NASCAR CUP SERIES: ADVENTHEALTH 400

April 19, 2026

Tyler Reddick

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We've now been joined by our race winner, Tyler Reddick. I want to read you a stat. The stat is one that came out after the race. For the first time since 1987, a driver has won five of the first nine races, and the last driver to do it was Dale Earnhardt.

TYLER REDDICK: I heard that earlier.

THE MODERATOR: We've had a couple of these post-race pressers these last few weeks. What does that mean to you, to see this team not only continue to win but to break records that have been in place?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I mean, that's a guy on the Mount Rushmore of NASCAR drivers. To be able to accomplish things that someone like him did is truly incredible.

But none of it's possible without the good men and women at 23XI. The ones that travel, the one back at Airspeed.

Yeah, Billy, seemed like a lot of cars went with right side tires there, but the right call. Felt like I was in a good spot going into one. Christopher crept up. I knew he was going to get there. I kind of blew that one.

Denny coming up into me, into Christopher, it kind of just unfortunately, three Toyotas getting together, created the opportunity for me to make sure a Toyota won the race.

Yeah, I was glad I was able to do that because Toyota, in my opinion, Kyle led a lot of laps at points in the race, too, Denny, myself, Christopher, we were all really strong. It would have been a real shame if a Toyota didn't win today. I'm glad we were able to get that done.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Prior to that caution, you chased Denny down, then he chased you back down. What was the battle like with Denny?

TYLER REDDICK: The stumble, seemed like a fuel pump issue. Thankfully I was able to catch it. Instinctually as a driver, when that happens, you're out of fuel typically. I was trying to figure out if it was a fuel thing, just all that going on, me going down the back, talk on the radio, hear what Billy said, everything kind of all at once.

I lost focus unfortunately and drove the right into the fence. Oddly enough, we drove to Denny really well, got clear of him. It was the longest green flag run of the day. We were getting lap cars better than we were used to. I made bad choices to set myself up to get by Austin Dillon. One time looked like he was going to fade low, give me the top. He took the top. Lost some momentum there. All on my own drove into the fence.

Unfortunately, that was getting ready -- one of those days where I gave it away, and we got very fortunate that the caution came.

Q. Your point lead is now back up to 105 points.

TYLER REDDICK: Nice.

Q. How does that feel?

TYLER REDDICK: Very good. Very happy. We're going to Talladega. Hopefully we can maintain there, get some of these other races coming on after that, Texas, the Glen, tracks where I feel like I'd like to keep growing that point lead. It would be nice.

Q. There's a lot of years when five wins could lead the series in a Next Gen era.

TYLER REDDICK: Pretty nice.

Q. What do you think about that, especially in this era?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I mean, that stat, it's crazy. 1987 was the last time that happened? I mean, that was generations ago.

Q. (No microphone.)

TYLER REDDICK: Yes, correct. That's a good point. It's really unreal.

It's definitely going to seem like night and day. Our cars are, you would think, night and day, just night and day that our cars are so much better. I mean, I think we have done a good job of improving our cars at the places we're already strong, making them better at the places we're weak.

More than anything, our mindset, approach, what we're doing consistently on the preparation side. It's on a really good place. Weeks like this where I'm not at my best as a driver, whatever it might be, we're still able to power through the stuff and use that teamwork that we work hard on, whether it was in the off-season or how we go about preparing for each race.

I'm loving that we're seeing the fruits of that hard work paying off right now. If anything, I think a couple weeks ago or couple wins ago, the question was, Now you've won two or three, do you settle in, get in a good rhythm and go? No. It's let's take advantage of how well we're working together right now, see if we can continue to get the points, get the wins, while everyone is trying to figure it out and get it.

Q. In overtime, Larson makes it three-wide, you're up top, and then Bell gets the run --

TYLER REDDICK: Gets to my right rear.

Q. You have to give him enough space at that point. You see Denny coming, so are you trying to go down and side draft off of Denny?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, for me, in my line, I was trying to run as close to Christopher. It's tricky. I think halfway through the corner, I thought maybe we'd be side by side. It got pretty obvious with Denny on my inside, I was getting tight. I knew Christopher was going to, like, probably clear me.

