Tyler Reddick Reset: Sharpened Focus on Capability and Performance

Tyler Reddick’s 2025 season in the NASCAR Cup Series is turning heads with a balance of promise and frustration. After the recent Coca-Cola 600, where he came close to delivering a dominant performance, the No. 45 team faced late-race struggles that kept them from capitalizing.

Reddick stands fifth in the regular-season championship at the season’s halfway mark. This position puts him slightly ahead of last year’s place in the standings, but he is now 17 points further back from the lead, trailing by 107 compared to 90 points at this point last season.

Expectations around Reddick and 23XI Racing have grown, driven by last year’s three-win campaign and a run to the Championship 4. Reddick says the team has steadily improved since he joined, but he admits that gains have slowed as performance levels reach new peaks.

“The closer you get to the top of that mountain, the harder it gets to continue to find speed,” he shared at Nashville Superspeedway. He believes that building consistent speed and execution each week is harder now and has become the group’s main focus.

So far in 2025, the No. 45 team has performed well in stage racing, collecting 100 stage points, tied with teammate Bubba Wallace for the fourth-most in the field. Only William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Ryan Blaney have more.

However, Reddick has only managed four top-10 finishes this season, compared to seven through the same stretch in 2024. Since the Phoenix race, only two finishes have ranked better than 14th, and in four of the last five events, the team ended up 18th or worse at the finish.

Rather than focusing purely on where the team finishes, Reddick urges observers to weigh capability and overall performance. He points to strong showings like last week’s Charlotte run as evidence that execution, not pace, is the missing piece.

“For me, it’s more about the performance that we bring to the race track and that won’t always be reflected in the finishing results,” Reddick said recently.

Team co-owner Denny Hamlin has shown patience but expects more data points since the team’s “reset” to see continued progress. He praised recent race speed and is watching to see how the team handles upcoming weekends.

“Execution is going to be the key with them. I think they have reset and we’re coming into the weekends now with that reset mind and we’ll see where they go with it,” Hamlin commented.

Last summer, Reddick and the No. 45 surged in the season’s final stretch, tallying 11 top-10 finishes and a win at Michigan. As the series heads back to Michigan International Speedway soon, Reddick returns as the defending race winner.

At Nashville, he set the pace in Saturday’s practice and qualified fourth for the Cracker Barrel 400, placing him as the third best among Toyota drivers going into Sunday’s race. Fans can catch the Cracker Barrel 400 from Nashville Superspeedway on June 1 at 7:00 p.m. ET with coverage airing on Prime Video, PRN Radio, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

John Martinez

John Martinez delivers real-time NASCAR Cup Series and Truck Series news, from live race updates to pit-lane strategy analysis. A graduate of the University of Northwestern Ohio’s Motorsports Technology program, he breaks down rule changes, driver tactics, and championship points with crystal-clear reporting.