KANSAS CITY, Kan. — If there was one team that should come to mind when thinking about strong runs at Kansas Speedway in the NextGen era, I’m almost certain that 23XI would be your answer. Entering Sunday’s (Sep 27) Hollywood Casino 400, both Chase drivers for the organization, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, looked to maintain the team’s standard at this track and hopefully swing the pendulum in the positive direction for their championship hopes.
Both drivers experienced days that were full of both setbacks and comebacks that ultimately ended in the pair sandwiching the 10th position, with Wallace in ninth and Reddick in 11th.
Reddick’s day couldn’t have started as more of a nightmare. Once the green flag dropped the No. 45 dropped the anchor and faded to 34th before the competition caution waved.
Reddick was moments away from being lapped when the caution came out, so the team needed to take major swings to get into contention.
“We got to get to the bottom of it for sure.” said Reddick.
Those swings appeared to be a difference maker as Reddick found himself battling in the top five into the final stage.
“A bit of a head scratcher, to be that far off,” said Reddick “I felt like we got it where it needed to be there when we settled in the fifth, and then we kind of went away again.”
On the final stop of the race the team dropped the jack before the left front lug was tightened, causing a slow stop that dropped them from where they were running in fifth. From there Reddick faded slightly until he was outside the top 10, once again.
In a lot of ways this was a good rebound from where they started, but it isn’t the kind of day a team with championship hopes is looking for.
“I mean, it still wasn’t a good finish for us, subpar for sure,” said Reddick. “We got behind again and didn’t have a good day.”
His teammate Wallace held solidly in the top 10 for most of the day but faded in the midstages of the race similar to how Reddick did at the beginning.
“Yeah we just missed something, as a whole. I noticed when I was bad, I was looking for the 45 and he wasn’t there,” said Wallace. “We just missed it as a group.”
As Wallace faded behind the top 10 he got caught up in a scuffle on a restart that followed Noah Gragson’s engine expiring which brought out a caution.
“I was just gonna maybe look at the middle, but at the time I thought of that, I was already turned,” said Wallace. “To me it looks like the 77 just hooked her right into the 54, but it is what it is.”
Wallace had a good bit of damage but it didn’t affect him too badly in the grand scheme of things as he had the best finish of the drivers that were caught up in that incident.
The results of the race left Reddick 91 points behind leader Kyle Larson with Wallace 140 back.
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