“I hope I don’t screw it up”: Brad Keselowski underlines Tyler Reddick’s response to having a shot at first regular-season title

Brad Keselowski has outlined Tyler Reddick's reaction to having a chance to bag his career-first regular-season championship. The 23XI Racing driver upset Kyle Larson after clinching the title by a single-point margin over the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Reddick is running his fifth full-time Cup Series season and second for Michael Jordan's co-owned outfit. His 2024 season boasts two wins, 11 top-fives, and 18 top-10s. He had a couple of DNFs and outside top-10 finishes until the million-dollar All-Star Race. However, his performance has surged since the North Wilkesboro battle.

From the last 13 Cup Series race weekends, Reddick has registered the Michigan win, five podium finishes, seven top-fives, and 11 top-10s.

Despite the 23XI Racing driver's hot streak of domination, his performance seemingly went unnoticed by many in the paddock. Reddick was aware of the fact but was focused more on not "screwing up" his and his team's first regular-season title.

While conversing with Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck during Dirty Mo Media's Teardown podcast, Brad Keselowski shed light on his talk with Tyler Reddick about the latter's shot at the regular-season title.

"We saw Tyler get hot 6 or 7 weeks ago, and nobody was talking about it. It was like really clear to me and you could see it on all his stuff. I think I stopped him somewhere, Tyler, maybe 4 or 5 weeks ago. I'm like, 'Man, you got a great shot of winning the regular season title and nobody's talking about it.' He's like, 'Oh yeah, I know I know, just hope I don't screw it up," Keselowski said (0:25).

Tyler Reddick locked his playoff spot, while Bubba Wallace couldn't make it through and will fight for the best possible rank, starting from 17th.

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"It's huge for us": Tyler Reddick on bagging first regular-season title after braving stomach illness at Darlington

Tyler Reddick entered the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington as the regular-season leader. He kicked off his run from sixth place but struggled with stomach illness throughout the 367-lap battle.

Even though the #45 team handed some pills to the ailing driver, he dropped all of them in his Toyota and his illness continued. Moreover, his condition worsened as he felt like puking in the car.

Nonetheless, Reddick braved his illness, finished fourth and eighth in both stages before settling for 10th.

“It’s huge for us. This has been one of my best tracks and we just had an all off night. I hated to use that buffer up that we had coming in here, but this is what this team is kind of all about. I feel like this is the worst night we’ve had in months and months speed wise, and I still finished 10th, and it was an all-out struggle for us," Reddick said via Toyota Racing's release.

With Tyler Reddick's regular-season championship, Denny Hamlin, the co-owner of 23XI Racing, also became a NASCAR title winner.