NASCAR regular-season champ ready for LVMS race: ‘We have a great shot’

Tyler Reddick didn’t have the best start to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. In his first five races, he had four finishes of 20th or worse.

The regular-season champion was in danger of being eliminated in the Round of 12, but Reddick said he felt confident heading into Sunday’s race on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

It was an up-and-down day for Reddick, but he gutted out an 11th-place finish and advanced to the Round of 8 in the playoffs, which begins with the South Point 400 at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Reddick, driving the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, returns to Las Vegas after finishing second in the spring Pennzoil 400.

“The playoffs for us have been challenging in a lot of ways, but we’ve survived this far,” Reddick said Friday. “Everything’s right there. It’s in our control. We just need to go out and have a solid weekend.”

Reddick survived at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He won Stage 1, but fell to 37th in Stage 2 after being caught up in an Austin Dillon spin. That caused him to fall outside of the top eight in the playoff standings and put him in danger of being eliminated.

Reddick pitted late for four tires in the final stage and drove up to 11th place to move into the top eight, which kept his hopes for his first NASCAR title alive. His efforts earned him a post-race hug from 23XI Racing co-owner and NBA legend Michael Jordan.

“It’s important to be accepting of the moment,” Reddick said. “To some degree, it’s important for the moment to feel like a big one because it’s something you care about.”

Reddick is in his second year at 23XI Racing after replacing Las Vegas native Kurt Busch in 2023. Busch announced his retirement from full-time racing in 2022 after suffering a concussion.

Reddick enters Las Vegas with two wins this season. He had a strong stretch during the summer where he racked up seven top-five finishes and a win at Michigan to help him win the regular-season title.

“It took a lot of races, but it was really great for us to do that, stay committed to our goal and get (the regular-season title),” Reddick said. “It’s a long season and it’s easy to let the length of the schedule get to you, and we didn’t let it get to any of us.”

Reddick has five top-10 finishes in his last six races at Las Vegas and won a pole in 2022. He finished second to Kyle Larson in March after making a late charge.

Reddick said if his team can tap into the speed it had that weekend, he expects to contend again this week.

“We need to have some solid races and get back to what we’ve been doing all year,” Reddick said. “Everyone’s really motivated to get back (to Las Vegas) because it’s a really huge opportunity to be able to win and lock ourselves into Phoenix (for the Championship 4).”

A win at Las Vegas would lock Reddick into the Championship 4 for the first time in his career and give 23XI Racing, in its fourth year of existence, a chance to win its first NASCAR Cup Series title.

“From an outside perspective, this is the best we’ve been as a team thus far,” Reddick said. “We have a great shot this year and we’re looking to capitalize on that and get it done.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.