Reddick chasing a return to normalcy as Chase approaches

Tyler Reddick has spent this summer in a battle for the NASCAR Cup Series point lead with Denny Hamlin, and with it, the No. 1 seed in the Chase. But it turns out it hasn't been much of a battle for the 23XI Racing driver.

“I still really don’t know how we stack up against them, honestly,” Reddick said at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “I feel like a lot of the days they’ve been good, we’ve been having some issue or vice versa. So, we haven’t had a lot of opportunities to race against each other.”

Reddick had expected that Hamlin going on a run of three straight wins, plus five top-three finishes in that six-week stretch, would be a good pressure test for his team. But that was only if Reddick and company were able to have normal race days themselves, such as a top-five finish. Instead, the picture has remained unclear.

Hamlin won at Nashville Superspeedway while Reddick finished sixth. A week later, with Hamlin in victory lane at Michigan, the race ended early for Reddick, who was caught in a wreck while inside the top five. The third win for Hamlin, at Pocono Raceway, came with Reddick finishing second, but still losing points.

In the inaugural San Diego race, Reddick cut down a tire from second place with two laps to go. A mechanical issue bit the team at Sonoma Raceway. A piece of debris at Chicagoland Speedway went through the grille and sent Reddick to the garage for a radiator change. And then a week ago, Reddick was involved in a crash when Alex Bowman came across his nose trying to pit.

“We’ve been going the wrong way for a while, and some of it is just racing, and other times we didn’t have the speed that we’ve come to expect out of ourselves,” Reddick said. “A little bit of both, but a lot of it has been crazy circumstances.”

The gap between Hamlin and Reddick is 68 points with five races left in the regular season. Reddick had led Hamlin by as much as 129 points at one time.

“A couple of the weekends, yes (we have had the pace), but it has been a little bit hit or miss at times,” said Reddick. “We just have to figure it out.”

Reddick is not giving up on being the No. 1 seed when the Chase starts. He, Hamlin and Ryan Blaney have already clinched their spots in the postseason, and the way things have transpired, the three of them will be the first three seeds in some order. However, they cannot settle for days like they’ve experienced this summer, or the practice session at Indianapolis that threw Reddick for a loop and had him saying it felt like he’d never raced there before.

Although he was eighth on the board, Reddick felt “lost” and that it was not a normal practice. The handling and speed of his car had him scratching his head.

Reddick picked up from practice and qualified third for the Brickyard 400, and Sunday is a long race. But whether it’s Indianapolis or Iowa, Richmond, and beyond, some positive momentum for Reddick could go a long way.

“You want to be in the right place, going in the right direction, as you start the Chase,” he said. “We really need to get out of whatever hole we’ve found ourselves in.”