Reddick, 23XI Racing facing 'pressure test' with Hamlin hot on their heels

Tyler Reddick had a chuckle Saturday when asked if he could hear Denny Hamlin’s footsteps getting louder. But he didn’t exactly deny it either.

Hamlin, the co-owner of Reddick’s car at 23XI Racing but a competitor for Joe Gibbs Racing, has been chasing Reddick for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. It wasn’t until the last two weeks, however, that back-to-back wins for Hamlin made a dent in the point standings.

In doing so, it seems more realistic than ever that it’s not a guarantee Reddick, who won five races early in the year and pulled away from the competition, is going to easily march into the postseason. The lead is down to 51 points with 11 races to go.

“Well, we’ve done a good job of avoiding chaos,” Reddick said. “The chaos started a couple of rows behind us, and it found its way to us in Michigan. So, yeah, it’s what can happen in racing.”

Michigan International Speedway a week ago was Reddick’s first DNF and the first time he had finished worse than 15th. Until that point, Reddick had seemed like Teflon with five wins and 11 top-10 finishes in 14 races.

Reddick had a 129-point lead on Hamlin after the event at Watkins Glen (May 10).

“I think for us, we were comfortable but were staying very hungry and trying to get all the points we could and continue to knock off good finishes and try to win races,” Reddick said. “But I think this will be good for us. We’ve had a gap for a while and have been able to race pretty loose but focused. So now we’re going to have a little bit of pressure.

“Yeah, it’s 50 points, but it feels like five points considering how much of a lead we did have a couple of weeks ago. It’ll be a pressure test for us, and we’ll see how we handle it.”

Hamlin is on a two-week winning streak and enters a racetrack where he has won seven times before. Reddick has never won at Pocono.

“Honestly, it’s crazy when you’re at the top if you think, OK, we’re good, we’re happy, but you’re able to solely focus on setting yourself up to win races,” said Reddick of his team not being content this year despite the success. “So, we’ll have to be a little bit more mindful of points for a bit here unless we’re able to pull back away again. Yeah, I would say we’ve been able to focus solely on bringing really fast race cars and not really worrying about anything else, which has been nice.

“Again, a little bit more pressure now, but we’ll see how we handle it.”