This season, Tyler Reddick has not lived up to his 2024 performance. Kevin Harvick believes he knows the culprit. A lot can change for drivers one year to the next. Luck plays a massive role. So, it’s not strange to see a NASCAR driver have a slump. Reddick’s has been particularly strange, though.
Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace both started the season earning a ton of stage points. That cooled off for Reddick while Wallace found a way to break through and win the Brickyard 400. Honestly, if it wasn’t for 7 DNFs for the 23 this season, they likely contend with Reddick in points.
Kevin Harvick talked about Reddick’s struggles on his Happy Hour podcast this week. For as fast as the 45 has been in 2025, the results don’t show it.
“It’s really confusing. When you look at the speed chart average for the first 26 weeks, he ranks fifth. So, they have speed, but they don’t execute. They don’t turn it into anything. But to me, it doesn’t feel like he’s had that top-five speed when I watch the races. And I know he got tore up again this weekend.
“I really thought they would progress into, especially the way that the 23 car has run. You know, the 23 of Bubba went through a lull there of time, but they got it back and got themselves to Victory Lane, started the year off like gangbusters. It’s not, it’s not been that type of year like we saw last year out of Tyler Reddick. So, not hard to do. You don’t have to miss by much to not be in that category anymore. But they just, to me, don’t feel like contenders at this point.”
Kevin Harvick talked about the underlying issue. It has little to do with courtroom drama, according to the Closer.
“I think when you look at 23XI, obviously, they have a lot going on off the racetrack, but on the racetrack, they added another car, and any time you expand it’s going to take some time to spread those resources out to be able to understand the flow of your compnay and know where the holes are of where to get those details,” Harvick explained. “So, I always look at expansion as somewhat of a disruption to a team. To be able to maintain at a high level of winning is tough. Because of the things that change. So, if I were going to point my finger at one thing, I would point towards expanding to three teams. That would be my guess.”