Kevin Harvick expresses concern for Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick

If the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs started today, the 23XI Racing tandem of Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick would be among the 16-driver field. But based on their overall performance 17 races into the 2025 season, neither Wallace nor Reddick would be Championship favorites.

Reddick, the 2024 regular season champion, is winless and hasn’t had the raw speed he did a year ago. Wallace has struggled to finish, with six DNFs. FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick is concerned, he said on Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast.

“I would say there are some concerns about the 23XI speed in general,” Harvick said. “I don’t think Reddick has been as fast; I think Bubba started really well and has been kind of average in a lot of the most recent weeks. To me, the speed part from the 45 car is concerning to me. He’s done a good job with his experience in keeping cars in races and getting finishes out of them, but that overall raw speed — I haven’t seen it from either one of them in several weeks.”

Things are different for 23XI this season. 23XI expanded to become a three-car team in 2025, with Riley Herbst coming aboard to drive the No. 35 Toyota. Herbst has struggled to make the transition from Xfinity to Cup competition. All three cars had brake issues in this past Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway, resulting in finishes outside the top 30.

Denny Hamlin sounds off on brutal showing for Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick at Pocono

23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin isn’t sure what’s going on with his team. He called the current performance “painful” during Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

“I’m looking at 23XI versus JGR, saying, ‘What the hell.’ That’s what I’m looking at. I can’t compare different manufacturers, different stuff,” Hamlin said. “I can compare what I know our resources are, and I can’t say it’s speed. Maybe a little bit of it is speed, but both our cars were good in practice. The 23 was going to qualify well, the 45 did qualify well. It’s just other stuff. They cannot put together races. Like, from green to checkered. It’s not one person or one thing.

“Mechanicals just killed the 23 this week. Other people’s wrecks have killed the 23 over the last few weeks. Nothing he’s doing. What I really appreciate is Bubba Wallace’s attitude. I mean, a 180. Weeks like this, it would have to be full therapy mode in past years. But I really appreciate [his attitude]. It makes it so much easier for us to fix these problems while we’re not trying to fix an attitude problem as well. It just makes it easier. It’s on us to step up for him, at this point.”