NASCAR insiders recap Tyler Reddick's Roval effort to advance in NASCAR Playoffs

Tyler Reddick had a strong finish at the NASCAR Cup Series Roval race on Sunday to advance in the playoffs. On The Teardown podcast, NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic recapped how Reddick battled the challenges he faced at the Roval to make it to the Round of 8.

“Very fascinating actually because he comes in, he decides to put on tires and he restarts 26th. You’re like this is gonna be a long way to go. Yeah, he’s got tires, but he’s got to overcome a 14-point deficit, really 15,” Gluck said. “…You’re like okay, well let’s see what he can do. He starts picking spots, [Joey] Logano loses a couple spots, three spots total. But Reddick drives from 26th to 11th to make it in by four points.

“It really wasn’t even that close in the final laps. He got it done fairly quickly, and it was kind of obvious even with five to go or whatever the direction that things were going. …It looked quite dicey for a minute there and Reddick survives.”

As Gluck was talking about Reddick, Bianchi mentioned that Reddick was competing “with a car that’s not 100 percent” because of the wreck he was in when he slammed into Denny Hamlin who is the co-owner of 23XI Racing, the team Reddick drives for.

Tyler Reddick talks about facing added pressure in the NASCAR playoffs

Reddick is one step closer to winning the Cup Series. It’s already been a good year for the 28-year-old as he won the regular season championship. Before the playoffs, Reddick was asked if there was more pressure to win the championship after winning the regular season title.

“I don’t know if there is more pressure. Just as you get closer and closer to Phoenix, I think it just builds naturally – the longer you are in it, the better shot you have, so you kind of have to understand the moment and you have to set-up and perform and execute each weekend,” Reddick told reporters. “This first round presents its challenges, but there are 16 of us – all in this together – if one of us has a bad day, there will probably be three or four of us that will too. Hopefully, we can weather the bad days and just not have them – that’s has been our strong suit – when things happen around us and we miss it. We will just see how it goes.”