Reddick looking to carry Daytona momentum into Atlanta
Yesterday at 06:21 PM
23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick entered the white flag lap of the 2025 Daytona 500 in 13th place. In an overtime race finish that would see the requisite ‘big one’ amongst the lead cars on the backstretch of the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Reddick hustled the No. 45 Toyota through all the smoke to score a runner-up finish to Willaim Byron.
His best previous finish in the 500 was a 27th back in 2019 and 2021, and on that basis Reddick believes his 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is off to solid start.
"I mean it's really easy to get the year off to a bad start. In years past that is something I have definitely and unfortunately had happen to me," he said.
"So just getting through Daytona on the lead lap and driving the car back to pit road, regardless of where I finished, was a win. It was even more so a win that we finished where we did and got some good points out of the day.
“Me and this whole team have talked about this and just wanting to get off to a good start this year. That's something that I've never had in my career on the Cup level. I've never had a season get off to a good start. Obviously we'll be able to reflect on it more after three or four weeks. Typically I leave Daytona with five points or 10 points or 11 points and you just start behind on points. It's not like it's impossible to make up, it's just tough to start the year off behind. One race in, it's nice to be fourth in points. Now if we go to Atlanta and run good and finish good and survive, we should be able to maintain that position or improve it, so that's all we're trying to do. I would love to get through these first three or four races in the points lead because I feel like we are more than capable of maintaining it through the summer."
Never really a factor in the 500 leading into the third and final stage, Reddick was content to let the opening round of the season come to him, and adhered to his team's race strategy.
"Well, with the strategy they have to implement, you don't really want to mix it up at Daytona," said Reddick. "If you run up front the whole stage you just burn a lot of fuel. It's a gamble. If possible you just want to run as far back as possible without getting stuck in traffic, so it's a game that is kind of played by everybody.
“We made it work okay at Daytona in stage one. We finished eighth in stage one and got some stage points. In stage two our plan kind of fell apart and we bailed out of it. In stage three, we were in a good place, but when it came time to go, we just ended up around some cars that either didn't handle good or were very short of fuel, so we lost our track position that we fought so hard to maintain.
“You never want to just give up when you're running 15th to 20th, but I just knew it was going to happen. I knew they were going to wreck. I cold have been wrong, but typically they wreck. The last four years we've run the Daytona 500, they've wrecked. Pretty much every year they wreck at the end, so I bailed out of it and waited and they wrecked. It was a scary crash for Ryan Preece, but it wasn't the big wreck that I was thinking of happening. So when I lined up 16th in overtime, I didn't know where we were going to end up. But I didn't give the rest of the field that was left enough credit. They crashed later! We went through it."
With Atlanta next up on Sunday afternoon, Reddick foresees car handling and car control as big variables in the calculus.
"It's kind of a plug and play approach that you take to all the speedways," he said. "You want to run up front, but if you lead a lot, you're putting yourself in a bad spot if the cautions don't fall right. So Atlanta isn't quite like Daytona or Talladega. There is a little bit more field spread, so you try more to keep your track position.
“The Xfinity rubber at Atlanta always seems to give everyone fits. When we start the race, it is just being mindful of the lack of grip. The colder temperatures in Atlanta could shift that some, too. For us, once we know what our car is capable of, we just try and find a spot in the pack that if do get a green flag cycle, it will help us just manage everything and help with the time loss on pit road.
“Atlanta is kind of the same approach, but the items that you prioritize move around a bit. Here at this race, it is a speedway race, but handling comes into play almost every lap, so it's not completely like the other speedways that we have. It does make it fun when you have to hang onto that thing when it gets out of shape. And it will happen a lot this weekend at Atlanta."
Reddick feels good about the potential he and the No. 45 Toyota Camry SXE have for the coming weekend.
"In 2023 we really had good speed in Atlanta both times," he said. "We had a really good shot at winning this race two years ago. I just didn't make the move at the right time, so I got the move made on me. This past year in the spring I made it two laps and got wrecked, and in the fall race we actually ran okay. We were fighting and we pretty much brought a 15th place car to fifth place at the finish.
“I know that if we bring a good handling car that we're going to have the capability to win. I think our feeling is high. The marathon is about to start. It's already going. If you're not ready, it’s too late. As a team, 23XI Racing really performed on a high level last summer. We were over 100 points behind in May and we closed that down to zero. Yeah, if we can be that consistent through the summer again, I mean we're going to be in really good shape. I think while I 2024 wasn't the smoothest of years from stary to finish, we definitely learned a lot about ourselves that will set us up to have a higher ceiling this year, We have a lot racing between here and the playoffs, for sure, and that gives us a lot of time to capitalize on the speed we have and we're going to do everything we can to no let the competitors catch up to us at the tracks and track types that we really stand out at."
