Tyler Reddick, Billy Scott, and all 23XI Racing are, no doubt, scratching their heads after Kansas.
Despite finishing 11th in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, the No. 45 Rockstar Energy Toyota Camry XSE unloaded from the trailer as one of the slowest race cars in the 36-driver NASCAR Cup Series field, and with no practice or qualifying, the first laps on-track came when the green flag dropped.
For an organization like 23XI Racing, who have been consistently performing at a high-level and competing for top-five finishes with multiple entries this season, unloading this far off the pace, especially during the Chase, is nearly unheard of – and even more surprising when you consider Reddick and the No. 45 won at Kansas Speedway in the Spring.
By the end of Stage 1, Reddick, who at his worst, ran 34th, had climbed to 28th, as Billy Scott and crew continued to adjust try and get him back towards the front-half of the field. Through consistent work and making the right balance changes, Reddick was the best of three 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE’s at the end of Stage 2, in 13th.
At the car’s maximum capabilities, Reddick ran about sixth. His Average Running Position (ARP), per NASCAR’s Loop Data, was 29th, the worst (without incident) he’s had since 2024.
Even then, Reddick said after the race on Sunday, that he didn’t know if having a 50-minute practice session and qualifying would have fully fixed the problems that 23XI Racing and the No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE are having, right now.
“I mean, [practice and qualifying] definitely could have helped us in Stage 1 and Stage 2, but I don’t know if we could have gotten where we needed to be in the race this weekend, I don’t know, it’s just so crazy to be that bad.”
Doing it two weeks in a row, though? That’s a cry for help.
Last Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Reddick and the No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE took the green flag without posting a single lap on the half-mile racetrack all weekend – since, again, practice and qualifying were rained out – and just like Sunday at Kansas, the Corning, California-native plummeted through the running order.
Reddick finished three laps down, but managed to, somehow, salvage a top 20 finish. However, after three consecutive weeks of poor showings on track at Gateway, Bristol, and now Kansas, the two-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion finds himself seventh in points, 111 back of Kyle Larson.
“We got big problems,” Reddick said after Kansas. “We just got to figure our own shit out, right now, and not even be worried about that.”
The 30-year-old driver isn’t out of championship contention, mathematically, at 111 points behind Larson, but he’ll need to find some of that early-season magic, if he’s hoping to go to Homestead-Miami Speedway, one of his best tracks, with a shot at the title.
