Tyler Reddick hopes to capitalize on recent speed after string of disappointing finishes

There are times when NASCAR drivers have speed, but can’t find the finish to match. Tyler Reddick is hoping to capitalize on recent speed. 23XI Racing has made a living the last few years on the intermediate tracks. Now, they have to get back to that.

A penalty and a spin off of Turn 2 last week at Charlotte sank Tyler Reddick’s chances of a strong finish in the Coca-Cola 600. Tracks like Kansas, Charlotte, and Texas have been bread-and-butter tracks for 23XI and Toyota as a whole. Not so much lately.

Ahead of practice and qualifying at Nashville, Reddick spoke to 5GOATs about the struggles not to find speed, but to finish these races strong. No one cares how you qualify or what your average running position is, they want to see the final result in the box score.

“It seemed like it was Charlotte, Texas, two of the last three [1.5-mile tracks], it’s been there for us,” Reddick explained. “I think we just got to keep working on it. Charlotte, you know, it’s tough to just accept running third, fourth. But hindsight, that would have been much better than finishing 26th where we ended up with the penalty and the damage with the basically spin off of [Turn] 2. So, yeah, it’s there. We just gotta take advantage of the days where we have that speed to win. That’ll happen at some point.”

Tyler Reddick needs to put it all together in Nashville

Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing are looking for more this weekend at Nashville. They need the speed, and they need to have a clean race. No pit road penalties, no restart violations, no missed pit stops – it has to all come together if you want to win in the Cup Series.

While Reddick sits 5th in points right now, he hasn’t been racing like a top-five driver in the past few weeks. Music City gives him another opportunity to change that.

Early on in Cup Series qualifying, Bubba Wallace has shown great speed. Tyler Reddick has one-upped that speed and went P1 after his lap. Now we see if it holds up.

As the defending regular season champion, his performances have not been up to his standard. If he wants to be mentioned in the same sentence as Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, then he has to start winning races with more consistency.

The first step is to qualify well. The next step is to run well in the stages and pick up points like he has done all season long. It is that final stage that he seems to have trouble with, and the results show. He has gone five races without a top-10 finish. If it doesn’t change soon, his points cushion won’t last much longer.