Tag: Tyler Reddick

How 23XI’s latest win was a win for all of NASCAR

Michael Jordan stood among the crowd in Tyler Reddick’s pit box cheering, fist-pumping and high-fiving those around him. At one point he took hold of Reddick’s son, Beau, and asked the youngster if he was going to celebrate, and in victory lane, …

Michael Jordan stood among the crowd in Tyler Reddick’s pit box cheering, fist-pumping and high-fiving those around him. At one point he took hold of Reddick’s son, Beau, and asked the youngster if he was going to celebrate, and in victory lane, Jordan gave a rare television interview to Fox Sports.

Sunday was not the first time Jordan, the co-owner of 23XI Racing, was at a NASCAR race. He has sat atop the pit box many times and has been to more races than many folks realize, but he tries to stay as under the radar as a 6’ 6” legend, recognized the world over, can stay.

But there was no hiding after Reddick’s dramatic victory in the final run to the finish in the GEICO 500 when the leader crashed in front of him. Reddick kept his foot to the floor, missed the spinning Michael McDowell, and surged past Brad Keselowski to be the first one to the finish line.

It was the sixth victory for 23XI Racing, which is in its fourth season. However, it was the first time Jordan was in attendance for a victory. And it didn’t take long for all those aforementioned celebratory moments Jordan participated in to start making the rounds on social media and television.

23XI Racing won the race. NASCAR won the day.

Jordan’s interview with Jamie Little of Fox Sports has been viewed over 33,000 times on NASCAR’s official YouTube page. The same interview had another 28,000 views on the NASCAR on Fox YouTube page. Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, which features two of the most well-known and respected voices in sports media, spent time showing highlights of the Talladega race and discussing seeing Jordan celebrate with his team.

Jordan is very much hands-on as an owner. James Gilbert/Getty Images/NASCAR Media

A quick Google search of “Michael Jordan” under the News tab will show that Sports Illustrated, the Chicago Sun-Times, Fox News, Front Office Sports, Daily Mail Online and Sports Business Journal (just to name a few) all had content about Jordan being at Talladega. A search of “Michael Jordan” on X (formerly Twitter) also produces plenty of mentions and videos of him from Sunday afternoon.

Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson reposted a NASCAR tweet and congratulated his “good friend” and 23XI Racing on the victory. Johnson has 5.2 million followers.

“23XI is very important to this sport, absolutely. If we could get everyone to see that as much as we do,” Denny Hamlin laughed about Jordan’s presence at Talladega bringing attention to the sport. “It is – it’s good for everything you can imagine. You’re talking sponsorship, your manufacturers, your team morale. It’s just so good, and it is in so many different ways.

“Certainly, you’d like to have more of these opportunities happen more and more often because they’re all of equal importance, and they all make you feel just as good. So, you definitely want to savor them.”

Within the industry, a lot of focus in recent weeks has been on the short-track package, disappearing scoring pylons and saving fuel on superspeedways. All three of those topics haven’t necessarily been positive.

But to a larger audience, one of the sporting world’s most recognizable figures – who sometimes is simply referred to as the GOAT – was seen celebrating a win and talking about how much he loves NASCAR. There is no denying the eyeballs such a thing draws and how that is a good thing for the sport.

The greatest part of it all is how genuine it was from Jordan. A lifelong NASCAR fan who has attended races in the past, Jordan’s friendship with Hamlin led to one of the most surprising ownership partnerships in the garage. And don’t be fooled, Jordan is actively involved in the race team and is well aware of everything that goes on. 23XI Racing wasn’t something that looked good for Jordan to have in his portfolio.

“That’s just pretty cool,” Billy Scott, Tyler Reddick’s crew chief, said of having Jordan finally see a win in person. “An honor that we got the first win with him being here, and I’m glad he was able to be here for one and doesn’t think it’s a curse to come or something because there’s certainly been some (races) go the other way.

“Just to see his excitement, it’s interesting. He is a study of the sport. I was talking to him before the race, and he watches every Truck race, every Xfinity race, every Cup race just trying to learn and understand what we’re going through and figure out how he can help from the owner’s side. It’s impressive and just to see the excitement on his face that’s what I enjoyed.”

