For 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, the sight of Austin Dillon igniting a controversial, final-lap chaos that included wrecking their team owner Denny Hamlin and leapfrogging his way into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs by winning the Cook Out 400 left both with mixed feelings despite both emerging with stellar top-five results.
For Reddick, who started in 10th place, he led eight of 408 over-scheduled laps in an event mired with various tire and pit strategies. Using pit strategy to remain in contention within the top-five and 10 marks while fighting the balance and adjustments of his No. 45 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE, the Corning, California, native was running in fourth place with two laps remaining when the event was sent into overtime following a two-car incident involving Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with two laps remaining.
Restarting in fourth place for the overtime shootout, Reddick retained the spot during the overtime shootout and navigated his way past a spinning Joey Logano and a wrecking Denny Hamlin through the frontstretch to initially finish in second place behind Austin Dillon, who wrecked the latter two to win the race. Ultimately, Reddick would end up in third place in the final running order after Hamlin was awarded the runner-up spot for maintaining race pace despite wrecking on the frontstretch.
Reddick’s third-place result marked his fourth top-three finish over the last five races and his 10th top-five result through 23 scheduled events. He is currently guaranteed a spot in the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at Talladega Superspeedway in April. He is also trailing Kyle Larson by five points for the lead in the regular-season standings with three regular-season events remaining on the calendar.
Despite being dealt with handling issues throughout the event, Reddick took away the positives from his top-three result at Richmond as he continues to set his sights towards achieving his first Cup Series championship.
“I feel like a year ago when we were here [at Richmond], we were really, really strong,” Reddick said on USA Network. “We had pace capable of winning the race. The handling was there and tonight, our handling wasn’t really great. We fought through it. We stayed in the mix. [Crew chief] Billy Scott, everybody on this No. 45 team did a great job on strategy. Overall, it was a good night for 23XI [Racing]. Wild way to end the night.”
Like Reddick, Wallace and his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE team executed for a second consecutive race by gaining valuable points to remain in Playoff contention.
The Mobile, Alabama, native rolled off the starting grid in eighth place and gained six stage points by finishing fifth after the first stage period. Despite dropping to 11th place amid a slow pit service during the stage break, Wallace bounced back amid various pit and tire strategies that ensued throughout the second stage period to settle in eighth place and gain three additional stage points.
Throughout the final stage period, Wallace raced in the top 10 and eventually worked his way into the top five, where he was running in fifth place during the event’s regulation before the event was sent into overtime. Retaining and restarting in fifth place for the overtime shootout, Wallace dodged the final lap carnage involving Logano and Hamlin to initially cross the finish line in third place before he was shuffled back to fourth.
With the result, Wallace, who finished fifth at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the previous Cup-scheduled event in July, notched his fifth top-five result and his ninth top-10 result of the 2024 Cup Series season.
The good news for Wallace was that the fourth-place result allowed the Alabama native to boost back above the top-16 cutline after he initially came into Richmond seven points below the cutline. The bad news, however, was that Austin Dillon’s victory that leaped Dillon from below the top-30 cutline in the regular-season standings and now has him automatically locked into the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs places Wallace on the bubble as he holds sole possession of the 16th and final transfer spot into the Playoffs by three points over both Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain.
Despite being left frustrated with the outcome and lingering within the cutline by a mere margin, Wallace, like teammate Reddick, took away the positives gained from Richmond as he set his sights on the final three regular-season events to make his second consecutive Playoffs.
“We knew we had to work coming in here, obviously being below [the cutline],” Wallace added. “Our team did just that. We fought hard. Man, we did not have the best day on pit road. Not from a lack of effort. I appreciate [my pit crew] getting better all night. They showed up when it mattered on the last stop. Kept us in it. Just executed all night. I appreciate the effort from my team. Nice to walk away here with a top-five finish. Still got a long way to go. Just got to keep fighting.”
Amid the positives, Reddick and Wallace, both of whom had front row seats of the final lap carnage, were not shy to express their opinions over the incident that left their team owner, Denny Hamlin, with a wrecked race car after he was turned by Dillon approaching the finish line not long after the latter bumped and sent Joey Logano for a spin, all as last lap resorts to win and secure a spot into the Playoffs.
“Joey [Logano] stole the words right from me,” Reddick added. “That was unbelievable. Racing hard for the win is one thing. Just plainly right hooking somebody is another. I know that sounds pretty biased coming from me about my boss, but if I was in his spot, I’d be pretty upset about it too. [NASCAR] put so much emphasis on winning races, people are gonna lose their minds and just do ridiculous stuff. That was pretty crazy.”
“Man, I guess you can dump somebody and right rear somebody and be OK,” Wallace, who quickly reversed his congratulations to Dillon, added. “That’s funny how that works. In [the Playoff cutline] by three, got beat by the 3 [Austin Dillon] over a chicken [expletive] move.”
The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season for 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace continues next Sunday, August 18, at Michigan International Speedway for the FireKeepers Casino 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
