NASCAR CUP SERIES: GOODYEAR 400

March 22, 2026

Tyler Reddick

Press Conference

An Interview with:

TYLER REDDICK: You're going to answer all the questions, right?

BEAU REDDICK: No (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: We are now going to roll into our post-race press conference here in Darlington with today's winner of the Goodyear 400. No stranger to the post-race press conference this season is Tyler Reddick. Tyler, congratulations on this win. I know that there was a lot of things that happened in today's race that obviously you'll have the opportunity to talk about, but just talk a little bit about being at this point in the season and having four wins for your team and what that really means. I know we've said it a couple of times, knowing you guys did not win last year, how does it just feel to be in this spot right now?

TYLER REDDICK: You want to take that one? How does it feel?

BEAU REDDICK: Good.

TYLER REDDICK: It feels good. What did you think on lap one when I said my alternator was out? What did you think, Beau? Do you remember?

BEAU REDDICK: No.

TYLER REDDICK: He doesn't remember. I got it.

Yeah, so, yeah, I mean, sitting here -- I mean, a lot happened in this race today. I mean, just trying to relive it all is going to be difficult. But, yeah, I remember me and Bubba ran side-by-side until we got all four that first lap, and I think it was lap -- I think I noticed it on lap one, honestly. But, yeah, just right away. Just the voltage was way down. Yeah, the alternator just didn't work at all today for any reason.

We just got, unfortunately, bit by that, but the guys on the team -- yeah, so for us to have the issues that we did literally from lap one and fight through that was difficult.

But everyone had a really good game plan. We kind of knew what we needed to do at the end of the first stage. So we, you know, gave up our track position to come in and swap the battery. We were just trying to manage the voltage, make the battery last as long as we could.

Yeah, we kind of got to that difficult point in stage three where we either take it safe and come back down and change the battery again, but give up all our track position, or we stay and basically cut every last thing off that I had running to keep me cool.

So the final 100 laps were brutally hot. Yeah, when Billy asked me if I was willing to stay and keep everything off, I was all in because I really, really wanted to win here. With the car as good as we had today, I was willing to take that risk, you know? And, yeah, just fought through the heat, fought through those things to win the race.

THE MODERATOR: We'll now go to questions.

Q. At what point would you have believed before the season started or into the season that you were going to win four races in six weeks?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I never would have. I mean, ideally we win a couple, but to win four in the fashion we've won the four is pretty, pretty remarkable. I know COTA was a bit of just defense and whatnot, but Atlanta, Daytona, to, yeah, I would say -- I don't know.

You could say three of the four wins we've had to fight through some level of adversity, whether it's issues with the car, getting caught up in an accident, or having to hold off the field basically like in COTA.

For us to be put through these things that in my opinion kept us from winning a year ago to fight through these things and then still win is very remarkable. It's very fulfilling. It's the stuff that, you know, you just got to kind of take a step back and say, wow, that was incredible.

Yeah, I'm definitely in that place right now. Just really proud of my team. I kind of said at the start of the day, let's go out there and hurt some feelings. I don't know. I think we definitely did today with how we were able to drive back through the field and cap it off with a win.

Q. What was it like inside the car when they tell you to turn off the AC, and it's as hot as it is?

TYLER REDDICK: It's like someone took a bag of Nerds away from me. You got a deal with them or something?

Q. Well, shared in the media center.

TYLER REDDICK: It's like Nerds, yeah. That was brutal. I knew that I was in a really good place in the car comfort-wise to be able to manage the car, manage my situation and just take care of the right side and everything.

I was definitely worried that with all that stuff off and just -- I mean, it's funny. You never -- I've never really run visor-up, but I had to because I had nothing coming to me. If I had my visor down, I was just going to be cooking and visor fogging up from my sweat.

I mean, I was, like, getting dirt and rubber in my eyes that whole last run. I mean, I had to kind of deal with that as I ran just to kind of get some air coming to me. Yeah, to fight through that was not easy. But I don't know, I was just in that place. I was willing to give up everything to have a shot at winning this race because I've wanted to win here for so, so long, so bad.

Q. You didn't win in 2024 here, but you had a gutty effort then. So comparing that to now, what was worse?

TYLER REDDICK: What was worse?

Q. Yeah. The heat today or the illness?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, yeah. I'd say the illness. Yeah, I don't know. When you feel -- so then in 2024 just every time I hit that bump off two I thought I was going to throw up. That was awful. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that. I mean, I was sweating. But, you know, I train and try to keep myself in the best shape possible so if these situations happen, I'm ready to go.

I made sure to let the team know. Funny enough, our coach, Jason, came down today, and he's been trying to get me to do more cardio here and there throughout the week. I reminded him, see, we don't need to do any cardio. We're good. I got that part covered, so yeah.

Q. Would you have shut everything off if you had, like, a fifth-place car or tenth-place car?

TYLER REDDICK: Hmm, that's a good question. I mean, I don't know. I feel like possibly. It's hard to say. I wasn't in that situation, right?

I think if I had a fifth, the tenth-place car would have been harder to drive back through the field, so possibly. Possibly I would have made the same call there.