The fruits of winning a NASCAR race – money, attention, ROI, postseason implications, etc. – go a long way for a race team, and 23XI Racing will be enjoying those for a while to come. But the immediate aftermath, meaning the news cycle of the week, is going to be just as kind to NASCAR.

Tyler Reddick talks about shocking win at Talladega in April 2024

Tyler Reddick talks about his shocking win at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2024. Find out what Reddick had to say about his victory!

[autotag]Tyler Reddick[/autotag] had the perfect pit strategy to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, but he needed a little luck to enter victory lane. Reddick won the GEICO 500 at Talladega after Michael McDowell threw a bad block on Brad Keselowski. The No. 45 car missed McDowell coming up the track and soared past Keselowski after he lost momentum.

Following the event, Reddick expressed his excitement about the victory, which marked the 23XI Racing driver’s first superspeedway victory in the Cup Series.

“Man, it’s incredible,” Reddick said. “Everyone on this 45 Toyota Camry worked really hard today. Didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position. Was that crazy, guys? Was that crazy, fans, huh? That was chaos. That’s Talladega for you.

“Yeah, just got to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr.. It was just us Toyotas left, and they pushed me with everything they had. So here’s credit to Martin and Ty. Without those pushes, we don’t win this race.”

Reddick almost won the Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, but a late-race caution ruined his efforts. The No. 45 team has been very fast to start the 2024 NASCAR season and winning at a superspeedway shows they can win anywhere now. Reddick can now focus on the playoffs and earning more points to give himself a better position.

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Michael Jordan celebrated Tyler Reddick’s Talladega win by picking up the NASCAR driver’s son

Michael Jordan was SO happy.

Michael Jordan, as we all know, is the most competitive. 

And when he wins? We know he’s overjoyed. But in the five times his team, 23XI Racing, has won a NASCAR race, he hasn’t been in attendance.

As for No. 6? On Sunday, his driver, Tyler Reddick won at Talladega, and you can imagine how happy he was in the moment.

“Everybody tells me when we win, we can have a good celebration,” Jordan told Fox Sports after the win. “But this is the first time I’ve been here. And to my wife and my kids and everybody — yeah, we did it!”

RELATED: NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie’s car crossed the Talladega finish line on its side and flipped after a huge wreck

How happy was he? He picked up Reddick’s son and chatted with him before meeting up with the driver:

Reddick drives through big trouble to win at Talladega

Tyler Reddick prevailed in a typically-frantic Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway run to the checkered flag Sunday in the GEICO 500 NASCAR Cup Series race, narrowly avoiding a multi-car crash in the closing 400 yards – coming from third place out of …

Tyler Reddick prevailed in a typically-frantic Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway run to the checkered flag Sunday in the GEICO 500 NASCAR Cup Series race, narrowly avoiding a multi-car crash in the closing 400 yards – coming from third place out of Turn 4, to earn the win by a slight 0.208s when race leader Michael McDowell crashed trying to block competitors approaching the finish line; McDowell’s move slowing the bottom line and allowing Reddick in the high lane to motor through to his first victory of the year and sixth of his career.

So pumped to claim this win, the 28-year old Californian climbed the grandstand fence, pumping his fist to the screaming, adoring crowd while one of his 23XI Racing team owners, NBA legend Michael Jordan celebrated on pit lane, taking Reddick’s young son Beau in his arms and grinning from ear-to-ear. This was the first time Jordan had been at track when his team won a race.

 

“Man, it’s incredible,’’ said Reddick, who led 13 laps on the afternoon. “Everyone on this No. 45 Toyota Camry worked really hard today. Didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position.

“Was that crazy guys?’’ he yelled toward the cheering grandstands. “A lot of chaos. That’s Talladega for you.’’

“I just have to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex, it was just us Toyotas left and they pushed me with everything they had. Without Martin and Ty and those pushes we don’t win this race.’’

The final few laps pitted a low line of Fords – the manufacturer trying to earn its first win of 2024 – and a high line led by the Toyotas. McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner anticipated a huge run from the cars behind, but conceded later that he was just a little late making the block.

The contact when he pulled down to Roush Fenway Keselowski driver Brad Keselowski sent McDowell’s car off track. Keselowski was still able to recover and finish second – his second straight runner-up finish this season. Afterward, McDowell apologized to Keselowski for essentially costing the former series champion a win with the move.

