Yahoo Autos ‘We did all that we could’ – Reddick
Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing came up short in their quest for the NASCAR Cup Series championship in Phoenix on Sunday, but Reddick believes they left everything they had out on the track.
Reddick was searching for speed from the No. 45 Toyota all weekend. After a disappointing practice session on Friday, he very nearly failed to make it through the first qualifying round on Saturday. While the team continued to improve the car throughout the weekend and during the race, he struggled to keep pace with title rivals Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney from Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsport’s William Byron on Sunday. He finished sixth.
“I feel like Stage 2 when we broke out and got right behind the No. 24 (Byron), No. 22 (Logano) and No. 12 (Blaney), I thought, ‘OK, let’s see where this goes,’” Reddick said.
“Over time, they kind of got away. I was within range of William and tried to make a move, and it didn’t work out. Then settled back in, and they steadily pulled away over time. That’s what happened in Stage 3, as well.
“We’ve got to find a little bit more speed, but we made the car better throughout the day. We maintained on pit road. We did all that we could, I think. But certainly it’s tough when they just get further and further away over time.
“We put up a good fight. We didn’t make any mistakes that took ourselves out of it. We fought as hard as we could. We made the car better throughout the day. We did what we needed to do. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the speed or the restarts we needed to get ahead and hold those guys up, or really put up a fight there at the very end. If we got the restarts, we could make old moves and most of the time make something of it. But I feel like with what we could control, we did all we could do.”
While Phoenix didn’t work out according to Reddick’s script, he can still bank the experience of being part of a championship fight.
“It was a fun process, getting ready for this,” he said. “I felt like myself and the entire team’s mindset, we were all in a really good place going into the race. I thought we were where we needed to be. We’ve just got to do some digging and try to bring a faster Camry when we come back in the spring, and give it another shot.
“You keep telling yourself in the car, ‘Anything can happen — a caution could come, you’ve got to stay ready.’ And when the checkered flag finally fell, the year is over, it’s time to re-gather yourself, reset, and think about what you need to work on in the off-season to show up better in 2025 than how you left 2024.”