Before this year’s NASCAR Cup Series, no driver had ever won the first three races of the season.
Now Reddick can lay claim to that feat, which his 23XI Racing team boss and co-owner Denny Hamlin said is unlikely to be repeated in his lifetime.
Even more remarkable was that his third win came at a road course, which has almost exclusively been Shane van Gisbergen’s domain since his arrival.
The Trackhouse Racing driver was vying for a record-equalling sixth straight road course win, but it was the pole position holder who proved he had more than just one-lap pace.
Backed by NBA legend Michael Jordan, Reddick beat van Gisbergen at his own game in a basketball-style one-v-one duel.
“I just had a feeling no matter where Shane was going to start, Connor [Zilisch], some of those guys, even [Ryan] Blaney was starting towards the front, I just had a feeling at the end there I was going to see Shane at some point,” said Reddick of the inevitable threat.
Click here to talk to the team.
“Obviously he blew my doors off at the beginning of the race, but that restart played out perfectly for him to slot into second. I’m like, ‘Of course there he is… I’m going to have to find a way to hold him off’.
“In this day and age of Cup racing, the Daytona 500 is so hard to win. It’s so hard to survive at [Atlanta Motor] Speedway, and we were able to do that.
“And to be able to hold off Shane at the end of that race to make it three in a row, it seems just very fitting that we had to go through the hurdles we did, especially these last two weeks, to pull this off.”
Reddick’s race started off unusually slowly. He lost the lead just two turns into the contest and faded towards the tail of the top 10 during Stage 1.
Eventually the switch flicked and his #45 Toyota Camry came alive.
“In practice and in the first run of the race, I didn’t quite have it right,” Reddick explained.
“Everyone was pushing pretty hard – well, I thought they were. I just had to make adjustments. It was unfortunate I lost all that track position that we worked hard to get.
“I remember it was Chase [Elliott] and then [William] Byron was behind him, and that’s finally when I was able to stop the bleeding at the beginning of the race, and then I was able to kind of march back forward.
“Whether it was at the Roval or a number of these other races, I just burn up a little too quick and I ended up on the other side of it at the start of the race today.
“It just took some adjustment as the race went on.”
So, where did it go wrong for SVG?
Even before the race began, van Gisbergen knew he had an uphill battle.
Qualifying was sub-par. He was only 13th fastest and knew that his car wasn’t set-up well for the twisty Austin circuit.
The team took a big swing at the set-up overnight to little avail. For the most part, van Gisbergen spent the race complaining about a lack of rear grip and understeer.
Still, he found a way to be in contention as others around him faded, and by the final restart was inside the top three and soon challenging Reddick for the race lead with 11 laps to go.
Van Gisbergen told his team his tyres were worn out.
“Needed just a little bit of everything. We lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive,” said van Gisberge post-race.
“Tyler was just amazing. The way he was driving was really good and his car was good. We just didn’t quite have enough.
“It was still an amazing result, but you’re always disappointed with second when the expectations are so high. But overall, it was a really good day.”
Reddick, though, was none the wiser of what was going on inside the #97 Camaro.
“I think for me in the heat of the battle it’s like, ‘All right, I’ve got to find a way to hold off Shane’,” Reddick explained of his thought process.
“But as I started to pull away, certainly, it’s like, ‘All right, there’s a lot on the line here, hit your marks, don’t be a hero; you don’t have to win by eight seconds’.
“It’s so important to just not make mistakes because who knows? Shane could have been playing games, right? Like, back off a bit, see if I burn myself up, and I back up to him at the end of the race.
“There’s so much going on there. He’s just so good on the road courses. Even when I was pulling away… I just didn’t let myself think it was over until it was truly over’.
“Certainly used the pressure of what’s on the line to motivate myself to hit marks and close it out.”
In the end, Reddick won comfortably, putting nearly four seconds on van Gisbergen.
Now the 23XI Racing driver has an illustrious opportunity to extend his winning streak to four.
That opportunity will come in a week at Phoenix, a track that he has finished no higher than third at in the Cup Series from 12 starts.
“My experience is in spring in Phoenix – a number of years, I think dating back to even the start of this car – we’ve been able to go there and be knocking on the door,” said Reddick.
“Last year we had the power steering failure that kind of knocked us out of it. Two years ago I remember me and Denny got together, the caution came out in the middle of the cycle.
“In my opinion, we go to the spring Phoenix race, we’re typically, like, right there. For whatever reason, when we go in the fall, we’re a little bit off.
“I’m really excited to see what we have for speed and pace over the next two weekends because we’ve worked really hard to improve things here.
“We’ve worked hard to kind of rethink how we get around Phoenix, and we’ve just kind of doubled down on the things that we’ve been improving at Vegas.
“Honestly, I’m very excited to see what kind of pace we have at Phoenix and Vegas as it comes up.”
Get the latest NASCAR news, stats, and US racing coverage at Speedcafe US
Discussion about this post