Heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 23XI Racing had high hopes. Toyota GAZOO Racing had performed well, historically, at the 1.058-mile track, and going into the weekend, Bubba Wallace was inside the Playoffs cutline, while Tyler Reddick was just three points on the outside looking in.
Needless to say, the team experienced massive disappointment over the 301 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and when the checkered flag was waved, both of the 23XI Racing Playoff-contending drivers were scored outside the top 20.
Race Results:
Reddick carried the banner for the three-car team with a 21st-place finish, while Wallace came home 26th, one lap off the pace.
The driver of the No. 45 Toyota, who won the regular season championship and made the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Championship 4 a season ago, suffered issues with his brakes early in Sunday’s race. Once the brake issues cropped up, Reddick says his car became ill-handling, and by the end of the day, he was simply trying to salvage as much as he could from the day.
“I didn’t expect that – that’s for sure. The way the race started, I thought we were going to be able to run in the top 10 all day, but between the brake issues we had, it just got away quick[ly]. The balance went away, and then [the] next thing you know, we were trying to battle for 20th,” Reddick explained. “Just [a] terrible day.”
While Reddick had speed prior to the brake issue, Wallace was perplexed as his No. 23 team straight up missed it altogether on Sunday.
“Just a miss all around, really,” Wallace stated. “We couldn’t really seem to get things going. Our best run lasted for five laps, the caution came out, and then it was just right back to no good. I hate it. I felt really optimistic and marched forward at the start, and it just never really went anywhere. We kind of plateaued [on] Lap 5, and that was it. I hate that.”
The Playoff picture looks drastically different for the 23XI Racing teammates after the subpar day in Loudon, NH. Reddick now sits 11th in the Playoff Grid and is 23 points below the cutline, while Wallace dropped to the final slot in the 12-driver Playoff Grid, and he is now staring at a 27-point deficit to the cutline.
Reddick didn’t sugarcoat the situation; he feels the organization, as a whole, needs to find answers as to why they are underperforming at tracks they traditionally do well at, and they need to find something quickly.
“Yeah, there’s just a lot of question marks, honestly. Places we have had speed at, we don’t bring speed,” Reddick said after the disappointing day. “That’s been one of them for us. Yeah, we need something special to happen. I’m hoping we find the answer.”
Likewise, Wallace is baffled by what the team brought to the track in terms of performance at ‘The Magic Mile’, but says the team can’t spend time crying over spilled milk, as the Playoffs won’t wait for them to feel better about themselves.
“It’s just a head scratcher,” Wallace said. “I told our team we’re way better than that. We know it. As much of a gut punch as this one is, we’ll move on. This is what we’ve got to do.”
Hopefully, for 23XI Racing, the trend of bringing subpar speed to tracks they’ve been consistently good at over the years doesn’t continue this weekend because the organization is arguably better at Kansas Speedway than it is at any other track on the circuit.
In nine races at the 1.5-mile speedway in Kansas City, 23XI Racing has secured three victories with three different drivers. Kurt Busch collected a win at Kansas behind the wheel of the No. 45 Toyota in Spring 2022, while Bubba Wallace visited victory lane at the facility in Fall 2022.
Tyler Reddick would defend the Fall race win in 2023 as he captured the win behind the wheel of the No. 45 machine.
Since Reddick’s win in Fall 2023, though, the team has only mustered a best finish of 13th at the track, and that was achieved earlier this year by part-time competitor Corey Heim, who was driving the No. 67 Toyota.
Can Reddick and Wallace reverse course following a tough day at New Hampshire and work themselves back into a position to advance into the Round of 8 of the Playoffs? If so, they’ll likely need a big day at Kansas Speedway to put them in a position to pull it off at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
