23XI Hopes To Write New Headlines In Cup Series Playoffs

Both Bubba Wallace (23) and Tyler Reddick (45) hope to bring 23XI Racing its first NASCAR Cup Series championship this season. (Danny Hansen/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – The 10-week NASCAR Cup Series playoff gauntlet is here, and 23XI Racing feels the team can put up a good fight to secure the Bill France Cup for one of its drivers.

For the second time since becoming teammates, both Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick are in the postseason together. With momentum and solid records at some of the upcoming fall dates, both feel a Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway Championship 4 berth for either one of them is achievable.

“We’re not settled on the Indy win. It was a great opportunity that we capitalized on to set ourselves up for the ultimate goal from the beginning of the year, which was to be a champion,” said Wallace Wednesday during Cup Series playoff media day. “Immediately after Indy, I skipped the next four weeks and looked at the playoffs. I got really excited about each race that’s coming up.

“I don’t look at any round as, ‘Oh man, this might be a struggle for us.’ I also look at the playoff field the last couple weeks and no one is running away with  it,” Wallace added. “Yeah, you can’t run away from it if you reset the points every time. But no one’s had a breakout. You have a guy who can get on a hot streak for a couple races and then it’s somebody else. I think we’re all in for a treat [this postseason] for both drivers and spectators.”

Wallace feels like the playoffs are where he belongs. After a disappointing 2024, where he didn’t make the playoff field, he’s been eager to find redemption.

The ability and potential that his No. 23 team has this year is something that can foster a deep run. That hope began in February and now, after all the challenges the first 26 weeks provided, the fall is where Wallace looks to lay everything out on the line.

The 31-year-old’s goal: Become the top guy, no matter if it’s his boss Denny Hamlin or other top competitors from Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske who are in the way.

“If you can manage your race and solely focus on what you have going on for a weekend [that’s what matters]. We’ve been working hard to minimize that gap of long run speed,” he noted. “We want to focus on our race and find the utmost speed by pushing the potential each and every lap. The more you focus on yourself, I think the better your chances are. You get to manage your expectations, emotions and just enjoy the moment.”

His teammate Tyler Reddick echoed the same sentiments after he made the Championship 4 last season. However, after winning the regular season title in 2024, this year Reddick enters the Darlington (S.C.) Raceway playoff opener below the cut line.

That doesn’t phase the 29-year-old, but there is a sense of urgency from his team to start off fast.

Tyler Reddick (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

“It’s just experience. For me, I was on the good side [of the playoffs] last year. I’ve done this a few times with coming in with very little playoff points, so it’s just all experience. Last year was a little nicer because we were able to have those points to fall back on,” said Reddick. “It seemed like even though we had them, we found our way into trouble. But this time around we’ve got to be much more on top of it.

“We don’t have that much room for error this year but that’s okay. There’s a lot of good tracks in the playoffs for this team. Obviously, Darlington is a great one to start at.”

Reddick said speed is the strength of his team, but their weakness is execution. The Corning, Calif., native only has one top 10 in the last six races since Northern California’s Sonoma Raceway, where he was sixth on July 13.

Since then, he led 41 laps at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and was one of the favorites before being wrecked. But at the end of the day, good finishes matter, and that’s the reason he enters seeded 14th out of the 16-car field.

But Wallace and Reddick feel they can make a deep push into the fall to capture what would be 23XI’s first title amid the weekly NASCAR v. 23XI antitrust lawsuit headlines over claims of the sanctioning body running a monopoly.

At Darlington, Wallace had a four-race top 10 streak from 2022 to 2024. Then last year, when the crown jewel Southern 500 became a one-off regular season finale, he qualified on pole and led 37 laps.

Additionally, at playoff tracks in the Next-Gen era, Wallace has two wins, eight top fives, and 19 top 10s.

The Mobile, Ala., native historically competes better in the fall portion of the season. Since 2022, he has 12 top 10s in playoff races.

Reddick, meanwhile, has six Darlington top 10s. He was fourth back in May and has qualified 10th or better at the track each time since 2021. At playoff tracks Reddick has two wins, 10 top fives, 20 top 10s, and 711 laps led.

But Darlington consistently ranks among Reddick’s favorite tracks of all.

“All of [Darlington’s] little imperfections make it perfect. All of the little details that add up make it a tough race track to get around. Nowadays, all of these tracks are built to try to have them perfectly flat, smoothed out and they are great tracks,” said Reddick. “But a place like Darlington has a lot of character. It has a lot of things that a track, if it was built today, wouldn’t have. I think that is what makes it so great.”

This is Wallace’s second playoff appearance and for Reddick, this is postseason number five. Both drivers have been here before, but with the season clock starting to countdown, it’s time to perform.

Coverage of the 76th Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington is slated for Sunday, Aug. 31 on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.