I don't know, inside of Denny. He was closer to me than I thought he was going to be. I can't even remember if there was contact or not. It kind of felt like it. But these cars do take off really bad tight. Where I was in relation to the 11, we were close together. My car kind of took off off of two. As a driver, I wish you could say you could prevent those things from happening. These cars take off so tight, so fast, I was kind of helpless. Couldn't do anything to keep the contact from occurring.

Q. You were given barbecue in Victory Lane. How was that?

TYLER REDDICK: It was good. Yeah, love barbecue, honestly. We've been fortunate to take a trip to Terry Black's a few times. We go to Austin, some of the other places, be able to get Jack Stack's here. I don't know if I'll ever be half as good as those guys are at what they do when it comes to ribs, brisket, but I certainly have a great appreciation for good barbecue.

I was definitely hungry after this race. It took care of my hunger. Rockstar is helping take care of my thirst. This poor can has been through it today. But we're going to get through it.

Q. What would you rate it out of 10?

TYLER REDDICK: I'd give it an 8. It wasn't fresh off. It had to sit around for a minute. From the temperature it was at, the flavor was really, really good.

Q. Did it catch you by surprise, excluding the two stage cautions, that we went basically natural caution free until the 51 spun? Is that how Kansas is nowadays?

TYLER REDDICK: I don't think it's Kansas. I think it's all intermediates, truthfully. When we get a lot of restarts, drivers understand how much there is to give and forget -- or how much there is that they can take and forget about the give in that take.

Yeah, I think just the more that we come back to these tracks with the aero package that it's been for the last what feels like four or five years, the Next Gen era, I mean, we all have a fairly good feel for the car.

The last big change we really had was actually here two years ago when they went to the right side shark fin. In my opinion, that made the car easier to save in a slide when you get loose.

I just think everyone has gotten a good understanding of what the car is, what you can't do with it. A lot of these drivers are very, very good in this field. I mean, because of that, we all kind of know where the limits lie. With the format we have, it's important to not have DNF's, take yourself out of races.

I think it's just all those little factors added up that lead to stats and numbers like you mentioned.

Q. I apologize if I'm wrong in the stat, but I think it's five for six now races when you win when MJ is present. Is he your golden horseshoe?

TYLER REDDICK: That's a good point (smiling).

I mean, you can't really discredit that. I mean, it's been pretty successful. I think the only one we didn't win for him was Phoenix.

Yeah, I kind of joked about it. When the boss is here, we got to deliver for him. If he's going to come hang out with us, take the time to be part of it, you want to reward his commitment to this team.

Yeah, it's really awesome to be able to share moments like that, for him to be here this weekend, spend time with him.

Q. Last year in the fall you came close to winning here as an organization. You mentioned the changes, how much struggle you had. How important was it for you to get back here to say we're back dominating at Kansas?

TYLER REDDICK: Yes, super important. For us, the importance of this weekend was heightened after Vegas because we went there and had speed in practice but lacked handling. Then we just over-did our adjustments overnight and we fought tight balance and tire issues in the race at Vegas.

It was super important to come here and not have that repeat. Unfortunately that did happen for us in stage one. Truthfully it helped guide us down the path we needed to with our car and our handling to make the right front tire live longer. It certainly did the rest of the race.

Q. It's not even May. There's 17 races left until the Chase. How historic of a start you had, does it feel like this is your title to lose?

TYLER REDDICK: Thanks for putting it that way (laughter).

Yeah, I mean, it's early. I mean, we saw today the 11 is strong. I know the 20 is strong, as well. The 5, he finds ways to get more speed out of his cars when it seems like handling is lacking a bit. There's a lot of really good teams, a lot of good pit crews, a lot of good minds in this garage.

Certainly over these next 17 races, the ones that are missing it a little bit here and there are going to start hitting it. I think the competition will certainly continue to tighten up as we get through this year.

We've done a really good job of making the most of our days and scoring a lot of points.

Yeah, we'll see when we get to the Chase, right? It's going to get reset and everyone's going to get the points that they've earned. We'll go from there.

We'll just try and get as comfortable a lead as possible. If we can maintain a gap like this as we get further into the season, hopefully it puts us in position to try and steal some more wins if it's split strategy calls middle of the race or late in the race.

THE MODERATOR: Tyler, congratulations. Enjoy it.

TYLER REDDICK: Thank you. Thank you, everyone.