“We did a good job keeping those Mustang Dark Horses up front,’’ said McDowell, who led a race best 36 laps. “He [Keselowski] did everything right. He pushed me. I was able to get in front of him the first time but when I came back down I barely wasn’t clear. I’ll have to watch the replay. I hate it. I hate it we didn’t make it to the finish line. We had such a fast mustang today. … just came up short and took a lot of guys out and I apologize.’’

The race ending was in stark contrast to the early portion of the event. For the first time since NASCAR instituted “stage racing” in 2017 there were no caution periods through the opening two stages (other than the scheduled stage breaks).

McDowell won the pole position and as promised all weekend, was set to race strategically not forcing his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford to the front all day but instead when it needed to be there. There was a lot of hope that Ford would secure its first win of the year Sunday and two of the Mustangs – driven by Austin Cindric (Stage 1) and Joey Logano (Stage 2) – swept the stage victories early in the race.

But as is so often the case, a late race restart — with 27 laps remaining — set the tone for the finish with McDowell leading the bottom line and Fords stacked up behind him. Reddick led the high line with Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. behind him. McDowell and Reddick exchanged the lead 10 times in that final 27-lap stretch to the trophy – indicative of a day when there were 23 race leaders and 73 lead changes, including New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen’s first NASCAR Cup Series laps out front on an oval (three laps).

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It was an exhaustive and exhilarating afternoon depending on what side of the finishing order you came out on. All the drivers – including several collected in the multi-car race ending crash – confirmed they were okay.

“Well, [team co-owner] Denny [Hamlin] keeps saying I’m bad luck,’’ Jordan said, ”And today we proved him wrong.

“The whole team did a good job,’’ he continued. “I’m very happy to be here to see it. Everybody always tells me when we win we have a good celebration but this is the first time I’ve been here [for a win].

“As you know this is NBA playoffs right now and to me, this is like an NBA playoff game. I am so ecstatic for the fans who support the sport itself. You know we’ve been working hard trying to get ourselves to compete against all the top guys in this sport, and we’ve done a heckuva job just to be where we are and for us to win and win a big race like this it means so much to me and effort the team has put in.

“I’m all in. It replaces a lot of competitiveness I had in basketball, but this is even worse because I have no control. If I was playing basketball, I’d have total control, but I have no control and live vicariously through the drivers and crew chiefs. I’m very happy for 23XI – 110 percent.’’

Hamlin, who finished 37th after being collected in a crash, smiled upon hearing Jordan’s elation and Beau Reddicks’ cool celebration with the legend.

“Beau has no idea of the significance of that moment,” Hamlin said.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Noah Gragson finished a career best third, followed by JTG Daugherty’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman.

Anthony Alfredo, who led four laps, finished a career best sixth place for Beard Motorsports. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron was seventh, followed by Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland, Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley and the Wood Brothers’ Harrison Burton.

Despite a 20th place finish Sunday, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson leads the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings by 16 points over Truex, who was 11th Sunday.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s Wurth 400 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Truex is the defending race winner.

RESULTS

Tyler Reddick talks about heartbreaking race weekend at Texas in 2024

Tyler Reddick talks about his heartbreaking race weekend at Texas in 2024. Find out what Reddick said after coming up short of the victory!

[autotag]Tyler Reddick[/autotag] had the best race car during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in the Final Stage, but it wasn’t meant to be for him. Reddick entered pit road for his final green-flag pit stop of the day with a massive lead and left in second place after a long stop by the No. 45 team. The 23XI Racing driver eventually finished in fourth place after several restarts.

Following the event, Reddick talked about his heartbreaking finish at Texas after having the best car late in the race. Obviously, there was frustration after the 18-second pit stop and failed restarts in the Final Stage.

“We had control of the restart that mattered, and we didn’t execute,” Reddick said. “Just kept focusing on the wrong things. All day long, I’d been really aggressively blocking the car behind going me into Turn 1, and it really hurt us going into the center of Turn 2. Just made bad adjustments at the wrong time, and we gave away the race.”

