AVONDALE, Ariz. — If the spring event at Phoenix Raceway is an indication, Tyler Reddick has cause for optimism entering Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at the one-mile track.
Five Toyota drivers combined to lead 298 of 312 laps in that race, with Reddick tying his 23XI Racing team owner, Denny Hamlin, with a race-high 68. Ultimately, Reddick finished 10th behind winner Christopher Bell, who led 50 circuits.
Before this season, Reddick finished third in the spring races of 2022 and 2023, but he says there’s a reason to take his more lackluster results in previous championship races with a grain of salt, given that this is his first time at Phoenix with a chance to win the Cup title.
“I feel like those other years, the season’s just getting rolling (in the spring), and you come here, you go with what you know, and I feel like I’ve ran well. We come back here for Championship Weekend when we haven’t been part of it, that’s our opportunity to try something, to learn something, to take risks with strategy, so it’s not always guaranteed to work out.
“Yeah, it’s been hit-or-miss from that aspect, but certainly when the car’s been very capable, I’ve been able to find ways to get a little bit of speed out of it or just get the speed that the car has out of it and have a potentially good weekend…
“It’s nice to know that when we really focus on this weekend and bring what we know is going to work good, we have speed.”
Reddick comes to Phoenix having qualified for the Championship by winning from the pole Oct. 27 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the same track where he locked up consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series titles in 2018 and 2019.
Reddick is the only Toyota driver to win a Cup race since Bell triumphed at New Hampshire on June 23.