup Series championship and the trophy that comes with it, but he’s also eyeing the 15-point playoff bonus that could help him win the most important trophy on the line at the end of the season: Bill A Cup of France, awarded to the overall champion
His last outing at Darlington was a split decision, with one such mistake trapping him late in the race. Reddick puts his Toyota no. 45 on the pole and led 174 of the 293 laps of the Goodyear 400 in May, but a late-race crash and contact with the no.
Chris Buescher’s 17 puts them in contention for the win. That on-track collision — which paved the way for RFK’s Brad Keselowski to win — sparked a post-race backlash, with Reddick taking responsibility for the mistake in an effort to explain his point of view and calm the Buescher’s anger.
That 32nd place finish at Darlington still remains Reddick’s worst of the season and has been on his mind throughout the 2024 campaign.
Yes, I really want to look into the future and see where it will be scored. point “I would have taken second right away because I was going to Darlington and I didn’t have to worry about racing against 5 (Larson) or 9 (Elliott),” Reddick said. “You know, looking back, you always see things for what they are, but it’s definitely a learning moment, I feel like it’s been a year since that moment – here.
There is a lot to think about for me after this race. Obviously it’s all there and discussed between me and Chris, but beyond how we affect his race, for us and our team personally, I think … “At this moment – Reddick stopped for do some math, and his calculations on the fly were suspiciously close to accurate without the benefit of the score in front of him. He had collected 17 points by finishing fourth and first in the stage, and a second place result would mean a gain total of 52 points.
Instead, he scored only 22 points – a deficit that really kept the regular season title race closer than it wanted to be.” So I learned a lot from that moment and it’s benefited me since then,” says Reddick. but it’s definitely difficult when I go there because I’ve never won there. I feel like I had a car, an opportunity and a day… I had a few days where I was able to win here. Part of that confidence comes from Reddick’s experience here. His lap total at Darlington exceeds what the record books show, due to some early tests as his Xfinity Series career moved from Chip Ganassi’s operation to JR Motorsports, where he won his first series title. “I’m very familiar with it,” he says now. “I found the Darlington band very early.”
Larson, then with Ganassi in the Cup Series, was the driver of these first tests.
And while Reddick said he wondered why his teams kept coming back to Darlington to try instead of going to other tracks, he now says the experience has been a boon to his career. “I don’t know, since I’ve been in a Cup car, it’s always seemed to go well,” Reddick said. “And on top of that, we were doing NASCAR Next Gen testing, they asked me to test at Darlington in that car as well. So, again, I had the opportunity to do a lot of testing here, test for NASCAR here and really understand what it takes to go faster.”That makes it all the more surprising that Reddick has also visited Victory Lane on this bumpy road. He’s close, with three second-place finishes here – two in Cup and one in Xfinity – in his career.
The most recent was last year in the South 500, where he led 90 laps and finished second to Larson. “I had some painful second places there and a painful third place,” he said. Reddick, “It was good to know that we were super, super strong at Darlington.”.