If things had gone Reddick’s way, he could have won NASCAR’s only two 1.5-mile races at Texas and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 45 car was one green-flag run away from entering victory lane for the first time in 2024. Instead, Reddick will focus on maximizing his result at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, still looking for his first win of the year.

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Which NASCAR driver has the most wins at Circuit of the Americas?

Which NASCAR driver has the most wins at Circuit of the Americas? Check out who tops the list in Austin, Texas!

NASCAR doesn’t have a long and storied history with Circuit of the Americas, but it has put on some great races dating back to the 2021 season. Since that point, the NASCAR Cup Series has only competed in three races. However, which NASCAR driver has the most wins at Bristol? The answer is not clear, as it is a three-way tie.

[autotag]Chase Elliott[/autotag], [autotag]Ross Chastain[/autotag], and [autotag]Tyler Reddick[/autotag] have one win at Circuit of the Americas, which makes them the most successful drivers at the track in NASCAR history. They each have won races in their own ways. Elliott won due to weather, Chastain won due to moving A.J. Allmendinger and Alex Bowman on the last lap, and Reddick won by pure domination.

Any driver can add their names to the list this weekend and make it a four-way tie for the top spot. If not, one of Elliott, Chastain, or Reddick can take a firm grasp on the lead spot. It will be fun to see who manages the road course the best on Sunday afternoon.

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23XI Racing reveals Tyler Reddick’s Mobil 1 paint scheme for 2024

23XI Racing reveals Tyler Reddick’s new Mobil 1 paint scheme for the 2024 NASCAR season. Check out Reddick’s new look for his No. 45 car!

[autotag]Tyler Reddick[/autotag] and [autotag]23XI Racing[/autotag] were so close to winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend. Reddick closed the gap to Kyle Larson but could not pass him in the closing laps. It was a disappointing ending for 23XI Racing, but it provided optimism. However, Reddick didn’t lose off the race track with a new paint scheme reveal.

On Wednesday morning, 23XI Racing revealed Reddick’s new Mobil 1 paint scheme for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway. The No. 45 car is sharp and doesn’t have too much going on with the design. Sometimes, simplicity is good, and on this occasion, the simplistic design gives Reddick a very sharp look.

Reddick, Mobil 1, and 23XI Racing hope the No. 45 car finishes one position higher at Phoenix this weekend. It was an excellent run for Reddick at Las Vegas, but the organization’s expectations are high entering the 2024 season. Reddick and 23XI Racing have the speed to make it happen, as Mobil 1 hopes to be in victory lane.

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Tyler Reddick expresses major frustration after loss at Las Vegas in 2024

Tyler Reddick expresses major frustration after his loss at Las Vegas in 2024. Find out what Reddick said about the mistakes on pit road!

[autotag]Tyler Reddick[/autotag] had a really good car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but it wasn’t enough. Reddick came up just short of Kyle Larson despite a late charge at the end of the event. The good thing for the 23XI Racing driver is that he displayed great speed at a track where he hadn’t finished in the top 5 spots in the NextGen car.

Reddick got out of the No. 45 car disappointed, and it was easy to tell that he was frustrated. In his interview, the 28-year-old driver talked about the closing laps and expressed frustration over the challenges throughout the day.

“It’s the name of the next generation game, right?” Reddick said. “You get the lead, you’ve got to hold on to it. Yeah, [Kyle Larson] did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap. Yeah, he seemed pretty good in the middle, and I was obviously really good on the bottom. He just never let me have it. I kept trying to run higher and higher and he was kind of running right in the middle of the racetrack there, was kind of pretty efficient to block both lanes.”

“Every time I kind of got close, we’re running just wide open enough in Turn 1 and 2 that he could kind of defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never up front really all day long until it got to the stage end. We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry and just stupid mistakes on pit road. Same shit, different year. It’s kind of frustrating. We’ll continue to work on it, but a good rebound for our team today.”

Reddick was frustrated with coming up short and his pit crew, which didn’t have a great day. However, NASCAR is a team sport, and Reddick understands that everyone needs to be perfect to win races in the Cup Series. Reddick came up just short at Las Vegas; however, the No. 45 team hopes for a near-perfect effort at Phoenix Raceway this weekend.

