Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing got here up quick of their quest for the NASCAR Cup Collection championship in Phoenix on Sunday, however Reddick believes they left every part that they had out on the observe.
Reddick was trying to find velocity from the No. 45 Toyota all weekend. After a disappointing observe session on Friday, he very almost didn’t make it by way of the primary qualifying spherical on Saturday. Whereas the workforce continued to enhance the automotive all through the weekend and throughout the race, he struggled to maintain tempo with title rivals Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney from Workforce Penske and Hendrick Motorsport’s William Byron on Sunday. He completed sixth.
“I really feel like Stage 2 after we broke out and bought proper behind the No. 24 (Byron), No. 22 (Logano) and No. 12 (Blaney), I assumed, ‘OK, let’s see the place this goes,’” Reddick mentioned.
“Over time, they form of bought away. I used to be inside vary of William and tried to make a transfer, and it didn’t work out. Then settled again in, they usually steadily pulled away over time. That’s what occurred in Stage 3, as properly.
“We’ve bought to seek out just a little bit extra velocity, however we made the automotive higher all through the day. We maintained on pit street. We did all that we might, I believe. However actually it’s powerful once they simply get additional and additional away over time.
“We put up a great struggle. We didn’t make any errors that took ourselves out of it. We fought as laborious as we might. We made the automotive higher all through the day. We did what we would have liked to do. Sadly, we simply didn’t have the velocity or the restarts we would have liked to get forward and maintain these guys up, or actually put up a struggle there on the very finish. If we bought the restarts, we might make outdated strikes and more often than not make one thing of it. However I really feel like with what we might management, we did all we might do.”
Whereas Phoenix didn’t work out in keeping with Reddick’s script, he can nonetheless financial institution the expertise of being a part of a championship struggle.
“It was a enjoyable course of, preparing for this,” he mentioned. “I felt like myself and the complete workforce’s mindset, we have been all in a extremely good place going into the race. I assumed we have been the place we would have liked to be. We’ve simply bought to do some digging and attempt to deliver a sooner Camry after we come again within the spring, and provides it one other shot.
“You retain telling your self within the automotive, ‘Something can occur — a warning might come, you’ve bought to remain prepared.’ And when the checkered flag lastly fell, the yr is over, it’s time to re-gather your self, reset, and take into consideration what it’s good to work on within the low season to indicate up higher in 2025 than the way you left 2024.”
