Tyler Reddick remains one of the most discussed drivers heading into the Chase. But for very different reasons than at the beginning of 2026, when the 23XI Racing driver won five races in nine outings and was an early-season favorite to win the title. Since then, it’s been all flat tires, poor speed, and unfortunate mistakes like the one he made in Iowa last weekend.
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Early in the Iowa Corn 350, Reddick, who started the race in fifth, wiped out a fellow Toyota driver, Erik Jones. After the race, he took full blame for what happened to the #43 Legacy Motor Club car.
“Looking back at it, seeing it, ‘Oh, I don’t look like I’m where I need to be.’ I look crossed up, and typically I’ve got a really good gauge about stuff. I’ve been able to get out of trouble a lot over the years in my career. It’s just one of those that got me, and I can live with it if it was just us. Unfortunately, we collected a fellow Toyota teammate that was in the mix for the Chase,” Reddick said to Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
Jones was 18th in the standings, 44 points behind the cutline heading into the Iowa Speedway. And he looked good, having posted the fastest lap time in practice. His Toyota certainly looked good enough for stage points, which would have trimmed down the gap.
Sadly, Reddick effectively crushed his hopes of making it to the Chase. While the two battled for eighth position, Reddick lost control of his No. 45 Toyota. The car snapped, slid up the racetrack, and crashed into Jones’ car.
Both drivers DNFed, but Reddick is comfortably locked in for the Chase, which begins after three races. His Toyota ally Jones, meanwhile, faces an almost impossible uphill task heading into this home stretch of the regular season. And that’s what makes Reddick sadder about the whole situation.
He was classified 35th and dropped down two spots to 20th in the standings. Now instead of just strong stage points, he needs wins to make it to the top 16. Jones thinks it’s done and dusted.
“We needed four really good weeks, and it’s just not gonna happen,” he said after the Iowa Corn 350.
Tyler Reddick needs to get back on track
Reddick’s been on a free-fall since mid-June. Over the course of the last nine races, his stats barely reflect the performances of someone who, on paper, was a championship favorite a few months ago.
An average position of 25.8, with five finishes of 30th or worse. At one point, he had a 129-point lead over Denny Hamlin in the championship standings. Now, he’s fallen to fourth place, 120 points behind the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
And the panic isn’t new after Iowa’s debacle involving Jones. There have been questions surrounding his season beyond the Chase for some time now. Reddick, however, refuses to panic.
“It has been a little bit of hit or miss at times. We just have to figure it out. We’ve been going the wrong way for a while, and some of it is just racing.
“A couple of times we haven’t had the speed that we’ve come to expect out of ourselves. A little bit of both, but a lot of it has been crazy circumstances,” Reddick said about his poor run of form in an interview last month.
The 23XI Racing driver has also insisted that the NASCAR community should not count him out until the Chase begins. And practically speaking, that’s true. But at the same time, he heads into the most important part of the season low on results, points, and confidence.
NASCAR heads to Richmond, New Hampshire, and Daytona next to close out the 2026 regular season. At the last of those venues, Reddick won his first race of the season, declaring himself a force to watch out for. He’ll look to end the regular season at Daytona on a similar note, sending a warning to those already counting him out of the Chase.