Toyota Racing – Tyler Reddick
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
KANSAS CITY (September 28, 2024) – 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 DraftKings Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Were you able to pinpoint why 23XI Racing didn’t have the speed in the spring race at Kansas?
“There was a lot of things that happened in the race that contributed to that. Specifically for our team, we were very close in practice, qualifying didn’t exactly go perfect. Made some mistakes on my end that put us out of the top 10. But as for the race itself, yeah, I’d say we were decent. I think we could’ve ran top five but certainly hitting the wall the way I did to start the race racing the 48 (Alex Bowman) did a lot of damage to our car and from there it spiraled out of control. We ran something over and put a hole in the floor in the car so just a lot of things went wrong to really hurt the performance. Certainly, seeing some of the tire wear that we had that others didn’t there was some things that we learned there. I think the finish wasn’t great, but as we prepared for this coming weekend we weren’t panicked or any kind of freak out coming back here because the other Toyota’s ran good, and we know where they’re at. And we’ve been very close. We’ve had winning speed and had that potential in year’s past, so we knew that we weren’t going to have to look at a lot of things to improve and change coming back.”
Can you bring things from last year’s race win at Kansas into Sunday’s race?
“When the race happens isn’t necessarily a factor, it’s just the temperature of the weekend. Is it cloudy? Is it sunny? What’s the air temperature? What’s the track temperature? Is it going to be humid? Is it going to be dry? All those things kind of change it more so than the time of year. And typically, further into the year yeah, it’s normally a little bit cooler but that’s all of the information we know coming into it and have already adjusted for. I don’t necessarily think it moves the needle on what you bring setup wise, but it can kind of dictate where you start with the balance of your race car compared to the spring races.”
How would you summarize the first round of the Playoffs and do you feel you have momentum left?
“It’s there. Well, we’ll see shortly, I think it’s there. It was definitely not a good first round for us. Yeah, I think a number of things played into that, but we’ve done a really good job all year long of at our worst being able to still get a top 10 out of it. Some of the handling issues that we had at tracks where normally it’s not an issue for us really set that in stone for the first round. I think we still could’ve scored decent points especially the last two races. We were just missing things a little bit – made mistakes in qualifying on my behalf that put us back there and then were in that box where we have to get a little desperate or aggressive, if you will, to try and get some points out of it. Yeah, we’re able to look at the results and understand why we were there. We’re not scratching our heads as to why we ran that bad. We know what caused it. Yeah, it is what it is. It stinks, but you get to reset and start over for this round where we were at the beginning.”
Does winning at Talladega in the spring give you more confidence going there in the Playoffs, and do you approach this race differently because it’s in the Playoffs?
“I don’t think we approach it differently. You still need to do what is best for your team whether that’s as yourself or working with the other Toyotas. I think a number of us, all of us will have an understanding of what we need to do going in there, but yeah, each speedway is so unique. 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. I think that’s going to really dictate who gets where.”
Do you foresee this round could be as big of a wild card as the Round of 16?
“Certainly, I definitely do. Just it will be that much more important to have solid races and that’s kind of what our foundation has been the majority of this year. Yeah, it will be nice to leave here with a win and not have to worry about the next two, but certainly our strengths has been about getting top fives and getting top 10s and scoring lot of points. If we do those things here, it will put us in a position where we’re not overly stressed going into Talladega and then the Roval. We went into it below the cut and were able to score a lot of points and advance by a good margin leaving there. All three of these tracks I think are good for our team. A lot can happen. A lot can take place early in the race – at any point in the race – and can really shift the flow of the race. But, typically, when that’s happened this year at some of these other events that we’ve normally had a good response to it and have been able to come out in the positive throughout those more chaotic races.”
Does it make it easier that Kansas starts this round of the Playoffs?
“I mean, I think it can – it depends on where you’re at, I think. I think if you’re below the cutline, if Talladega was the first race in the round, you’re just trying to have a really solid day and then you can kind of manage and run your own race a little bit more at the next two if they’re not speedway races. But at the end of the day, they all pay the same amount of points, the same potential is out there to be had or lost every single race weekend. Yeah, I think when you look at it on the calendar, right, next year, it was the opening race of the Round of 12 I’m sure people would be like, ‘Oh boy! That’s going to be a stressful race.’ Any time you go speedway racing so much can happen in such a short amount of time that you’re just kind of on the edge of your seat if you will throughout the whole race just hoping you can get out of there with a race car that’s clean and leaves the way it came to the race track.”