But it is truly hard to say with 100% confidence, right? It's just different situation. If I had a fifth, tenth-place car, I probably would have drove back through the field like we did at the end of stage one. We had the slow stop in stage two, and we went to the back of the pack there.

Q. Maybe I'm stretching here, but when Michael Jordan is in your pit box, do you have to? Is there any extra incentive to say, yeah, I'm going to have to gut this out because I would never hear the end of it?

TYLER REDDICK: No, it's funny, I didn't know Michael was there until I saw him on the frontstretch. Y'all got to see him all day, but I didn't know he was there. So even more glad I decided to cut it out, honestly.

Q. The Fox booth called this one of the gutsiest performances in NASCAR Cup Series history.

TYLER REDDICK: I don't know. I mean, I was hot, but it wasn't like -- COTA in 2023, I mean, I was -- I got out of the car, and I literally couldn't see. I didn't feel like that after today. Maybe that's just experience and training.

But, I mean, I don't know. It's hard for me to say, yes, I drove the car today, but I don't know. I just felt like my experience here where our car was at, I kind of knew what I needed to do. I don't know. Maybe it's hard for me to really comment on that, to be honest. I feel like we did a good job. Was I a little aggressive at times? Yes. But I really felt like I needed to be to take advantage of when we were better than other cars.

Q. Were you worried, though, when you got into the back of Buescher that you might have damaged the car?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah. I was worried about our damage, but, too, I was, like, of course, like, again, you know, like -- like we lived it in 2024 together, like he's not wrong. On the racetrack me and him run each other very clean. It's just like of all people that happens to, of course it had to be Christopher. So I just didn't love that that moment occurred in the race.

I don't know. I only saw as much as I could from the driver's seat. I don't know from TV if he had his hand out waving or not. From my vantage point, I was offset to the right. I knew he had a bad corner off of two, and I made my mind up that I was going to make the slide job into three.

When he darted to the left, when I was darting to the left, I mean, I just -- you know, I just -- we talked about it all week. Just having less grip. I hit the brake, but I was up his back bumper. I had no low to my car, and I just completely ran him over.

That just stinks because I do think I was going to pass him if he stayed on the racetrack. It's just one of those things that didn't need to happen. I don't know if he waved or not. If he didn't wave, I get it, because he's not trying to broadcast to me he's going to pit because maybe I pit with him. Yeah.

Q. Tyler, first of all, congratulations. At this point you have a 95-point lead over Ryan Blaney in second.

TYLER REDDICK: That's it, yeah.

Q. I believe it's the largest your points lead has been so far this season. Does there come a point -- I know it's early, but does there come a point where you start to feel pretty confident and not so worried about where you are going to end up in the chase, or do you still feel like getting a strong position after the first 26 races is going to require you guys keeping that gas pedal absolutely mashed down between now and then?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I mean, we continue to just be in a good spot. If we can keep this cushion, I feel like we're going to be a position to maybe sacrifice a couple of points in stages to gain many more in stage two or stage three.

Yeah, for me I'm loving where we're at with that, because it kind of gives us that little bit of extra confidence to maybe do something that may not pan out for us, but we're just in a good spot there to where maybe we -- if the situation arises, to forgo a couple of points in stage one or two to set ourselves up better for stage three.

Q. It's very rare in the NextGen era where we've seen guys with so many issues come back and win the race. Did the package have anything to do with that? I know you had a fast race car, but did today's package, the fall-off, the tires have anything to do with how you're able to come and make all these repairs and still win the race?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah. I mean, it was harder to defend, in my opinion. Brad made a really good move on me in one and two. I feel like the move that Brad made on me in one and two with the old car would have kept me behind him. I would have lost the nose.

But with this car and just less overall grip I was able to cross over. When he did cover the move, I mean, I didn't want to run into him, but I never would have been able to make contact, you know what I mean?

Just how that whole move that got me to the lead played out, I feel like with the old car he would have been able to defend that and keep me behind him.

Q. Obviously Jordan mentioned your challenge here a couple of years ago, and then today the obstacles speak for themselves just in stage one. What is it really about your mindset that allows you to put adversity behind you and be able to have performances like you did today?

TYLER REDDICK: Well, I mean, when it comes to here, I'm willing to do anything to win here. I've been so close so many times. I mean, sounds dramatic, but literally freaking keeps me up at night just the amount of races I've let slip away by one or two little things.

So as strong as we were and being able to fight through the things we did, I mean, there are just not many -- you hope you're able to bring that speed every week, but when you have that car of that potential, you can't let it go to waste. You've got to capitalize.

Q. When did that mindset start for you? You look back at, like, races at Fontana where you can't feel your legs and all these different things that you have encountered throughout your career where it's kind of, like, are you going to have a normal race at some point? When did you start having that mindset of I'm just not going to succumb to any of this stuff?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, for me, you know, a really good experience of that, funny enough, same kind of situation, but obviously a bit more dramatic was lap one of this race last fall in the 500. Josh, like he pointed out, had issues. Missed the travels, got the adjustments wrong. He hits the track. Washes up into me. I'm sitting there pretty much wrecked, and we were able to save it.

