It was only going to be a matter of time for the young man from Corning, Calif.
At Road America in July, Tyler Reddick, then 26 years old and driving the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, earned an emotional and well-deserved first career Cup victory.
After two NASCAR Xfinity Series championships in as many attempts and five runner-up results in 92 Cup races, Reddick was a winner at NASCAR’s highest level. It wasn’t an easy win, either. He’d had to steal it away from a dominant Chase Elliott in the final stage.
“What better place [to get it done] than Road America.” Reddick told NBC Sports. “I love the fans, I love this racetrack, being here on Fourth of July weekend is just so special. Huge shout out to 3CHI and the special paint scheme we had this weekend, love them coming on board this year and taking a chance on a young guy like me. We got it done, we won a race.”
That’s just the start of the story.
Despite a higher-than-expected number of tire and mechanical failures taking him out of contention in races he could have won, Reddick finished 2022 with three wins, 10 top fives and 15 top 10s, with only a Round of 16 elimination and 14th-place points finish cramping his style.
He was also the first driver since Kevin Harvick in 2013 to earn multiple wins for RCR in a single season, something that could indicate the historic organization is on the verge of breaking back into championship contention for the first time since Harvick rocked the No. 29.
But if it does, it will be without Reddick.
The theater of Denny Hamlin announcing Tyler Reddick joining 23XI in 2024.
First Tyler’s name appeared on the screen asking to join the media video conference. Then came the Colinsworth Slide.
Well done. pic.twitter.com/N7eTilPhKC
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) July 12, 2022
The surprise announcement came on July 12, just one race separated from Reddick’s big win at Road America. Interrupting a Denny Hamlin media Zoom call, Reddick joined the 23XI Racing co-owner to announce that he’d signed a multi-year agreement to drive for the Toyota team also co-owned by Michael Jordan starting in 2024.
“It made sense to me,” Hamlin explained on the call. “To me … franchise drivers don’t come around that often. And so if there’s ever one that you feel like you can grab, you go after it and you do whatever it takes to make that happen. And then you work on the details later.”
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