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‘I don’t like running second’ Reddick says after Vegas defeat

Tyler Reddick felt evenly matched with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he needed Larson to be the one in dirty air. Reddick’s 23XI Racing Toyota Camry was fast enough to chase Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet down over the …

Tyler Reddick felt evenly matched with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he needed Larson to be the one in dirty air.

Reddick’s 23XI Racing Toyota Camry was fast enough to chase Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet down over the final 10 laps, but he couldn’t do anything with him. Larson air-blocked Reddick and took away the options Reddick had to try to make a pass for victory in the Pennzoil 400.

“We were pretty evenly matched, so I don’t know if there was anything that I really could’ve done to get around him,” Reddick said Sunday after finishing second. “He would have had to make a big mistake or had some traffic kind of knock his wind around. I needed some fortune; I didn’t make any for myself today with mistakes on pit road.

“It’s a solid effort for our team. That’s how we need to run, but I don’t like running second.”

Reddick was over 1s behind Larson with 18 laps to go. He cut the gap to 0.5s with 13 laps to go and was on Larson’s bumper with three laps to go. Over the final laps, Reddick tried different lanes through the corners, hoping to stay out of Larson’s wake. Reddick mostly ran the high lane while Larson kept to the bottom or the middle.

The strategy of knowing he couldn’t follow Larson into a corner got Reddick to his back bumper, but then he could only follow Larson for the final two laps and even gave up trying to go to the high lane. Reddick said Larson took away all of his options.

“Sorry, guys,” a frustrated Reddick said over his team radio after the checkered flag. “We should have won that [expletive] race.”

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He was also frustrated by pit road. After finishing the first stage in second position to Larson, Reddick lost all of his track position (falling to 16th place) when he slid the front tires entering his pit stall, and the car angled to the left. It was an awkward position to try to exit his stall, and he needed to back up and straighten out before leaving pit road.

“I feel like we were never up front really all day long until it got to the stage ends,” Reddick said. “We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry. Just stupid mistakes on pit road. Same [expletive], different year. Kind of frustrating. We’ll continue to work on it, but a good rebound for our team today.”

Reddick finished second in both stages and the race. He started from the 18th position.

A caution in the final stage aided the rebound. Reddick closed the gap to 0.5s behind Larson with the drafting help of lapped teammate Bubba Wallace before a round of green flag pit stops with less than 60 laps to go. But Reddick cycled out over 2s behind Larson and was 1.5s behind when the final caution flew with 33 laps to go.

Reddick came off pit road third and lined up behind the No. 5 on the inside lane for the restart. When his initial charge to the inside was blocked by Larson going into Turn 1, Reddick settled into third position before making his way around Ross Chastain for second place with 21 laps to go to be able to focus on chasing Larson for the victory.

“Second sucks, that’s for sure, but we had a really fast Nasty Beast Toyota Camry,” Reddick said. “We should have been up there battling even more than we were throughout the day; just put us behind, unfortunately. We had to fight back through that all day [and] as the field got better, it got harder to get back to the front as quick.

“You have to run up front all day long and when asked about what we need to do to get better, that’s the very thing, and didn’t do it today.”

When asked when the sting would wear off, Reddick said, “It won’t.”

Reddick drawing strength from a winning Duel that ‘wasn’t really a great race for us’

Despite winning the first Daytona 500 Duel of his Cup Series career Thursday night, Tyler Reddick had an unusual take on it afterward. “It wasn’t really a great race for us, to be honest with you,” said the 23XI Racing driver after climbing out of …

Despite winning the first Daytona 500 Duel of his Cup Series career Thursday night, Tyler Reddick had an unusual take on it afterward.

“It wasn’t really a great race for us, to be honest with you,” said the 23XI Racing driver after climbing out of his No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry.

In fact, Reddick had a point. After starting the 60-lap race from a lowly 19th qualifying position, the Californian was forced to fight his way to the front of the 21-car field. A near miss entering pit road nearly did Reddick in, but he saved the best for last — running fifth on the outside on the last lap, he sped through to cross the finish line 0.056s ahead of race runner-up Chase Elliott. Reddick will now start the Daytona 500 from P3 inside the second row.

