Tyler Reddick acknowledges that his 2025 performance has not matched the success of the previous season when he clinched the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship and reached the Championship 4. Despite this, Reddick does not view his current campaign as a drastic decline from last year’s results, emphasizing the complexities behind the statistics.
Throughout 30 races this season, Reddick remains without a win but holds strong rankings in key areas: fifth in passing, ninth in defense, sixth in speed, and fifth in restarts. However, he identifies struggles with maintaining clean races and notes that his pit crew is ranked 19th in the series, which has affected overall performance.
“I think when you really look at the details of it, it is not an improvement over last year, yes. Yeah, we haven’t performed quite like what we did last year. But it’s not like to an astronomical level,”
Reddick shared during the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
“When you don’t execute, when you don’t have a clean race, you’re not going to have the opportunity to win races, and you’re not going to get those top 10s and top 5s that you’re able to get when you have those clean days. I think when I was looking at it last, we scored like 50 or 60 less points than we did last year. It just shows the top teams have had cleaner years.”
Reddick also highlighted the competitiveness in the current Next Gen era of NASCAR, explaining how small changes can shift a team from regularly contending for wins to barely finishing in the top 10. He added,
“When you look at where we’re at, where we run and what our speed is compared to the field, I think last year we were the fastest car looking at the numbers you wanna look at. The last time I looked at it, we were top two or top three. Maybe that’s changed a little bit over the last couple weeks. It doesn’t take much in this Next Gen era, if you will, to go from contending for race wins every week to struggling to finish 10th.”
Performance Variability and Recent Struggles on the Track
So far in 2025, Reddick has led 156 laps, achieving 10 top-10 finishes and six top-5 finishes. However, his No. 45 team from 23XI Racing experienced setbacks recently, particularly in the Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire. There, Reddick qualified well in fourth place but ended the race in 21st, marking his fifth finish outside the top 10 in the last six races.
Currently 11th in the playoff standings and trailing 23 points below the cutline, Reddick approaches the upcoming race at Kansas Speedway focused on overcoming these difficulties. His mindset remains committed to competing for wins rather than settling for mid-pack finishes.
“I know [23XI co-owner] Michael [Jordan] feels this way, I know a lot of people at 23XI feel this way — we don’t show up just to run 10th. I don’t do this just to run 10th; I show up to make a difference and take a car that’s capable of winning and get it to Victory Lane,”
Reddick said.
“We have days just get away when we’re capable of winning [and] it’s frustrating, for sure.”
Looking Ahead: Overcoming Obstacles to Return to Contention
Tyler Reddick’s 2025 performance reflects both strong individual capabilities and challenges related to race execution and team dynamics, especially with pit crew efficiency. While the season so far has not mirrored the heights of 2024, Reddick’s competitive metrics demonstrate that speed and skill remain intact. His determination to transform these efforts into race wins highlights the ongoing pressure within 23XI Racing to deliver results.
As Reddick prepares for the next races, including the pivotal event at Kansas Speedway, his focus will be on turning mixed results into consistent finishes that can secure a place in the playoffs and ultimately challenge for victories. The continued evolution of the Next Gen car and the competitive NASCAR field mean that small improvements could have significant impacts on outcomes moving forward.
