REDDICK DELIVERS FIRST SUPERSPEEDWAY WIN FOR TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
Scores Cup Series Victory at Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala. (April 21, 2024) – Tyler Reddick won the first superspeedway race for the Toyota Camry XSE race car in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. Reddick led 13 laps, including the final six laps, in the 23XI No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry en route to his first Cup Series victory at the 2.66-mile Alabama superspeedway.
Martin Truex Jr. (11th) and Ty Gibbs (22nd) worked together with Reddick down the stretch after an incident earlier in the final stage collected the majority of the Camry competitors.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Talladega Superspeedway
Race 9 of 36 – 500.8 miles, 188 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, TYLER REDDICK
2nd, Brad Keselowski*
3rd, Noah Gragson*
4th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*
5th, Alex Bowman*
11th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
22nd, TY GIBBS
33rd, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
35th, ERIK JONES
36th, BUBBA WALLACE
37th, DENNY HAMLIN
38th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What does it mean to get the first superspeedway win for Toyota with this new Camry XSE?
“Man, it’s incredible. Everyone on this 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry worked really hard today. Didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position. Was that crazy, fans? Chaos. That’s Talladega for you.”
Can you take us through the final lap?
“Yeah, just got to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. It was just us Toyota’s left and they pushed me with everything they had so a huge credit to Martin and Ty. Without those pushes we don’t win this race.”
What were those final laps like out there?
“It was chaos. When you come to Talladega that’s what you expect. That’s for sure. So cool to get my second win here. First in the Cup car. Man, what a day.”
What were you thinking as you had to go to battle by yourself?
“I wasn’t alone. I had Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs. Man, the Toyota guys – this is what we do. We’re a family. We work together. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t unfortunately like we saw earlier. Man, just appreciate all of the help there at the end.”
MICHAEL JORDAN, 23XI Racing
What does it mean to be here at Talladega for Ty Reddick’s win today?
“Denny (Hamlin) keeps saying I was bad luck when I come to the track and today, we proved him wrong. I mean, look, actually he did a good job of wrecking so we could get upfront. That was actually pretty good. I think Tyler (Reddick) did a good job, unfortunately Bubba (Wallace) couldn’t finish but the whole team did a good job. Look, I’m very happy to be here to see it. Everybody tells me when we win, we have a big celebration, but this is the first time I’ve been here. To my wife and kids and everybody, ‘Yeah, we did it. Sorry I left you home.’”
What does this say about the 23XI team?
“Well, as you know, this is NBA Playoffs right now so this to me is like an NBA Playoff game. I am so ecstatic obviously for the fans who support the sport itself. We’ve been working hard trying to get ourselves to compete with the top guys in the sport. We’ve done a heck of a job just to be where we are. For us to win and to win a big race like this, it means so much to me and for the effort the team has done. Look, I’m all in. I’m all in. I love it. It replaces a lot of the competitiveness that I had in basketball. This is even worse because I have no control. If I was playing basketball, I have total control, but I have no control, so I live vicariously through these guys and all of the team and everybody. I’m very happy for everybody at 23XI.”
ERIK JONES, No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 35th
Are you physically okay and what happened on the track?
“Yeah, I’m a little sore but I’ll be alright. I don’t know – the 23 (Bubba Wallace) was pushing us there. Obviously, we were pushing and shoving and trying to make time with our strategy and I got pretty sideways getting into (turn) 3 and tried to gather it up and then ended up really hard into the wall. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for my team and my guys. Obviously, we wanted to have a good run but I’m alright. It’s a good thing. It was a hard hit and at the end of the day I guess if you’re going to be dumb you’ve got to be tough, so we’ll keep rolling.”
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 36th
What took place in the incident from your perspective?
“Just we were all pushing really hard to keep our line going. We had a plan and just didn’t execute it as well as we should. I hate it for our Leidos team. I look forward to running these places and then you just get trapped in somebody else’s mess. I hate it. It doesn’t make us look good at all. But all in all, we’ll just reset and go to Dover. We’ve got a long way to go.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ultimate Fan Contes Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 37th
Could you have done something different to avoid that wreck?
“I’m not sure. I was in the back of it, so I didn’t see what got the 43 (Erik Jones) turned. Obviously, we were trying to run a good lap time there and I thought we were really good on pace and then we just crashed. I’m really not sure honestly. I didn’t see it.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 38th
What happened that took you out of the race early?
“I’ve got no idea. It just saw a replay and it just looked like a stack up in the middle lane and unfortunately, I was in the wrong spot. I was in ride it out mode and got hit.”
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