Nothing hurts a race car driver more than coming close to a win and having to settle for being the runner-up. The Cup Series star who has been hurt the most in this regard on the Next Gen car is 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. The #45 Toyota Camry XSE driver has piloted 78 races in the 7th generation NASCAR car and won 5. As for runner-up finishes, he has 8 – the highest on the active grid.
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His first second-place finish came in the 2022 spring race in Bristol when he lost the win to two-time Cup Series champion, Kyle Busch. His latest second-place finish, however, is still fresh in memories for it came a mere number of weeks back, in Las Vegas. Reddick couldn’t find a way past Kyle Larson until the end and finished behind him.
“It’s a solid effort for our team. That’s how we need to run, but I don’t like running second,” he said after the race. “Second sucks, that’s for sure, but we had a really fast Nasty Beast Toyota Camry.” He concluded that the “sting” of finishing second will not wear off.
With three top-10 finishes in the 2024 season, Reddick heads to Richmond sitting 10th in the points table. He will be hoping that he doesn’t have to find the checkered flag with the view of another rear bumper ahead of him.
Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain trail Reddick in the highest number of runner-up finishes
If there was a trophy for coming second, the defending champion Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain would be second-in-line to receive it. With 7 second-place finishes each in the Next-Gen car, they’ve been the least fortunate after Reddick. Chastain’s latest runner-up finish came in the 2023 race in Texas when he lost to William Byron.
Blaney’s most recent second-place finish is one for the history books. He was just 0.003 seconds behind Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez in this year’s race in Atlanta when he came in second. The finish is one of the narrowest ones in NASCAR. Going to Richmond, Blaney and Chastain sit 3rd and 8th in the points table, respectively.
A total of 25 drivers have finished in second place driving the Next Gen car. Following Reddick, Blaney, and Chastain on the list are Denny Hamlin (6), Kyle Larson (6), and Chase Elliott (5).
