With an advantage of just a single point, Tyler Reddick clinched the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship after a wild Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, September 1.
The two-time Xfinity Series champion from Corning, California, persevered and ground through an event that spanned nearly four hours and seven cautions for 39 laps. Amid his battle on the track to contend for the regular-season title, Reddick himself was also battling an illness that he first radioed to his team after the first stage period that ended on Lap 130, where he finished fourth and picked up seven stage points.
Receiving medicine, water and crackers from his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota pit crew to maintain his health from inside the cockpit, Reddick fought through his illness to steer his car to an eighth-place result after the second stage period on Lap 230. By then, he had accumulated a total of 10 stage points, three from the latter stage period. With Kyle Larson sweeping the event’s first two stages, however, Reddick had a 17-point advantage he had coming into the Southern 500 weekend disappear as Larson was in prime position to win his second regular-season title.
For the majority of the final 130 laps throughout the final stage period, Larson continued his early dominance by dominating with the top spot on the track as Reddick was struggling to keep pace with the front-runners.
Then through a series of late-race incidents and late green flag pit strategies ensuing as Larson would be challenged late by Denny Hamlin and eventual winner Chase Briscoe for the top spot, Reddick opted to pit during an extensive caution period that started with 24 laps remaining due to a heavy multi-car wreck that involved Reddick’s teammate Bubba Wallace, who was trying to race his way into the Playoffs.
Restarting inside the top 12 during a 17-lap shootout to the finish, Reddick would manage to gain two spots and claim the checkered flag in 10th place for his 18th top-10 result of the 2024 Cup Series season. With Larson falling back to fourth place despite leading a race-high 263 laps and winning the event’s first two stages, Reddick emerged on top of the regular-season standings by a single point over Larson as the former emerged as a regular-season champion for the first time in his fifth full-time season in the Cup Series level,
With his accomplishment, Reddick, who is in his second consecutive season driving the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, joined Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott as competitors to win a Cup Series Regular Season Championship. The championship was also the first of any type in NASCAR for 23XI Racing, which is in its fourth season in competition.
With the regular-season title and 15 Playoff points, Reddick will commence the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs in third place in the Playoff standings with 2,028 points, where he is four points behind runner-up Christopher Bell and 12 points behind Playoff points leader Kyle Larson entering next weekend’s Playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Amid the relief of securing the 2024 regular-season championship, Reddick could not overlook the disappointment and the run he had at Darlington that nearly cost him the title.
“Things fell our way there at the end,” Reddick said on USA Network. “[The regular-season title]’s huge for us,” Reddick added. “This is what this team’s all about. I feel like this is the worst night we’ve had in months and months speed-wise wise and we still finished 10th. It was kind of an all-out struggle for us, so just really proud of everybody on this team, staying behind me. Shame we gave some points up. I feel like this is a race we could win, but it’s really nice to, in year two for me here at this team and year four of this team for [the team overall], to get the regular season championship like we did.”
With the 2024 Cup Series Regular Season Championship officially locked up, the 2024 season overall is shaping up to be Reddick’s best season overall in NASCAR’s premier series. The Californian has won twice this season, the first occurring at Talladega Superspeedway in April before he won two weeks ago at Michigan International Speedway. In addition, he has racked up 11 top-five results and 18 top-10 results, the most he has garnered in a Cup season, throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch. With a season-best average-finishing result of 11.2, Reddick enters the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs as a prime favorite to contend for this year’s championship.
Tyler Reddick’s pursuit for a Cup Series championship commences next Sunday, September 8, at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Quaker State 400. The event’s coverage is scheduled to commence at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.
