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Tyler Reddick clinches Cup Series regular-season championship after dramatic Southern 500

JHby:Jonathan Howard•09/01/24•

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Tyler Reddick regular season championship
Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

While he didn’t win the race, Tyler Reddick did all he had to do in order to win the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. He will take the 15 bonus playoff points that come with it and try to race for the big one in Phoenix.

Not only did Tyler Reddick clinch the championship, he did it while sick. Reddick was requesting medicine, food, and water throughout the Southern 500. At one point he admitted to throwing up and soiling himself, at least it felt like he was going to.

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With team co-owner Michael Jordan on the hood of his car, Reddick had his own kind of flu game. He bested Kyle Larson for the regular season title by a single point.

“I don’t really know if I did honestly just things fell our way there at the end,” Reddick said after the race. “Yeah I don’t know I started the day off feeling really really good. Just tryna take my time to get around Bubba, him and the 5 kind of jumped us on that first cycle. Thought we were, it’s a long race, we have plenty of time, plenty capable. It’s just, man. By the end of Stage 1 I couldn’t even really focus on what to tell the guys what to do on our Upper Deck Toyota Camry. So, it was just frustrating man, we had that buffer over the 5 and I just watched it disappear all day long and I, trying everything I can to drive this car as fast as I can, it was just a real struggle, honestly. I don’t have anything left.”

Tyler Reddick wanted to win but will take championship

During his postrace interview, Tyler Reddick was asked about how much it means to win the regular season. He has only been with 23XI Racing since 2023. The organization has only existed since 2021.

Now, Reddick is bringing a championship trophy to Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan.

“Yeah it’s huge for us. It’s a bummer man, this was, this has been one of my best tracks and we had an all-around off night. I hate that. Like I said, I hate to use that buffer up that we had coming in here. This is what this team’s all about, I feel like this is the worst night we’ve had in months and months speed wise and we still finished 10th, and it was kind of an all-out struggle for us. Just really proud of everybody on this team staying behind me.

“I couldn’t give great feedback and it was just really really hard to focus and keep it out of the wall there all night. So, shame we gave some points up, I feel like this race we could win. It’s really nice in year two for me at this team and year four of this team for us to get the regular season championship like we did.”

A wild night in Darlington. If you don’t love NASCAR, you don’t like fun.