“Yeah, a lot went on during that race,” said Reddick “I mean, it was a bit of a chaotic restart finish for myself. The green flag cycle didn’t really go as planned, but pretty much from the time we left pit road to the race end, it was much more of a race that we needed. We were able to drive back through most of the field and get somewhat back to the front. From there and with the caution falling the way it did, I ended up choosing the outside line and all of that just worked out really well. I was trying to get the No. 77 [Carson Hocevar] and the No. 9 [Chase Elliott] going and thankfully when they finally got hooked up, it was on the last lap and it left me an opportunity to get to the No. 5 and clear him on the back straightaway.”

The close call for Reddick came on lap 51 when a caution flag was waved and sent the lead pack of cars scrambling toward pit road.

“Yeah, that was almost really bad news,” he said of the close call. “I could have wrecked probably about three or four different times there. I didn’t, so I’ll take that! I definitely used some luck up right there, but we were able to hold onto the car and then from there, we didn’t lose anyone. Us four Toyotas were able to get together and push well together, so that was beneficial.”

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When the white flag flew on lap 59, Reddick was slotted-in at fifth place. Off Turn 2, Elliott and Hocevar dove to the bottom of the track, thus allowing Reddick to push Kyle Larson and himself clear.

“Yeah, this brand-new Toyota Camry does seem really good,” said Reddick. “We didn’t qualify where we wanted, obviously, but pretty much everything else so far this weekend out of the car has been fantastic. We look at that as something that excites me going to Atlanta next weekend, and obviously on top of that, the other racetracks that we have coming up on the schedule where downforce matters so much.

“The car pushes really good, that was exciting for me. I could be aggressive with my pushes all night long, so that is a really good thig to have right out of the gate. When we go into the 500 that is going to really matter. Having that confidence is important. The car was predictable. It wasn’t dancing around a lot. All of that sort of stuff is really important when you’re working the air.”

Push to pass? Reddick was encouraged by the way his No. 45 handled the pack during his Duel. Motorsport Images

For now though, Reddick is still basking in the glow of his first Daytona 500 Duel race win.

“Yeah, it was a cool moment,” he said. “I’ve got a win here in the Truck [Series] and in the Xfinity car and to win a Duel race here in the Cup car is really cool. Obviously, winning the July Daytona race, or the summer race would be really great. Winning the Daytona 500 would be incredible. To park a Cup car in victory lane here was nice. I’ve been absent from victory lane here at this place for some time, so it was nice to be back up front.

“Obviously there is 500 miles and 200 laps and a lot can take place on Sunday, but to have a good starting position like we earned [Thursday], and to have a good pit stall selection is all going to be really beneficial for us. We’ll have a great pit stall for the race. It should be good for us whether that’s for the green flag cycle or just having an opening-in and an opening-out. Some of those things matter a lot in a race like this where we will have green and yellow flag pit stops. Especially on those caution stops. When everyone is coming down pit road, it gets really chaotic. Having a clear path in and a clear path out really helps eliminate some of the errors that can take place and can ensure that you have efficient time on pit road.”

Reddick knows race day will be hyped to the hilt from the start.

“This is probably one of the earliest mornings that we have on the year and we are running around doing media and all of that sort of stuff. We have appearances and meet-and-greets,” he noted. “Between all of that and just the size of the crowd, the atmosphere, the hype, the energy that the fans bring, it really is kind of a bad formula for the drivers because we get strapped into the car and we’re ready to run through a brick wall in getting our 500-mile race started.

“A lot of times you will see chaos early because of that. We get so amped up from seeing the gigantic crowd that is here at the race. It all gets everyone really amped up and that’s I think we see a lot of accidents in this race, too. A lot of times at this race the biggest celebrities will be here as well as athletes from different sports. Legendary people come to this race and it gets everyone fired up.”

Reddick and 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace need little amping up after the promise the team showed in the Duels.

“We’re feeling good after Thursday night,” Reddick agreed. “Bubba didn’t get the finish he wanted to, surely, but he was able to avoid complete disaster and not getting into the inside wall during his spin. So thankfully the team avoided catastrophe there. Between my car and Bubba’s car, we’re both really happy with the handling of our Camrys. The rest of the Toyota group of drivers seem pretty happy with what they have, too.

“The Duel was good to get out of the way, and we got some validation of the hard work everyone at Toyota and TRD have done on this new Camry. It was cool to see the car perform like it did. Bring on the race!”