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There have been some questions about Tyler Reddick’s future at RCR in the wake of his announcement that he will go to 23XI Racing in 2024. Richard Childress has shut the NASCAR rumors down by confirming that Reddick will be back in the No. 8 Chevrolet.
“Well, after they made their announcement, I met — I thought about it a lot that night, gave it a lot of thought, and it’s more than just about one person,” Childress said during the post-race media availability on July 31. “It’s about a team. Stayed up most of the night thinking about what I should do, how I wanted to handle it.
“I went in the next day and told the whole team it wasn’t a perfect circumstance the way it went down, but we’re going to give it everything we’ve got this year, and we’ll see where we go next year.”
The comment of “see where we go next year” caught the attention of NBC reporter Nate Ryan, who followed up with a question about Reddick’s contract status. Childress responded and confirmed that the two-time Cup Series winner will be back in the No. 8 Chevrolet.
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Post-Race Comments Prompted the Reddick Questions
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GettyRichard Childress (right) made multiple comments about Reddick’s departure.
Childress, understandably, faced questions about his relationship with Reddick after the driver of the No. 8 won his second race of the year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The context is that Childress had compared Reddick’s announcement to one made by Kevin Harvick back in 2012.
“So Kevin Harvick and I talked through his whole deal, and we made a joint announcement,” Childress told NBC Sports reporter Parker Kligerman. “He won four races that year, and we almost won the championship. This one didn’t happen like that.”
While Childress voiced some displeasure with his post-race comments, he also took time to talk about Reddick’s potential. He said that the No. 8 team has “a heck of a shot” to win the Cup Series championship after two wins in one month.
The Win Proved Something for RCR
GettyThe No. 8 team celebrates a win at IMS.
The win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was meaningful for many reasons. For Reddick, it secured his spot in the playoffs and added even more playoff points to his total. For RCR, it showed that the team is competitive once again.
Childress addressed this topic during his post-race presser. He said that the team has been in business and that the lights have been on in the building. However, he noted that RCR hasn’t been particularly competitive. Reddick’s two wins in the month of July have changed that conversation.
Finally, the win had some extra meaning for the No. 8 team. Crew chief Randall Burnett and all of the team members have spent the past couple of weeks dealing with the aftermath of Reddick’s announcement about 23XI Racing. There were questions about how they would handle the news, but they shut down the doubts.
“I mean, obviously, any win feels special,” Burnett said during the post-race availability. “I think it’s just a hats-off to our guys. To be able to be big enough and put that behind them and go out there and do the job at hand, and that’s what we can do best. That’s what we’ve got to do going forward.
“I think it shows the resilience of this team, the dedication by everybody on this team to be able to step up at a big place like here and not have any mistakes today and everybody pull together and get to the common goal, I think that speaks a lot for this 8 team.”
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