By Matt Courson, Staff Writer
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Tyler Reddick made his first Championship 4 appearance and came up short after a sixth place effort in Sunday’s NASCAR Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. The sixth place effort was the worst of the Championship 4 and was not a factor at all in the 312 lap event.
“It was a good year for us and everyone at 23XI to get to the Championship 4 and have a shot at it was nice,” said Reddick. “But yeah, we’ve got to get a little bit better here in Phoenix. Obviously we’re heavily motivated to do that, knowing the championship is decided here. Good year for us. Proud of the effort. It’s a lot to do, all the preparation, all the work that goes into it. It takes everybody. We were close. We were just not quite good enough, unfortunately.”
Reddick started the race 10th and the team was able to make adjustments to compete with the other Championship 4 drivers who took up most of the top-5. Reddick was 7th after Stage 1 and 10th in Stage 2. As the laps ticked off, Reddick had to keep reminding himself that the race was not over until it was over. A caution on lap 251 for Zane Smith set up the ruoughly 50 lap dash to the finish, but he did not have the long run car needed.
“They (the other Championship 4 contenders) were just able to pull away over time,” Reddick said. “I was kind of within range of William and tried to make a move, and it didn’t work out. And then settled back in. We did all that we could, I think, with it. But certainly yeah, it’s tough when they just get further and further away over time.”
Reddick’s second season with 23XI racing, owned by Denny Hamlin and NBA star Michael Jordan, amassed three victories, 12 top-5 finishes and 21 top-10 finishes in the 2024 season. Despite the result, Reddick looked at the positives of the weekend and how his team was able to overcome the ill-handling car in the beginning and not make mistakes.
“Michael is just proud of the effort of our team all year long,” said Reddick. “We put up a good fight. We didn’t make any mistakes that took ourselves out of it. We fought as hard as we could. We made the car better throughout the day. We did what we needed to do.
“It was a fun process getting ready for this. I felt like myself and the entire team’s mindset getting ready for this, we were all in a really good place. I felt like we were in a good place going into the race.
It seemed like that throughout the day. Again, we made the right adjustments to the car and made it better throughout the day. I thought we were where we needed to be. We’ve just got to do some digging and try to bring a faster Camry when we come back in the spring and give it another shot.”
It is yet to be determined if Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing will compete in the 2025 Daytona 500 as the team navigates the legal process in a anti-trust lawsuit against the sanctioning body. “TBD” is what team owner Denny Hamlin said in regards to having cars on track at Daytona in February.