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Tyler Reddick ‘Fairly Nervous’ About NASCAR Playoff Race At Kansas Speedway

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
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Tyler Reddick

Coming into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, Tyler Reddick finds himself in quite the pressure cooker.

One of four playoff drivers on the wrong side of the cutline for advancing to the Round of 8, Reddick has just two opportunities to make up major ground.

The first of those is the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet at Kansas, a 1.5-mile oval where Reddick is a former winner.

The second and final opportunity to make it past the Round of 12 is next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, where road racer extraordinaire and non-playoff driver Shane van Gisbergen will arrive as a heavy favorite to win.

So even though Reddick doesn’t necessarily have to win one of the two remaining Round of 12 races to keep his title hopes alive, Sunday at Kansas represents by far his better chance to find Victory Lane.

At the very least, though, the 23XI Racing driver wants to piece together a solid afternoon that will give him a fighting chance to advance with another solid afternoon at the ROVAL seven days later.

Tyler Reddick Admits To Stressing Over Kansas Playoff Race

Sitting 11th out of 12 remaining playoff drivers and 23 points behind the cutline, Tyler Reddick knows he needs to make a big leap forward on Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

So when asked on Saturday during his media availability whether he felt nervous or excited being at Kansas, Reddick minced no words about his emotions.

“I think it’s fairly nervous,” Reddick said via media transcript from Toyota Racing. “We had a stretch here (at Kansas) where it was a 23XI Toyota or a Toyota car in general. (Toyota) had a pretty good record here to be able to win races. The last two or three times we’ve been here, we’ve been missing a little bit of something.”

Since personally going to Victory Lane at Kansas for the first time in the fall of 2023, Reddick has finished no better than 17th in three outings at the Kansas City track. Toyota, meanwhile, has been bested by Chevrolet in the last three Cup Series races at Kansas. Prior to the Chevy streak, Toyota captured seven of nine races at the venue from the fall of 2019 through the fall of 2023.

“The car changes, the Goodyear tires change. So, naturally, you’ve got to keep up with it,” Reddick said on Saturday at Kansas, where he qualified 12th. “I think it’s fair to be nervous. There’s a lot that weighs on this weekend. It’s super-important for us to either win or run top five all day and score a lot of points.”

Struggles Of 23XI Racing At New Hampshire Put Drivers In A Hole At Kansas

In reality, Tyler Reddick wouldn’t be in such a precarious points position if he had simply ran better in last weekend’s Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

But instead of leaving New England with strong finishes and positive points days, both Reddick and 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace performed poorly in their Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin-owned Toyotas.

How poorly? Reddick finished 21st, Wallace 26th. And the result was a major setback to both drivers’ respective championship hopes.

In fact, Wallace is now in an even worse position than Reddick. He ranks last among the playoff drivers and trails his teammate by four points.

The only positive from the day at New Hampshire for 23XI? It seemingly made the folks at the race shop work extra hard this week preparing for Kansas.

“Everyone has had their head down, for sure,” Reddick said. “It was a tough week. I think we all know we got our asses kicked pretty good at Loudon. And I feel like it’s motivated everyone properly.

“It’s easy to be down. But we have two opportunities to either win or score a lot of points.”

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.
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