Denny Hamlin responds to whether Tyler Reddick, No. 45 team fumbled strategy in elimination race

Entering Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte ROVAL minus-29 points below the playoff cutline, Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 team prioritized winning the race. Reddick put himself in good position to do so, qualifying on the pole ahead of Shane van Gisbergen.

But as we’ve seen this season, beating van Gisbergen on a road course is an incredibly tall task. The Trackhouse Racing driver won by a margin of 15.160 seconds. Reddick finished 10th, and that wasn’t enough to get him through to the Round of 8. Denny Hamlin said that had Reddick known his competitors on the cutline were going to finish mid-pack, perhaps he would have prioritized picking up stage points instead of primarily going for the win.

“I don’t know exactly,” Hamlin said on Monday’s Actions Detrimental podcast. “This is Monday morning, so I don’t have all the information on that, but if you remember last week where everyone was saying must win, I was like, is it really? … I think at that point, maybe you probably play the race a little different because if he goes in there and he scores top three stage points in each stage… if he knew those cutline guys were gonna finish 20th, maybe you play it differently to say we’re gonna get max stage points.

“The only difference is he would have been more buried in Stage 3 which he was, which is why he finished where he finished. I think it was still gonna be difficult overall.”

Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace eliminated from playoffs at the ROVAL

Reddick missed out on the final transfer spot by 15 points. He had speed at the ROVAL, though not quite up to the level of van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson, and Christopher Bell.

“We didn’t make the progress we needed to, so we went long hoping for a caution and lost a ton of spots,” Reddick said after the race, via Frontstretch. “Maybe we could have chased points a little harder today but coming into this we played it the way we should have.”

Hamlin said that ultimately, the Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is where things went wrong for both Reddick and Bubba Wallace, who was also eliminated at the ROVAL. Both dug themselves a hole, one they were unable to get out of.

“This is easy conversation on Monday morning but at that time, I don’t know, do they think they have the pace? Maybe, he was leading early then SVG passed him, [Larson passed him],” Hamlin said. “… They just had a tough road ahead. New Hampshire did not go as 23XI planned or thought it would happen. That, unfortunately, put them in a massive, massive hole. Too much to try to overcome.

“Trying to beat SVG at this point — I just don’t think is realistic. It’s not like the guy had a couple tenths on the field, it’s a measurable amount and it’s a measurable amount because you know his teammates have the same thing and the results are wildly different. The teammates have roughly the same pace as everyone else.”