Despite being one of the relatively newer teams on the grid in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series, Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team has had a transformative season this year. They have got both of their full-time drivers in the round of 12 of the playoffs, and they have both been scoring good points consistently. But this journey has not been a smooth one, especially for either of the two 23XI drivers this season.

The journey to where they find themselves has not been easy but if there is one thing that we have learned from 23XI Racing this year, it is that they never give up. Tyler Reddick has upset the odds to win multiple races and Bubba Wallace proved his doubters wrong when he qualified for the playoffs and the round of 12 from precarious positions on the Cup Series table.

Tyler Reddick highlights the issue that has plagued 23XI Racing

Motor racing has a lot of important factors and one of the most crucial ones is pit crew performance. A good pitstop can make a difference between a race winner and someone coming in second place. Differences of less than a second can make a huge difference in the outcome of a race, so it is imperative that the pit crew members remain at the top of their game every weekend.

But everyone’s human. It is not possible to replicate a flawless performance week after week. Oftentimes, a flawless performance is rare and this rings true for teams that have not been on the grid for a very long time. 23XI Racing is one of those teams.

Despite winning more than one race this season, including the Kansas playoff race, Tyler Reddick has fallen victim to a number of 23XI Racing’s poor pitstops. There have been a lot of times where that has cost him track position and at Michigan, a potential race victory.

Reddick has not shied away from expressing his discontentment with his pit crew whenever they have not lived up to his expectations but of late, things have been going well, so much s0 that he even won the second race of the playoffs. But that did not stop the #45 driver from taking a subtle aim at them.

“When we were at Dover earlier this year, we were okay but pit road is kind of unique. We won’t really go through the motions, running life like that until we get to Martinsville or maybe Phoenix but I mean practicing, nailing that is good, hitting our marks, hitting the marks that we first saw,” Reddick said on a recent episode of the NASCAR LIVE podcast.

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However, the #45 driver admitted that things did not go too bad at Bristol. In fact, the 23XI Racing driver said that they had a clean race where they did not make any mistakes.

Michael Jordan’s Star Reflects on an Uneventful Bristol Race

Speaking about the third playoff race, Reddick said that it was a quiet night for him and for his team.

“It was just one of those quiet nights, right? Like I feel like we had a clean race. We did not take ourselves out of the mix, we didn’t have any penalties. I definitely feel like I could have done a better job on the restart…by no means did we have any critical mistakes or failures. We hung in there 500 laps and got the finish out of it,” said the winner of the 2023 Kansas playoff race.

2023 has not been a consistent year for the 27-year-old. He has experienced a range of emotions, from his pit crew throwing away a potential win in Michigan to winning a playoff race. He might not be one of the favorites for the title but what he most certainly is, is a dark horse.

Going into the round of 12, drivers will be wary of Tyler Reddick, who will have his teammate Bubba Wallace to support him if need be. Will he be able to pull off another shock or two this season? Only time will tell.

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