NASCAR insiders sound off on Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace playoff eliminations at Charlotte

23XI Racing saw both of its drivers eliminated in the Round of 12, as Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace fell short of advancing to the Round of 8. They couldn’t get the job done in a must-win scenario at the Charlotte ROVAL.

On the latest episode of The Teardown, NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi broke down what went wrong for both teams. It was a mixed bag of a season with some major bright spots, but neither could keep their playoff run alive.

“You need a little bit of luck — sometimes they didn’t get it — but they still put themselves in position,” Bianchi said, regarding Reddick’s elimination. “That’s kind of been the totality of their season, right? Good, but not good enough. Close, but not able to get across that finish line.

“They were in the mix at times this year. They were in the top five at various points, and it felt like they were on the cusp of what we saw from them a year ago. But they were just missing a little bit — and that’s the difference between moving on and not.

“You look at bonus points, playoff points, and all the other little things — they didn’t capitalize on those this year compared to last season. And so, yeah, you can look at today’s race, or even the whole playoff picture: you go to Loudon and finish 21st, then Kansas and finish seventh. Kansas was good — should’ve been better. But you can’t finish 21st at Loudon and expect to advance. It’s tough, but at the end of the day, they just weren’t good enough.”

While Reddick failed to reach Victory Lane this season, Wallace did manage to score one of the year’s most memorable wins at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis. He also nearly pulled off another in the playoffs at Kansas. That led to Bianchi’s evaluation being a little more optimistic when speaking on Wallace’s 2025 campaign.

“I think if you look at the season as a whole, it’s successful,” Bianchi added. “You win the Brickyard 400 on merit, you beat Kyle Larson there of all people, and you lock yourself into the playoffs well in advance, which is something he’s never done before. They were more consistent, running better week to week.

“Go back to Kansas — he put himself in position in what was effectively a must-win situation. He did everything he probably should’ve done. There wasn’t anything he did wrong. He didn’t mess up that last lap. If you’re Bubba Wallace and his team, you look at this season and say, ‘We did a really good job.’

“It’s frustrating — it feels like it maybe got away from you a little bit, especially with how the next round sets up: a superspeedway, Martinsville, and Las Vegas — three of his better tracks. But you still have to feel pretty good about the year. It’s not like this team self-destructed. They had one bad race at New Hampshire, and yeah, that’s inexcusable, but it wasn’t a collapse. No major issues on pit road, no mental errors. They put themselves out there and did their job. … This was a very good season.”

Both Reddick and Wallace came up just short of the Round of 8, but Bianchi made one thing clear — 23XI Racing, despite some legal battles, is on the right track. Their stable of drivers is looking better with each passing season, and the future is bright for the organization.