Why Tyler Reddick isn’t hiding his feelings right now

At the time of his runner-up finish in the Southern 500, Tyler Reddick wasn’t going to override his disappointment with waxed poetic about one of his better runs of the summer of big picture satisfaction about a directionally playoff opener.

He wanted to win a NASCAR crown jewel, and at this point in an otherwise winless season, any race and that was the most prevalent mood immediately after climbing out of his car.

Three days later, Reddick is more accepting of those big picture themes, that he had one of his most complete races in several months amidst kind of a summer swoon, and also left 35 points above the cutline.

He still feels both though.

“It’s pretty equal,” Reddick said on Wednesday during a NASCAR media call. “The goal going into that race was try to score the most amount of points. The (Joe Gibbs Racing) 19 scored more than we did, obviously, but aside from him we scored a bunch of points and moved ourselves from below the cut to above it.

“That was what we needed to do for sure. More selfishly for myself as a driver, the goal this past trip was to win, and we were in a position to capitalize on others’ misfortune but it basically came down to a combination of not getting by (Chase Briscoe) on that last restart and the track was a little tricky to keep up with at the end and we missed the balance. … Knowing that we were this close still stings but it’s done, in the past, and we move on to Gateway and the attention is trying to score 30-40 points there and be in a position to not be worried at Bristol.”

“When things are not going good, let’s not act like they are”

Reddick has not carried his usual positivity at the tracks this summer, a reflection of only having one race inside the top-10 before his Southern 500 performance. Overall, they haven’t won yet and are down two positions in average finish from where they were last year when they were the regular season champions, with three wins and a final four appearance.

Again, there isn’t a lot of smiling and laughing at the track these days, and Reddick says it’s that way at the shop too as he and crew chief Billy Scott have a shared stance on how they express their feelings.

“Honestly, where I stand is, when things are not going good, let’s not act like they are, you know,” Reddick said. “Let’s be real with each other and ourselves. If things are bad, or they are not going well, just pretending they are good is just not a good way to go about it.

“And I feel like we have done a good job of being honest with one another when we have bad days or good days. I just think that being transparent is more important than carrying around this fake positive attitude. So for me, I just feel like being transparent and addressing what needs to be addressed is the right way to go about it.”

Reddick says his whole 23XI Racing No. 45 crew ‘wear it on our shoulders, chest or sleeve, whatever the saying is’ because they are all putting in the hours in their respective trenches. That includes Reddick, who says that he is spending a lot of time at their AirSpeed shop because it is important to work with them, even if he isn’t an engineer or mechanic.

“I try to make sure that everyone knows that I am doing my part too and will work just as hard as they do,” he said.

Striking balance between racing and home life

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing Toyota, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Logan Riely / Getty Images

To wit, Reddick was conducting this media availability from his office at AirSpeed. But what happens when he goes home? Reddick conceded that it’s hard to separate work from home but credited wife Alexa and children Beau and Rookie George for resetting his vibes.

“It’s a tough balance,” Reddick said. “I think you try to the best of your ability to keep the two separate, but again, when so much of your life is tied into racing, it hard to keep them separated. I think it’s good to carry the good days at AirSpeed back home and carry that energy over but not do the same thing when you have a bad day at the race track and let that negative energy effect your loved ones as well.”

Reddick says becoming a dad has helped him better manage those dueling dynamics.

“I feel like on those tough days, those tough nights, when you get out of the race car and you want to be upset about it for days on end, it’s hard to do that when you have two kids, when you have a wife, when you have other things that you’re responsible for,” Reddick said. “I feel like my son’s done a good job whether he understands it or not, of on those real tough days of, helping me put it behind me pretty quickly.

“But yeah, it is a tough balance when you dedicate a large amount of the hours in the week to being successful on the weekends. It’s a tricky balance. I feel like I’ve caught myself many, many times bringing home, if it’s been a bad weekend, bringing home that negative energy and I have to catch myself, and stop myself and try to put it behind me.”

After this past weekend in the Southern 500, even the disappointment of not winning, there is momentum and a real sign of positive energy to carry over.