SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Tyler Reddick couldn’t have scripted a much better start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. But after making history by becoming the first driver in the 78-year history of the series to win the opening three races of a single season, the five-time 2026 winner has stumbled through a six-race skid, turning a dominant campaign into one filled with questions.
“You want to be in the right place, going in the right direction as you start The Chase,” Reddick said on Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, moments after concluding a frustrating practice session that still was good enough for eighth on single-lap speed. “We really need to get out of whatever hole we’ve found ourselves in.”
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No driver over the last 39 seasons enjoyed a better start than Tyler Reddick’s opening 14 races in 2026. His 5.6 average finish, highlighted by nine top-five finishes, was the best through the first 14 races of a season since Dale Earnhardt posted a 4.8 average in 1987. That blistering run produced an average of 44.6 points per race through the opening 15 events.
The last six races have told a much different story. Reddick has averaged just 17.5 points per race during that span, watching a commanding 129-point lead atop the regular-season standings disappear. He now trails Denny Hamlin by 68 points in the battle for the No. 1 seed for The Chase.
The sheer pace of Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota hasn’t been nearly as dominant over the last seven races as it was during the opening 14 events. Misfortune has also played a major role. Reddick was an innocent victim in a restart stack-up at Michigan International Speedway, suffered a downed tire while battling for the victory at Naval Base Coronado and endured mechanical issues at both Sonoma Raceway and Chicagoland Speedway. Last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Reddick was collected in an incident with Alex Bowman while the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet entered pit road.
“It has been a little bit of hit or miss at times,” Reddick said of the No. 45’s pace. “We just have to figure it out.”
It hasn’t all been doom and gloom for the No. 45 team, but the recent stretch has been far from ideal. Reddick believes there is still time to track the No. 11 car down for the top Chase spot.
“If we run like we did the first 14 races of the season, absolutely,” Reddick said. “We’ve been going the wrong way for a while, and some of it is just racing. A couple of times we haven’t had the speed that we’ve come to expect out of ourselves. A little bit of both, but a lot of it has been crazy circumstances.
“It’s not over until The Chase starts. We will just keep fighting as hard as we can and not settle for days like today.”
Friday’s practice session wasn’t ideal for Reddick. He clocked in eighth on single-lap speed — Toyota owned the top five between Joe Gibbs Racing and Legacy Motor Club — but fought an ill-handling machine. It was out in left field so much that he even joked with his crew chief, Billy Scott, that it felt like he had never visited the famed 2.5-mile speedway before.
“The last few years we’ve come here and felt good about what we had and knew where we needed to go from practice into qualifying,” Reddick said. “Today, I felt like I had never raced here before. Just lost. Struggling to find speed, struggling with the balance of the car. It was like I never raced here before.”
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Spirits remain high, however. 23XI Racing enters Sunday’s Brickyard 400 as the defending winner with Bubba Wallace scoring his most recent checkered flag. Reddick was in the mix throughout the race, placing fourth in the opening stage but wrecked out in overtime.
Reddick intends to spend the rest of Friday debriefing with 23XI and revisiting past setups from Indianapolis over the prior two seasons.
“Yes, Bubba won and had a successful weekend, but we felt good about our car too,” Reddick said. “Whether it’s his race, our first 30 to 40 laps of last year’s race, we have some good stuff to go through.”