Before the Charlotte Roval weekend, Tyler Reddick found himself behind the cutline with all to do in the final round of the 12 race. It was surprising to see the regular season champion in that position but his playoff run hadn’t been that impressive.
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However, at the Roval, the 23XI Racing driver showed just what he was made of. According to NASCAR veteran Kyle Petty, Reddick has all the qualities needed to be a future champion.
The #45 had a great run in qualifying but a turn 7 incident involving his boss Denny Hamlin saw him lose several positions. Suddenly, the regular season champion seemed to be under serious threat of being eliminated.
Thankfully, there was still a lot of the race to go. The 23XI Racing star was last before the start of stage 2 and drove through the pack to an impressive P11 finish. That was enough to secure his round of 8 spot.
“This is where drivers that you would never expect reach a little deeper, take it to a different place and they become superstars. Yesterday, I think we saw one of those steps on the rung where Tyler Reddick becomes a superstar,” Petty explained.
The #45 driver made it through to the round of 8 stage of the Cup Series last season as well. However, this was where he was eliminated. Reddick will be hoping that won’t be the case this time. He needs to do a lot better than he has since the playoffs began to have any chance of making it to Phoenix.
The turn 7 incident could’ve ended Reddick’s playoff run
The dream could have easily been crushed during that turn 7 incident early in the race. While Reddick made contact with Hamlin, it was the #3 of Austin Dillon that made him lose control. As he came off the curb, the #45 driver felt like he was going to flip. Had that happened, it would have been the end of the 23XI Racing’t title charge.
“I saw the 3 (Austin Dillon) spun and everyone on the binders coming to a stop, and my boss (Hamlin and I) got together. It was like I was going to do a front flip. This thing was absolutely destroyed. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was, and we just kept working on it,” he said after the race.
The Roval race marked the end of the wildcard races which the playoff drivers will rejoice about. The remaining four tracks all have their own set of challenges, and conquering either won’t be easy.
