Tyler Reddick’s Chase starts strong with a little help from Mother Nature

Tyler Reddick put together one of the most impressive season starts in the sport’s recent history – claiming his first Daytona 500 win and then hoisting trophies at the next two consecutive races.

The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota has won five times – a personal single-season high – and at one point held a 129-point advantage over Denny Hamlin 12 races into the season.

Among his triumphant early-season work was a victory in the Darlington 400-miler – from pole position.

But a tough-luck spring-into-summer stretch for the No. 45 team allowed his team co-owner Hamlin to rally past and claim the regular-season title. Hamlin will now start with a 25-point advantage over Reddick in the 16-driver championship field, while Reddick enters the Chase third in the championship standings.

Still, with four finishes of 11th or better in the last five races, including a pole position and third-place run at Daytona last week, Reddick enters the Chase portion of the schedule feeling hopeful that he can win his first series title.

And then the weather gave him another little gift.

Inclement weather necessitated the cancellation of Busch Light Pole Qualifying at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway Friday evening, meaning Reddick will lead the field to green in Sunday night’s Chase-opening Cook Out Southern 500 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

This is the eighth time this season the five-race NASCAR Cup Series winner will start from the No. 1 position on the grid – five times through a formal qualifying session and three others as a result of a canceled session due to weather.

“This is literally the best-case scenario for us,’’ said a smiling Reddick, who has now started among the top 10 at every Darlington race throughout his entire four-year career at 23XI Racing.

Reddick led 77 of the 293 laps and won from pole position here in May.

“We were so strong here in the Spring,” he said. “Ironically enough, as I kind of got going in Cup racing it was during COVID with no practice at all and I got very used to just having to figure it out in the first corner.

“So for me, generally, I feel like we’re in a really good spot most weekends when this happens. But beyond that, as strong as we were, I know teams may want to try things to close the gap, but no one had that opportunity today so that helps us even more.’’

Reddick also believes his team’s struggles during the middle portion of the season could ultimately prove valuable now that the championship is on the line.

“I don’t think we need to flip a switch or do anything,’’ Reddick said of overcoming the rough mid-summer stretch. “We are going to be rolling back into tracks where we have won at, where we have led laps at, where we are extremely fast at.

“All things seem to be going the right direction at the right time,’’ he added. “It would have been great to hang on to the points lead. It would have been great to not fight the things that we did, but as much as the bad finishes were hard on our standing in the points, we learned a lot from it and with this Chase, the gap is gone and we are seeded and we are going to go now.”

Reddick said the adversity also gave his team a better understanding of how it needs to respond when things inevitably go sideways during the championship battle.

“We learned a lot about ourselves when we weren’t great,’’ he said. “I sternly believe every team in this Chase is going to face some adversity. … to stay locked in like we have, if we have situations come up in the Chase, we’re going to be ready for it. We’ll know how to handle it.”

Reddick will share the front row with fellow title contender Spire Motorsports’ Daniel Suárez in the No. 7 Chevrolet.

Chase drivers Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Ryan Preece and championship leader Denny Hamlin will roll off third and fourth. Hamlin, whose five Darlington wins are the most in the field, won the regular-season title and starts the race with a 25-point advantage over Reddick and the rest of the 16-driver championship field.

Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell, who is not championship-eligible, will start fifth, followed by a pair of Chase drivers, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and JGR’s Chase Briscoe. Briscoe is the two-time defending race winner and the only other multi-time winner among the field.

Three non-Chase drivers – HYAK Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman – round out the top 10 on the grid.

The rain-out metric has made for an interesting challenge for several of the other Chase drivers.

JGR’s Christopher Bell starts 11th, with Penske’s Joey Logano – a three-time series champion – 13th on the grid. Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace will start 17th alongside Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who is tops on the grid among the three title-chasing Hendrick team Chevrolets.

Hendrick’s William Byron starts 20th, Penske’s Ryan Blaney 24th, RFK’s Chris Buescher 25th, JGR’s Ty Gibbs 28th and Spire’s Carson Hocevar 34th.

Logano, Kyle Larson and Byron are all former Darlington race winners.

For Reddick, however, the opportunity is considerably simpler.

After spending much of the first half of the season looking like the man to beat, he now has a championship reset, a fast car and a pole position at a track where he already knows how to win.

Not a bad way to start the Chase.

STARTING LINEUP