In the 2024 Cup Series regular season, the 23XI Racing sensation Tyler Reddick was all the rage. Reddick edged out Kyle Larson to bag the regular season championship after his impeccable consistency. In only his second season with the team, he managed to get three wins. It is surprising that the #45’s playoff campaign so far has been the exact opposite.

After a decent P6 finish in the playoff opener at Atlanta, Reddick has struggled. The kind of tracks that he dominated in the regular season seem to be failing him. While Reddick was hopeful for redemption in the second round, the same trend has continued. The 23XI driver finished 25th in the Kansas race, leaving many wondering if he’s the same Reddick. The #45 currently finds himself in the elimination zone!

Is Tyler Reddick still a championship favorite?

Before getting crowned the regular season champion, Reddick bagged eleven top-5s and eighteen top-10s this season. Despite being sick during the regular season finale, he ended with a 10th-place finish in Darlington. The two-time (2018, 2019) Xfinity Series champion was on the path to glory in the Cup. However, he has faced disappointment in the playoffs. In the second race at Watkins Glen, the #45 finished 27th. This came after he had straight top-10 finishes in five road course races prior to this. Reddick is known to dominate road courses.

Next up was Bristol, where Tyler Reddick finished 20th. This came after he showed consistency on short tracks. The most recent was Richmond, where the 23XI driver got a P3 finish. In total, he only managed to get 69 points in the first round. Speaking about round one, Reddick said, “It was definitely not a good first round for us. Yeah, I think a number of things played into that.” Despite this, he was the 3rd top-seeded driver going into the next round, thanks to the points from the regular season.

But again for Reddick, a disappointing performance commenced the second round. After starting P4, he ended the race in the 25th position. This came as a surprise, as he won the race on the track last year. After the race, Reddick is -4 points below the cutoff line. His playoff performance so far had NASCAR analyst Eric Estepp wondering, “Where is Reddick?”

In his video, on September 30, Estepp said, “Something has changed these last couple weeks the Mojo is gone they should have been a lot faster today. This was the same tire at that was run at Las Vegas Nashville and Pocono he finished second third and sixth in those races. At Michigan a few weeks ago similar intermediate track he won looked dominant what happened today? I’ve been asking that three weeks in a row. What happened at Watkins Glen where was Reddick at Bristol? where was Tyler Reddick today? I’m officially concerned not just a little very concerned.”

Reddick too seems a bit concerned now. Post the Kansas race, he said, “I guess for me it comes to just performance. For a month straight, we haven’t been that great, but we have two weeks to figure it out.” Next up is Talladega. Can they bounce back?

How do the next two races look for the championship hopeful?

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Estepp, further in his analysis said, “He’s the defending Talladega winner we’re going to Talladega this week. Ran well at Atlanta. Other than the recent Atlanta race, Reddick hasn’t performed well on superspeedways. In the most recent Daytona race, he finished 28th, and in the spring one, he only managed a P29 finish.” Other than his one win at Talladega last year, his performance on the track has been average in the recent past. His average finish on the track since 2021 has been 20.9 after an average start of 13.6.

Speaking on the Talladega race, Reddick said, “I have confidence when we go to the speedways certainly of what we need to do to put ourselves in position to win, but every race plays out just so unique it’s hard to say, “Well, it’s going to play out in the same way and we’re going to get to the front because of it. So, we just have to be adaptable when you go to speedway races like that. You have to be ready to adjust up or adjust down. It just depends on how much fuel saving takes place in the stages of the race.”

Now that he’s had a bad day at Kansas, a good finish at Talladega becomes inevitable. The eliminator of the round of 12 is Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, which might be the #45’s strongest chance. After all, he is the winningest driver on road courses when it comes to the next-gen car. Reddick has secured three wins in the past two years. The first two came at Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2022, followed by a win at COTA in 2023. In last year’s Charlotte ROVAL, Reddick finished 6th. The 23XI driver has never finished below the top 12 on the track.

However, after Watkins Glen, it is hard to tell if Reddick will showcase his road course prowess or not. Making matters worse, the track has been recently reconfigured, bringing in a lot of unknowns in the race. “I’m not totally sure how it’s going to change it. I think I remember when we went to running the Roval and just there’s a lot of unknowns. I remember how slick the surface was. The tire we were running at the time was a harder tire on the Cup and Xfinity car and it just didn’t mesh well until it really rubbered in, so I remember there were a lot of spins and a lot of crashing in practice. But for the most part, a lot of the surface hasn’t changed, right?” Reddick said, speaking about the changes on the ROVAL.

Overall, it seems like the #45 team has their work cut out. If all goes well, Reddick will progress to the round of 8. However, with his current form, things look tough. What do you think are his chances of making it to the next round? Let us know in the comments below.