When the checkered flag flew after 367 laps and 500 miles at Darlington Raceway for Saturday night’s Southern 500, the drivers of 23XI Racing were looking good in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff point standings. But, there were times in the race it wasn’t looking that way for both drivers.
Tyler Reddick qualified fourth and finished second, almost running down race winner Chase Briscoe in the closing laps. His teammate of Bubba Wallace started eighth and came home sixth, giving them both solid finishes and good points nights.
However, they both had to overcome adversity during the race to earn what they achieved.
Reddick Gets Spun on Lap One
When the green flag flew to start the 367-lap event, Reddick had the No. 45 Toyota to the outside of third-place qualifier Josh Berry. As they went through Turns 1 & 2, Berry’s No. 21 Ford bobbled and got out of line causing him spin toward the outside wall.
In doing so, he made contact with Reddick causing him to spin to the inside. What could have been disastrous was avoided when he made a great move saving his car from hitting the wall, or other cars. From there. Reddick made it exciting coming back through the field and challenging for victory in the waning laps.
“We were better than he was on long runs,” Reddick said. “He could fire off a whole lot better. I think that was the difference tonight. I could get close. Yeah, I know we had a long run there, but it just unfortunately seemed like the last run the balance wasn’t quite as good as it has been the rest of the night on the long run.
“All-in-all, a really solid night for points in the Playoffs. It’s frustrating to finish second going for it like I did last spring, doing the wrong thing, ending our day and finishing 36th.
“I wish I could have been just a little bit closer. When I dove off in there, I was already sideways. I learned from last spring that that doesn’t work. Yeah, a good solid day, but hopefully one day we’ll win here at Darlington.”
Reddick heads to St. Louis this coming weekend fourth in points, 35 points above the Cutoff Line.
Bubba Bounces Back
On lap 154, many drivers came to pit road under caution for tires, fuel and adjustments. Wallace turned off the track running in fifth place. After getting service from his No. 23 Toyota crew, he was about to exit when they halted him from moving forward.
The reason was they needed to make sure the lug nut on the right rear tire was secured properly. That loss of time dropped him from the top five to 14th on the restart.
“I was doing my best to not over drive the corners the last couple of laps,” Wallace said. “I could see the No. 45 Reddick) really challenging the No. 19 (Briscoe). So all-in-all good day for our team, great Playoff start. Just solid execution.
“We had a couple of mistakes on pit road. We had a couple mistakes overall, but we were able to rebound really well.”
Wallace and team are currently seeded fifth in points, 25 points to the good.
Berry Shares Thoughts on His Spin
After heading to the garage with heavy right rear damage, the No. 21 Wood Brothers team leapt into action to make repairs and return Berry to action. They were able to do so and not get their third-consecutive DNF at Darlington. After more stops on pit road to continue repairs, they finished last in 38th place, 128 laps down and are 19 points below the Cutoff Line.
“It’s kind of hard to even really know, but the car bottomed out five or six times and just wrecked,” Berry said afterwards. “It was definitely unexpected. We didn’t really fight that too bad in practice.
“I saw a replay of it when I was sitting in the car while they were fixing it and you could tell that it bottomed out four or five times. You can’t save them when they’re like that.
“It’s just disappointing. It looked like a lot of people had a bad night.”
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