“We Got Big Problems”– Frustrated Tyler Reddick Publicly Calls Out 23XI Racing’s Chase Embarrassment

When Tyler Reddick came to Kansas in the spring, the No. 45 Toyota looked like it belonged at the front. Reddick chased down Kyle Larson before making the winning pass between Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap of overtime, securing his fifth victory in the first nine races of 2026. The Toyota camp looked like the class of the field, and Reddick appeared to have everything needed for a championship run. Fast forward to the Chase race at the same track, and the picture could hardly be more different.

The Toyotas are no longer dominating the 1.5-mile tracks, their rivals have closed the gap, and Reddick’s frustration has become impossible to hide.

“We got big problems. We just gotta figure our own shit out right now, and just not even be worried about that,” Tyler Reddick told Matt Weaver after finishing 11th at Kansas.

By the time Reddick climbed out of the No. 45 Toyota this time around, there was little doubt that 23XI Racing had been through a frustrating afternoon. The team had spent much of the race trying to understand why its car was so far from the pace needed to compete at the front.

Reddick started 15th and quickly discovered that the car was not going to make his afternoon easy. He lost five positions on the opening lap, slipped to 22nd by Lap 3, and continued falling through the field. By Lap 15, he was running 34th. The biggest issue was balance.

Reddick reported that the car was loose, leaving his crew with a significant handling problem to address. The team made major adjustments during the stage break. They attempted to move the No. 45 into a better window rather than simply accepting that it was going to spend the afternoon in traffic.

There was some progress. But it was hardly the kind of improvement 23XI needed. During a 29-lap green-flag run, Reddick gained just one position and ended the run in 27th. The lack of forward progress was particularly concerning because there were no obvious circumstances preventing him from moving through the field. The car simply did not have enough pace.

Then the race began creating opportunities for him. Reddick avoided a multi-car wreck on a restart and suddenly found himself up to 23rd. Another restart after a subsequent incident allowed him to jump to 18th.

This time, Reddick finally began moving forward on his own. He worked his way to 13th by the end of Stage 2. Reddick turned what had looked like a lost afternoon into something that could at least produce a respectable result.

The final stage provided an even bigger boost. Reddick restarted 11th and immediately attacked, going three-wide and charging into sixth. He moved into fifth a couple of laps later, putting himself firmly back in the picture after spending most of the race fighting from the wrong end of the field.

For a moment, the recovery appeared capable of producing exactly the kind of result 23XI needed. Reddick was still running seventh when the likely final round of pit stops approached. A clean stop could have kept him in contention for a top-10 finish.

Instead, the pit crew handed him another problem. The left-front tire was not secure when the jack dropped to signal that Reddick could leave. The resulting delay kept him on pit road for 18 seconds, while most of the other teams completed their stops in roughly eight or nine seconds.

After fighting his way from 34th to the top five, Reddick suddenly had to recover again. He managed to climb back to 11th before the checkered flag. But the result did little to hide the underlying problem. The No. 45 had shown flashes of speed once the team found a better balance, yet it had spent far too much of the afternoon trying to get there.

And that has become a recurring theme during the Chase. Bristol brought another difficult start. There, Reddick had dropped through the field and faced the possibility of going a lap down before a competition caution on Lap 40 provided some relief. He eventually finished 18th. Gateway was even tougher, with Reddick starting 18th and ending the race 25th.

The timing makes the situation even more uncomfortable. Reddick entered the Chase in third place despite his summer struggles. His third-place finish at Darlington appeared to offer a potential turning point. However, the next three races have instead pushed him further away from the championship fight.

After Kansas, Reddick remains seventh in the standings, but the gap to Larson has ballooned to 111 points. Reddick failed to earn any stage points while Larson collected all 76 available points.

Yet the points deficit may not even be the biggest concern for 23XI. The more pressing issue is the competitive picture. For a team that began 2026 looking capable of dictating races, the sudden lack of speed has left Reddick and his crew searching for answers. And with Las Vegas next, 23XI does not have much time to figure it out.

The post “We Got Big Problems”– Frustrated Tyler Reddick Publicly Calls Out 23XI Racing’s Chase Embarrassment appeared first on EssentiallySports.