Tyler Reddick has checked plenty of boxes at the tricky Darlington Raceway. Winning the Southern 500, however, remains elusive – and he’s growing tired of coming so close.
“It’s good to be in contention every year,” Reddick told USA Sports following a third-place effort in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500. “Thankfully, we did win the spring race or I would be devastated right now. Great points day, big picture for us. I really want to win this race bad – I really do.”
Reddick, the five-time winner in 2026, began the lengthy 367-lap marathon from pole position after qualifying was set per the NASCAR rule book. He remained at the front of the field for much of the opening stage, winning his second stage of the season.
The No. 45 Toyota remained in contention for the majority of Stage 2, but had a glitch on pit road when the left-front wheel didn’t get tight on a Lap 189 pit stop. Front tire changer Devin Lester caught the miscue and pounded on Reddick’s hood to make him aware of the error. Reddick, who had the first pit stall, reversed back into his box for the crew to tighten the wheel.
While the mistake cost Reddick valuable track position, he managed to score a pair of stage points, banking 12 for the evening.
“The guys did a great job catching it – that could have been catastrophic, especially being the first pit stall, there’s nowhere else to go to catch that,” Reddick added. “Good job by the boys to not make the mistake much, much worse. We lost a little bit of track position at a critical time.
“I think, for us, where our car went was more so of where we were track-position wise and fell a bit behind.”
Reddick rallied throughout the rest of the race to the back half of the top five. After a short red flag for a light drizzle, Billy Scott, crew chief of the 23XI Racing bunch, opted to pit Reddick with less than 30 laps remaining. Restarting outside the top five, the No. 45 car charged forward, passing challengers Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe in short order. He took the checkered flag in third place, 2.5 seconds behind Toyota teammate Christopher Bell for the victory. Ty Gibbs finished runner-up.
“It was a little tough at the end, but we think we know where we need to be at the end of the race for years to come,” Reddick stated. “It’s great to come here and lead laps. Good day for The Chase, but really want to win this race – one day we will.”
Darlington continues to rank among Reddick’s best venues. He led 74 laps, the most he’s paced the field since the Coca-Cola 600 more than three months ago. He has five consecutive top-10 finishes at the “Lady in Black” and four podium finishes in his last handful of starts in the crown jewel race.
Including the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, Reddick has consecutive top-five finishes for the first time since rattling off three straight in May. With nine races remaining in The Chase, he dropped one spot to fourth in the standings. His 46 points were the second-most in the race behind Bell, helping him gain 11 points on Denny Hamlin, now 24 points off the lead.