Tyler Reddick’s dry streak is finally over. After the NASCAR Cup Series took to Phoenix Raceway, the driver of the No. 45 Toyota reclaimed himself as a title contender.
“It’s been a long time,” Reddick said after winning the Freeway Insurance 500. “To go six months without getting it done was tough on the 45. But it was really cool in the fashion we did it. A big day for us in the Chase, a big day for Rockstar, first win with them on the car, which is awesome.”
Reddick, of note, entered Phoenix 114 points out. The triumph was subsantial for the No. 45 team, bringing 23XI Racing back into title contention with just three races remaining on the year. Reddick now sits 56 points behind championship leader Kyle Larson, who experienced a plethora of issues at the 1-mile oval on Sunday.
“We just had to keep showing up, stay focused on the details,” Reddick said. “We did a good job of just fighting through the things that we needed to work on today, just making the right calls at the right time.
“Many, many times throughout the year we’ve had things happen that in hindsight you wish you’d do differently. Today was an opportunity where it would have been very easy to say, man, two tires early really bit us, let’s not do that again. Billy [Scott, crew chief] stuck to what he knew was best, and we executed that at the end.”
Tyler Reddick’s Focus
Reddick had been struggling since he won his fifth race of the year at Kansas Speedway in May. After he got off to the best start of his career, he went on a rapid decline. Though Reddeick held onto the regular season championship lead through San Diego, he descended to as low as fourth before The Chase began.
Though Reddick still had top five pace in the spring, the summer proved to be tough for the No. 45 group, as reddick had six finishes of 25th or worse.
But Reddick has heated up in The Chase, with three top fives and four top 10s, including the Phoenix win.
“Week to week primarily, still just focus on trying to win races,” Reddick said. “If we can have a calm ‘Dega, get stage points, finish with a car in one piece, I think we’ll have another good points day. Then it will fall to Martinsville. Historically it’s not been a great place for us. I mean, I like the progression that we’ve made in the last year. I mean, yes, we hadn’t won on a short track yet, but we were able to check that box today. The work we made on just making our short track stuff better, me getting better as a driver.
“We just kept chipping away with the balance on our car. Put us in a spot to be able to capitalize in the end. Look ahead to Martinsville, I’m excited about it. I feel like I don’t say that too often about Martinsville. I’m always excited to learn and get better. Very excited to see what we’ll have there.”
Tyler Reddick’s Title Hopes
But is there hope that Reddick can dethrone Larson? Well, Reddick is taking it one week at a time. If he is getting his hopes up, he certainly isn’t letting others see it.
Talladega is certainly a kyptonite for Larson, and Martinsville is hit or miss for the No. 5 team, as it is for Reddick. But if Reddick can score stage points and have solid finishes in or around the top five, he could very well capture his first Cup title.
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