How do you find the balance going into practice to find a speed that you need for the race?
“I think a lot of it is what the team brings to the race track. Certainly, we play our part in what our car does, what kind of lap time it produces. But certainly, I definitely have been fortunate. I feel like every time I’ve been here whether it was the old car or this current car, whether it was RCR or now 23XI, it just seems like I’ve been able to come here and have solid cars and that gives me a good starting point to be able to have some good days. Certainly, the car has to play its part, but at a place like this where you have the seams, the change in banking from the bottom to the middle to the top, the little bit of tire fall off that we have, it is in your hands. But I just think it takes really fast Toyota Camrys but also, I feel like the team has had a really good mindset and that’s a fact – you can see it in the results. Certainly, those things you have to keep in mind going into this race weekend.”
What does it mean to see dirt track racers like yourself, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson at the top of the Playoff standings?
“I’ve only been a part of small chapters of it. I’ve only done this for a few years, but it certainly seems like from a fan’s perspective – my perspective as a fan growing up – there was less reward for taking a risk and I feel like now that just continues to elevate. So, for us, when we come from dirt racing, we’re used to making aggressive moves, dealing with aggressive race tracks, if you will, at times too and just having to go out there and in the first lap or two find it. You get three or four laps in warm up or practice and you gotta go run a lap in qualifying. Just our nature, our upbringing, really kind of primed us for how this car races today. You hear Kyle (Larson) talk about it right at Bristol — 100% of all you’ve got for 500 laps at Bristol. That’s just kind of the mindset we had growing up as drivers was just to always push the issue. I remember the last time I did go run some dirt, it was like wow, my mindset has really shifted. We’re used to having 40 or 50 laps opening stage or 20 or 30 laps in practice to really feel what you have, and when you go dirt racing you need to find it in two laps. A lot of times your races are 20 to 30 laps, maybe 50 in some of the bigger ones. You just don’t have the time or the luxury of time that you do here. It does really seem like the dirt racing mindset has applied well to this car I feel.”
How do you look at momentum?
“When things are going good, it’s easy. Confidence comes with very little effort, right? I think when you have a tough stretch or a bad weekend you have to, however it may work for you or that team, you’ve got to do the things that help get you back in the right mindset going into the next weekend. Yeah, it was certainly a letdown for us to perform like we did in the first round, but it’s hard to stay down for more than a couple hours after the race because when you look ahead and see what we have in front of us – one a great opportunity but also very, very good race tracks for our team. Good style of race tracks for our team. Your kind of in control of that if you will – the team, the driver. You’ve just got to have the right mindset. We’ve had these things happen in the past. A year ago, it was up and as soon as it was up, it was all the way down to the very bottom. We’ve had to deal with this in the past.”
How do you feel about what you can do with the mile-and-a-half program in the Playoffs?
“Looking back at it, we have Charlotte where we had unfortunately – started from pit road essentially, and, then pulled off the leaders on scuffed tires so I mean we were good there. I was planning on using all 400 laps to get to the front, we just ran out of time unfortunately. And then, I look at Michigan and that car was just lights out. Michigan and Kansas are different sizes, but the amount of banking the track has, some of the things that you need to have as a driver in your car or mindset as a driver, can apply here too. Being that we were as good as we were at Michigan, we can’t help but be really excited for this weekend in Kansas.”
What are your thoughts on the changes to the Roval track layout for this year?
“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? It’s just that stretch from turn 6 over into the new turn 7. I’m not totally sure. I think it’s a corner, there’s not a lot of corners around the Roval where you really have the option to use that bumper or get physical to move people out of the way or get position, but that new turn 7 is certainly going to be slow enough where if you do a good enough job and stay close to someone through (turn) 6, I think it’s slow enough to where you can move someone out of the way without completely ending their day. It is a bit of an unknown. Certainly, there are some elevation changes that seem pretty alarming, but we’ll tackle it. I think the whole industry figured out the Roval pretty quick and I think we’ll be able to figure out this change too.”
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