He might have won the regular season championship but the Darlington race was not a happy outing for Tyler Reddick. The 23XI Racing driver was battling a stomach-related illness throughout the entire event and props should be given for him to finish that race inside the top 10. At one point during the race, the 28-year-old came on the team radio and said that he felt like throwing up and defecating inside the car. Thankfully, his team made sure that did not come to pass.
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The #45 driver revealed in the post-race press conference that his team had given him medicines during the race to make sure nothing adverse happened. Reddick has been feeling this way since Friday but perhaps was not able to get proper treatment because it was a race weekend. The Southern 500 was a testament to his fortitude as he never gave up and won the regular season championship by just one point. It would have stung if he did not win those 15 playoff points.
"I'm throwing up. S***ting myself."
Tyler Reddick is feeling sick inside the car. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/B8v25ZQDgP
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 1, 2024
“That’s the worst I’ve felt,” he said. “Felt good pretty much all the way up until the race. Must have been the bump off of 2 or something and it just really got bad by the end of stage 1 and just stayed there the rest of the day, Just really thankful…a lot of great people on the team, they’re feeding me the right stuff in the car to help me manage it best I could.”
The 23XI driver will hope that his health is back to 100% next weekend for the first race of the playoffs. A superspeedway like Atlanta is the last place you’d want to race with an upset stomach. Reddick probably now has an idea of how that might feel.
Reddick almost let everything out in the car
What does not help an upset stomach is going round in circles and that’s what these racers do for hundreds of laps. One can only imagine the discomfort Reddick must have felt. At one point, the 28-year-old revealed that he just wanted to let it all out, both from the front and the back, just to feel some relief.
However, one of the medicines he took at the infield care center before the race prevented that from happening. Sure, nothing came out and the car was clean but the driver was as uncomfortable as it gets.
“At the end of stage 1, I thought it was happening as soon as the yellow came out,” he said. “I held on for dear life all night. I thought it was gonna happen. I really actually wanted to just get it out because it was really bad.”
It sure as hell isn’t easy being a race car driver. Reddick finishing the race is a massive deal considering how he felt. It’s the kind of fortitude one expects in a driver looking to win a championship.
