Imagine excelling on the outside, but boiling up inside. That is exactly what Tyler Reddick faced at the Darlington race. As the points leader, Reddick was on a fiery streak from the start. He maintained a spot in the top five—but that initial glory lasted only till the end of Stage 1. While his race car, firesuit, and pit crew were absolutely fine, problems flared up inside him.

The 23XI Racing driver complained about falling sick soon after Stage 1. That miserable situation stuck through the end of the race, which he surprisingly managed to finish. Post-race, Reddick revealed that more reasons lurked in the background for this health mishap, including his 4-year-old son’s condition a week ago.

Tyler Reddick laments about a sickening experience

The No. 45 Toyota driver is literally the star of the show at present. Tyler Reddick entered the Southern 500 race with a 17-point lead over Kyle Larson. Although he had to concede to Larson’s domination for 263 of 367 laps, the Hendrick Motorsports rival still could not catch up to Reddick’s level. He won the regular season championship with 2 wins, 11 top-fives, and 18 top-tens. And that is due largely to Reddick’s superb physical tenacity. Despite admitting to throwing up inside his car and dropping the medicines his team lent him, Reddick persisted till the end of the race.

Yet he could not help but harp on the reasons that led to his miserable situation. It turned out that Tyler Reddick’s son, Beau, had fallen sick last weekend in Daytona. And the same situation latched onto his father. Journalist Toby Christie updated on X about what Reddick revealed. “Tyler Reddick said the way he felt in the car today was the worst he’s ever felt in a race car. Says his son was having issues last week at Daytona. Reddick started feeling iffy on Friday, felt he’d be okay after Saturday, and then it all unleashed today in the race.”

Despite his concerning radio revelations mid-race, Tyler Reddick confessed that most of that was not true. Ultimately, he could hold in his sickness till the end. Christie wrote in another post, “Reddick says that despite what was said on the radio, he held all puke and other stuff in throughout the race. Says he almost was hoping to get it out during the race to get it over with, but it was able to hold off thanks to the pills from the team.”

Lengthy sighs of relief must have spread across the 23XI Racing team by now. Yet when Tyler Reddick dropped a bomb about falling sick inside his car, preparations were underway to keep the No. 45 on the race field.

Another Toyota driver was to replace Reddick

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Well, when you are inhaling plumes of smoke and racing at 200 mph for 367 laps, things are never easy. Especially when things have turned inside your stomach several times already. Tyler Reddick was in a dire situation at Darlington, and it did not seem likely that he would finish the race. So plans were afoot to keep the race going even if he dropped out. Martin Truex Jr was chosen for this, as he wrecked his car two laps into the Southern 500 along with Ryan Blaney.

Eventually, Reddick stuck through till the end, and Martin Truex Jr. had nothing but his own misfortune to think about. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver made it into the playoffs, as he had ardently hoped for before the race. “We should be fine. Hopefully, nothing out of our control happens and that’s really what it’s gonna take to get us out of there. If we can just run a smart race, have no failures, nothing crazy happens, we don’t get run over or crash or whatever early, we will be fine. Excited about our car. Thought it was really close today and the best one I’ve had here in a couple of years.” Ultimately, Truex did crash but got into the playoffs.

So things went wrong for both Tyler Reddick and Truex, although both achieved their milestones in the end. Now with the regular season at an end, we can focus thoroughly on the playoffs.