When a driver wins, it’s never his win alone. The call from the pit box equally makes the difference. That’s what happened with Tyler Reddick’s race at Darlington. There were quite a few essential decisions made during the race that helped him get back into the lead, and insider Steve Letarte made special mention of that talent.

The backhand that helped Tyler Reddick win at Darlington

“He’s doing a great job on top of the pit box, his call to change that battery and just get ahead of his problem. That shows great leadership,” Steve Letarte said, analyzing Reddick’s performance at Darlington. Although he began the race from the front row, leading the pack with his teammate, Bubba Wallace, Reddick quickly lost places.

There were some issues with his battery, supplying low voltage. His crew chief, Billy Scott, quickly asked the team to turn down other things in the car, including his air conditioning unit, to maintain the voltage. When that didn’t seem to work, he pitted the #45, gambling on a potential race win. But that worked in the way he intended. This, matched with the right calls for changing tires, helped the 23XI crew add another race win to their portfolio.

While Letarte does appreciate Scott for his quick thinking and mindful calls, he also recognizes how much pressure Tyler Reddick was under. Midway into the race, he could be seen pumping the water out of his cooling system on the track. Considering just how hot the tarmac was, he was understandably racing under great pressure. Yet he managed to push the hardest on the track, ultimately dominating with 77 laps led and winning his fourth of the six races. Noticing this, Letarte spoke from personal experience:

“This is a driver sport, and I was lucky to crew chief for two great ones. And when you have a pedal pusher, man, there’s nothing else. There’s nothing else that makes magic happen, like just raw talent. I think that’s what Reddick is showing, right?”

The overtakes were made just a little bit easier with the low-downforce and high-horsepower setup the teams had on the track. Making full use of the same, Reddick managed to pull some of the most breathtaking moves, getting back to the lead just in time to clinch the lead and win the race. At the same time, however, there were also some aspects of the track that suited the 23XI cars just right.

Reddick’s domination justifies 23XI Racing’s $35 million investment

The Denny Hamlin–Michael Jordan pair has been making quite a few massive investments into their operations for the team, which also includes their $35 million air shop, which they call AirSpeed. It features state-of-the-art architecture and facilities for the team to work on their overall performance. And as Tyler Reddick said last Saturday after qualifying on pole position, it seems to be serving its purpose:

“It was super important to have good work back at AirSpeed on the simulator, for what adjustments we needed to make.”

Moreover, Toyota’s total domination also seems to be contributing to this, as Reddick claimed that the Camry had a major advantage over the competition on the track:

“The handling really stays with our Toyota Camry and I knew qualifying was going to be really tough and a lot of drivers were having trouble finding that edge, that limit in turn one, and we nailed that pretty good.”

Toyota’s advantage has been working out pretty well for the drivers currently. The OEM clinched victory in five of the first six races held in the season so far, with Tyler Reddick winning six of them. His domination has been undeniable so far, and while a NASCAR veteran feels that others will catch up with the Toyotas soon, they might miss out on realistically contending for the title, considering the Chase format’s point system.

This could mean extremely good news for the #45 crew down at 23XI Racing, who went through a victory drought in the 2025 season. But right now, Reddick is busy on a redemption drive.