Tyler Reddick competes for the NASCAR Cup Series championship Sunday at Phoenix Raceway with added attention.
Reddick competes for 23XI Racing, one of the race teams involved in an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR. Given that situation, there’s a potentially intriguing visual of NASCAR having to present Reddick and team owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan with the championship trophy.
Add in that the team found out Friday the preliminary injunction request had been denied by the courts. There will be an appeal. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsport are asking to race as charter teams next season but without giving up their rights to sue NASCAR.
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“I haven’t really had to try to block it out; it pretty much came naturally with what lays ahead of us,” Reddick said of blocking out the outside world this week. “They’ve got a team of people that are taking care of that. I’m taking care of what I can do as the driver. Yeah, it hasn’t been difficult at all to not think about that stuff.
“I didn’t really have to tell myself to ignore it because I’m so locked in on this week, the trophy (sitting) over there, all the banners and signage. We know what we’re racing for, so it’s been very easy to stay focused.”
Reddick and the No. 45 team have been locked into the championship race since winning at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 27). It has given the team and the driver, who won the regular season championship, added time to prepare for the finale.
“I think there’s a point where we can almost overdo it when it comes to an oval, but I feel like we’ve had a good balance,” Reddick said. “We worked really, really hard as soon as we left this race in the spring of going back to Airspeed and post-race scaling this tire and it left us in a really good spot for coming back to it when it came time to get ready for this championship.”
Sunday is Reddick’s first chance at a Cup Series championship. It is his second season driving for 23XI Racing.
However, he is not unfamiliar with a championship battle. Reddick is a two-time Xfinity Series champion — albeit having won when the finale was still at Homestead-Miami Speedway — with experience in the elimination format. Those memories are strong for Reddick going into the weekend.
“I feel like I’m right there, mindset-wise,” Reddick said. “It’s hard to think back and remember all the exact little details of it. But just how I felt going into those two Championship 4s, it feels like I’m really close, if not in the same place, mentally going in.”