NASCAR Insiders predicted that Round One of the NASCAR Cup playoffs would be wild. After the debut of Atlanta, which has been reconfigured into a Superspeedway, and the addition of Watkins Glen, it was bound to be a wild one! In these races, championship favorites, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin failed to bag a top-10 finish. Not just that, round one further saw the elimination of two former Cup Series champions, Martin Truex Jr and Brad Keselowski.

Well, even the #11 neared elimination- Hamlin entered the eliminator race at Bristol Motor Speedway under the cutline. However, a P4 there rescued the veteran. Now, as the drivers are gearing up for the round of 12, the regular season champion, Tyler Reddick, has predicted the same amount of wildness if not more. This is a big possibility since the next group of tracks is more or less the same as the first one.

Tyler Reddick opens up about Round 12 being wild as well

The only change is that other than a short track like Bristol, round 12 will have an intermediate track in the form of Kansas Speedway. Next up is Talladega, another Superspeedway. To make matters worse, the eliminator in the round of 12 will be Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. First up is Kansas. While traditionally Kansas Speedway won’t be a wildcard and you’ll see Larson or Hamlin dominate, things can turn uncertain as many will try to score good finishes at Kansas, so that the last two races don’t affect much.

Tyler Reddick, ahead of the Kansas race, was asked if he believes the next round would be wild too. To this, he said, “Certainly. I definitely do. Just it would be that much more important to have you know solid races and that’s kind of what our foundation has been. majority of this year so yeah it’d be nice to leave here with a win and not have to worry about the next two.” After Kansas, NASCAR will head to the iconic Talladega Superspeedway.

And we know that Superspeedways can be anyone’s game. The last couple of races are proof enough of this. Although Joey Logano won at Atlanta, Daniel Suarez almost snatched it. The Spaniard won the race in the regular season too. Another example is Harrison Burton unexpectedly winning the Daytona race. So Talladega would be tricky.

Road courses are wildly unpredictable. Look at the Watkins Glen results from the recent race. Only two playoff drivers made it to the top 10 (Chase Briscoe in the 6th, and Austin Cindric in the 10th). And not to forget that last year non-playoff driver, AJ Allmendinger, won at the ROVAL. So ROVAL brings a lot of uncertainties as well, especially after the recent reconfiguration.

Despite finishing outside the top -15 in two out of the three playoff races, Tyler Reddick is positive about his chances. “If we do those things here, they put us you know in a position where we’re not overly stressed, going into Talladega, then the ROVAL. I mean we went into it last year below the cut and we’re able to score a lot of points and advance by a good margin leaving there so. All three of these tracks, I think, are good for our team.” 

Well, let’s see how much Tyler Reddick’s confidence aligns with his chances.

What are Reddick’s chances of progressing to the Round of 8?

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Reddick, despite a disappointing first round of playoffs, is the 3rd top-seeded player heading into Kansas. This is thanks to the consistency the #45 has shown throughout the season, accumulating playoff points. In the 29 races, Reddick managed 2 wins, eleven top 5s, and fifteen top 10s. His average finish has been 11.8 so far. Reddick has managed a P4 start going into the race and is excited for it.

“As we prepared for this coming weekend, we weren’t panicked or any kind of freak out coming back here because the other Toyotas ran good and we know where they’re at. We’ve been very close. We’ve had winning speed and had that potential in years past, so we knew that we weren’t going to have to look at a lot of things to improve and change coming back. We can’t help but be really excited for this weekend in Kansas.”

Reddick in the Next-gen car has a good record at Kansas. He won the race last year in September. Out of his last three finishes, two have been in the top 10. After Kansas, NASCAR will head to Talladega, where Reddick won the spring race. Reddick has been good on Superspeedways this year. Even in the playoff opener in Atlanta, he managed a P6 finish.

The #45 spoke about how he approaches Talladega after being the current winner. He said, “I don’t think we approach it differently. You still need to do what is best for your team, whether that’s as yourself or working with the other Toyotas. I think a number of us, all of us will have an understanding of what we need to do going in there, but yeah, each speedway is so unique. I have confidence when we go to the speedways certainly of what we need to do to put ourselves in position to win. Lastly, the ROVAL, in his last three races, he’s managed a top-8 finish in all of them. The most recent one is a P6 which came last year.

What do you think are his chances in the next round of the playoffs? Let us know in the comments below.