RICHMOND, Va. — The Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday (Aug. 16) looked like it could have been one of 23XI Racing’s best as an organization.
Instead, it ended up being one of its worst.
After leading a combined 164 laps out of the first 241 and winning the first two stages, not a single one of the team’s four cars finishes inside the top 25. Bubba Wallace was the highest finisher in 28th, with Corey Heim in 29th, Riley Herbst in 31st and Tyler Reddick in 34th.
Heim and Herbst never had the speed on the night and got lapped twice. Wallace and Reddick, on the other hand, appeared to have the two fastest cars but had incidents ruin both of their nights.
Reddick won the opening stage with Wallace and 23XI team co-owner Denny Hamlin right behind him in second and third, setting up what could be a dream night for Hamlin’s squad. It turned into a nightmare for Reddick on lap 182 when Daniel Suarez got into the back of Ty Gibbs, sending him up the track and into the No. 45. Reddick spun into the wall, and his car never showed the same speed again.
Contact!
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 17, 2025
Ty Gibbs gets pushed into Tyler Reddick and the caution comes out.
📺 USA Network pic.twitter.com/mlOc5k8JPh
“Yeah, Daniel just got impatient and just knocked 54 [Gibbs] out of the way, and that’s what took us out,” Reddick said. “Yeah, unfortunately, I thought I had a feeling that was what was gonna happen. I was just hoping that more respect was gonna be given.
“But yeah, I mean, he went in there, he moved the 54. I don’t know if he meant for it to wreck me, but nonetheless, I feel like time and time again, Daniel’s done that type of thing.”
Reddick showed his displeasure with Suarez later in the race, pushing the No. 99 up the track at one point.
“Quite a bit [of damage],” Reddick said. “[It] went from a car that was one of the fastest on the track to one of the slowest, so yeah, it affected it quite a bit.”
Still, Wallace had the chance to make the night special for 23XI. He led a race-high 123 laps and won stage 2. He had lost the lead to Austin Dillon, but was still in contention for the win when it all went wrong. When Wallace pitted during a green flag pit cycle, one of the tires came off of the No. 23 as he pulled out of his pit stall. Wallace didn’t leave pit road without the tire, but he lost two laps because of the issue in a race that went green flag the rest of the way.
The No. 23 team owes the No. 19 team a steak dinner for this. pic.twitter.com/2jzaTPHhtW
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 17, 2025
Frontstretch reached out to Wallace after the race, but he declined comment.
The night got worse for Reddick with the one-two finish of Dillon and Alex Bowman. Dillon made it so one less driver will make the playoffs on points, while Bowman closed the gap on Reddick to 29 points. Should there be a new winner at Daytona International Speedway in the regular season finale, then that battle between Bowman and Reddick would be for the final playoff spot.
“Yeah, it’s pretty much worst case scenario for us,” Reddick said. “When you have a Chumba Casino Toyota Camry as fast as ours is, you need to score the points. 48 [Bowman] scored a lot of points and the 3 [Dillon] won. So, yeah, all in all, it’s pretty much worst case scenario. Yeah, we can thank Daniel Suarez for that.”
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.