23XI Racing driver and 2024 Cup Series regular-season champion Tyler Reddick went to Atlanta on Sunday with high ambitions. He was championing his team’s hopes of a maiden title and wanted to kick his charge off on the right foot. The superspeedway race ended up being an eventful affair but Reddick managed to hold his own through the tricks that the track threw at him.
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He started the race in 23rd place after a below-average qualifying run on Saturday. His No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE shot up some of that tremendous speed it has been displaying throughout the season and kept himself in view of a potential top finish. However, trouble followed on the pit road. The driver kept facing issues on the road and matters boiled over in a Stage 2 restart.
As he attempted to leave his stall after getting the required upgrades made, he crashed into the No. 77 Spire Motorsports car of rookie Carson Hocevar. The contact halted his progress. He ultimately got back up ahead and finished his effort with a sixth-place finish. Talking to the press after the race, he was glad that he could go through the day without getting caught in a race-ending crash.
He said, “It looks like some of the guys in the 16 had issues as well, so we will see how it all shakes out, but for us, we avoided disaster and that was the most important thing today.” The pit road is where Reddick faced the most trouble. Away from the Hocevar incident, he was still left completely boxed with the stalls of contenders Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez banking his.
Reddick left frustrated with pit road problem in Atlanta
The driver was exclusively asked about his issues on the road during his post-race interviews. He said, “It was a nightmare, honestly. You don’t want to get into too much trouble on the pit road, and it seems like that was all we really had.”
He continued about the unfortunate positioning of his stall, “The unfortunate circumstances of the 99 being behind us – and the 22 being in front of me – just being boxed in most of the day on pit road. We didn’t even have green flag stops, so getting boxed in almost every time really hurt us.”
Reddick now sits 33 points above the elimination line. Logano is locked into the next round through his win in Atlanta and Ryan Blaney sits second on the grid (+45) followed by Christopher Bell (+40). The next battle will unfold at Watkins Glen next weekend.
