To say Tyler Reddick has grit and determination following his run in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway is an understatement.
Going into the race weekend, the 28-year-old driver was feeling under the weather. Nevertheless, he was ready to defend his 17-point lead in the regular season championship standings over Kyle Larson in the final race before the Playoffs.
Reddick and his 23XI Racing team were on track to achieve their goal, unloading the No. 45 Upper Deck Toyota Camry XSE at Darlington Raceway with excellent speed on Saturday. They closed out practice with great pace, ranking seventh on the charts. Then, Reddick was able to rip his car around the track for a sixth-place starting position.
With hopes held high and health ok, the driver went into the race ready to go. But, when the green flag dropped for the Cook Out Southern 500, his health started to take a turn.
“Felt good pretty much all the way up until the race,” Reddick explained in his post-race press conference. “I don’t know, just must have been the bump off of two or something. It just really, really got bad by the end of stage one. It just stayed there the rest of the way.”
This race was not easy for the championship-contending driver, far from it. As he wheeled the No. 45 around the track that’s “Too Tough to Tame”, his stomach was equally tough to tame. But thanks to quick thinking by his 23XI Racing team, Reddick was handed the medicine he needed, despite spilling it on the first attempt, to keep from having a truly messy situation inside of his No. 45 car.
“Just really thankful that a lot of great people on our team. They were feeding me the right stuff in the car to help me manage it best as I could,” Reddick explained. “Just smart people. Able to put the right stuff in my drink to help calm my stomach down. At one point, I was just waiting to puke all over myself. Thankfully they kept that from happening. A whole lot of other gross stuff.”
Reddick continued, “I held on for dear life all night. I thought it was going to happen,” he shared, discussing how close he was to getting sick inside the car, “That’s the worst I’ve felt. I don’t know, I guess just a stomach bug or something.”
Despite his stomach issues and radio communication about his condition inside the car, Reddick was able to hang on and maintain position inside the top 10 most of the race.
Reddick says that despite what was said on the radio, he held all puke and other stuff in throughout the race. Says he almost was hoping to get it out during the race to get it over with, but it was able to hold off thanks to the pills from the team. #NASCAR
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) September 2, 2024
To go to work on a sick stomach is no easy feat, but the Corning, California native knew he had a car capable of getting him the regular season title. And, when the checkered flag flew, Reddick out-raced Kyle Larson to win the title. By how many points? One.
“It’s just a testament to all the hard work that everyone at 23XI, here at the racetrack, week in and week out, back at Airspeed, puts into this,” Reddick said. “We’re on year four of their goals, right? It’s just been really, really fun the last two years to be a part of this process, building up to where we want to be.”
23XI Racing has built up a phenomenal program with the No. 45 car. Reddick has knocked out 18 top-10 finishes this season, seven of those came in a consecutive stretch prior to last weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. The performance of this No. 45 team has been on another level. Team owner and Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Denny Hamlin, has taken note.
“They’re going to be one of the contenders that are going to be one of the favorites to this championship,” Hamlin said about his young driver. “I think the tracks suit him very well, especially the road courses where, you know, I’m probably not looking forward to it but he is. So, you know, the 45 team is going to be want to be.”
Finally won a championship*
*As an owner pic.twitter.com/JSzWozCnIt
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) September 2, 2024
Now with 15 extra playoff points to his name with his regular season championship, Reddick will head into the Round of 16 as the third seed in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings. Though he wrecked out of Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier in the season, the Round of 16 will also feature Watkins Glen International, a road course. Reddick, who has been one of the brightest drivers in road racing the last few seasons is going to certainly have that race circled on his schedule.
The No. 45 team will kick off their playoff run next weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart. The green flag drops on Sunday, September 8 at 3:00 p.m. ET.
