Reddick jokes that continued success ‘not good for my head’

At the end of his winner’s press conference at Darlington Raceway, the NASCAR emcee congratulated Tyler Reddick once more and then wished him well at the next race.

“If I can win there, oh my gosh, the world’s going to end,” said Reddick as he put the microphone down, smiled and walked off.

The quip got a laugh from the room, but probably for various reasons. The most significant one, however, is that Reddick will not be considered the favorite Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

Reddick has an average finish of 19.4 with only two top-10 finishes at the Virginia short track. In his 12 previous starts, he’s led only six laps.

And yet, Reddick continues to defy the odds with an incredible start to the NASCAR Cup Series season, having become the first driver in history to win the first three races, and now tallying four wins in six weeks. Reddick has led the points since the season opener in Daytona, and after his latest triumph extended it to over a full race on second-place Ryan Blaney.

So, while it’s great to be Reddick, how does he make sure the success isn’t going to his head?

“This early on, the tracks are all, for the most part, very different,” he said Saturday before practice at Martinsville Speedway. “So, if you have one good week somewhere, like we were just in Darlington and now we’re in Martinsville, and what it takes to run well here at Martinsville will be different from Bristol. The schedule naturally keeps you level-headed to begin with.

“But certainly, if we’re able to go out there and continue to score a lot of points and contend for race wins, yeah, it’s not good for my head.”

Reddick said the latter with a laugh and a big smile.

It is the best start Reddick has had to a Cup Series season and the longest single stretch in which he’s ever led the point standings. Given his gap, he will not lose the point lead no matter what happens at Martinsville, and Sunday is one of the biggest question marks around how solid Reddick and his race team are.

The short tracks are the last thing on 23XI Racing’s agenda for improvement, helping the organization become a truly well-rounded organization. Reddick’s performances specifically at Martinsville, as aforementioned, have produced a career-best seventh-place finish.

“It’s been issues with brakes,” Reddick said. “Over the three or four years that I’ve been here, not having consistency when it comes to that.”

Reddick has never won on a short track in his Cup Series career.

In 33 short track starts, Reddick has no wins and no poles, two top-five finishes, five top-10 finishes and 143 total laps led. Reddick has driven for 23XI Racing since 2023.

“We’ve been able to somewhat hit it right at times when we got to Richmond and we’ve been close at Loudon a few times, but 90% of the time when we don’t run well, we’ve either been wrecked or had brake problems,” he said. “So, everyone has been working really hard to correct that, and I know it’s Darlington, but we used more brakes there than we probably used ever with this Next Gen car …

“But if we continue to move the needle on that and have less issues with brakes, I feel like everyone’s going to be like, ‘Why is Tyler better at short tracks out of nowhere?’ I think we’ve just been fighting a number of things for years.”