The roof flaps deployed, so we're slow the whole first stage, and we were able to get that down, fixed. Yes, we had damage, but we basically, similar thing, right, had potentially a race-ending issue occur on lap one. We just, like, fought through it.

Funny enough, I literally, the last time I was here, went through the exact same thing. Just different circumstances kind of in play. I've had that occur at a number of tracks and whatnot over the years, and I just -- I don't know. I don't let that stuff really get to me. It's unfortunate it's happened a number of times, but the more it happens, the less and less those things really even affect me at all.

Q. What was worse, today or being super sick in the car?

TYLER REDDICK: Sick, for sure. Wasn't even close.

Q. You're kind of on a trajectory right now to where it's like Kyle Larson 2020, you're talking about Jimmie Johnson in the 2000s, Jeff Gordon in the late '90s. People say you're not supposed to be able to do that in the NextGen. There's way too much parity. Things are way too close, way too equal. How do you even comprehend the fact that it is possible and it's you guys who are doing it, it's you and Billy in 23XI?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, some of it is you look at the places we've won, in my opinion, where we've been very strong at EchoPark Speedway. We won there. COTA has been a track over the years that I've been very, very strong at, so we won there. Then in Darlington, you know, this is a place that of all the tracks that we go to that I'm the best at in my opinion, even more so than Homestead or even Charlotte or some of these other places where I can get it going.

Yeah, I mean, it's just a matter of the tracks that I'm really strong at and our cars are really strong at. We've just this year been capitalizing on it and getting the wins.

Q. How many more of those do you have?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, yeah, we got -- I was sad to see the ROVAL go, but now we have two Charlotte oval dates, so that's awesome. We're going back to Chicagoland, and last time I was really strong in an O'Reilly Auto Parts car. There's a lot of tracks on the schedule that we have been really, really strong at, and you got to see that in 2024 with how we were able to put races together.

If we can keep this up, who knows? I'm just going to take it one week at a time.

Q. How far were you in that final stage when you had to empty your cool shirt?

TYLER REDDICK: At the start.

Q. Oh, it was at the start? Okay.

TYLER REDDICK: Final stage, yeah. I took everything off (laughing).

Q. So how difficult was it with you fastening the seat? Had you practiced it? Exactly how did it work?

TYLER REDDICK: We kind of ran through it, but I've never done it in the car. Yeah, thankfully you're not having to, like, save fuel hard at Darlington, you're not having to keep your tires and all that warm. We were able to kind of take the time that we had under yellow there to knock it out.

I made a complete mess, stuff all over my visor, water and the fluid from the cool shirt and all over the car. I mean, I made a complete mess in the process, but I got all the fluid out of the shirt. So it kept it from getting super hot.

Yeah, now I've done it, so if it happens again, I know what to do a little faster next time.

Q. I have two questions. First, when you look at throughout today, I know you mentioned kind of racing Brad and the differences there, but when you do get mired back in the pack, I'm wondering, do you feel it was a significant step up with the package in terms of the ability to pass?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, I don't know. There was times I feel like it happened with the old car where three or four guys kind of get stuck together there, and you're just in really bad air. That was the same as previous years.

But yeah, like, people just kind of hit that light switch faster where their car starts to drive or it's quicker, instead of it being like the last ten laps of the run here, it felt like the last 20 or 25. You can kind of take advantage of guys' cars going away or if they make a mistake.

Like I saw way more than I've ever saw in the past guys just smoking the wall in one or two. That normally doesn't happen here. When drivers make those mistakes, you're able to kind of set them up, take advantage of it, and make the pass.

Q. Then my other question for you is when Denny came in here, he said the difference setting you guys apart from the Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and so on is that he feels you guys need a little bit more improvement on the short track side of things. So my question for you is if it's you or Bubba or Riley next week that wins, does 23XI belong in the conversation of being in the big three with those other teams?

TYLER REDDICK: I'll let y'all figure that out. We'll just keep working hard and keep winning races, and we'll let you guys figure that part out. I don't need to say anything about it.

Q. I'm going to throw a stat at you real fast. According to NASCAR Insights, you're the third driver -- you saw this?

TYLER REDDICK: Someone sent it to me, yeah.

Q. Someone sent it to you. You are in the company of Bill Elliott and Dale Earnhardt. What is your reaction to that? This season is going so well that you're already in that kind of legendary performance range. What is your reaction to being in that exclusive company with drivers like that?

TYLER REDDICK: It's stuff you dream of. You never know if they're going to be a reality, but just be extremely thankful that you're able to work with the team and put together days like this where you can fight through these issues and overcome it and still win races.

Yeah, just honored, yeah, to be a part of the same sentence as those two guys. Yeah, we'll try and keep it going and see how special we can really make 2026.

THE MODERATOR: A big congratulations again. Thank you for always coming and spending some more time with us. We wish you the best of luck next week in Martinsville.

TYLER REDDICK: If I can win there, oh, my gosh, the world is going to end.