Tyler Reddick headlines underdogs vying to reach Championship 4

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LAS VEGAS — Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher have never advanced through the playoffs all the way to be eligible for the championship at the season finale.

They have a long way to go to get there this year, too. They are now the underdogs with their backs against the wall and needing a walk-off win or strong runs and a little bit of luck to advance.

For Reddick and Buescher, they have never even been alive in this stage of the season, the Round of 8, which is NASCAR’s version of a semifinal round.

Blaney has failed to advance out of the Round of 8 in his previous four shots and has the biggest hurdle following his 36th-place finish Sunday at Las Vegas, the result of a disqualification for a left front shock not meeting the minimum length.

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With races at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway remaining in the round, Buescher is 13 points below the cutline, Reddick is 25 points behind and Blaney is 56 points back. They either have to rally on points or win one of the next two races to be part of the Championship 4 when the title is decided Nov. 5 at Phoenix Raceway.

Reddick is maybe the most intriguing of the drivers who face uphill climbs over the next two weeks. After some success at Richard Childress Racing, Reddick is in his first year driving for 23XI Racing, co-owned by Cup driver Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan. The organization is in its third year of existence and is making its first true championship run.

“When you look at our speed and what we are really good at, our ceiling is there. It’s just a matter of putting it together on the racetrack, one weekend at a time,” Reddick said prior to the start of the round. “If you do everything right, you can get there.”

Reddick entered Las Vegas just eight points below the cutoff. But the cutline moved when Kyle Larson, who was fourth in the standings and therefore the last driver above the cutline, won at Las Vegas. Reddick finished seventh and earned 40 points and that still wasn’t enough to keep pace with those ahead of him in points.

He termed his Vegas performance as a “head-scratcher.”

“In practice, that thing was a rocket ship, but it was a handful at the same time and just today, for whatever reason, I just felt like it was great at moments and at others, it felt like I was getting ready to wreck,” Reddick said.

“It was just an absolute handful — kind of unlike what we normally have at the mile-and-a-halfs [tracks], just not having the balance that we needed to. With what I felt like our car was fighting handling-wise, I think [it was] honestly a really good day for us.”

Reddick feels he is solid at Homestead while the team is strong at Martinsville, and he will have to lean on his organization if he can’t win next week. A year ago, he was running well until a crash at Homestead ended his day early. At Martinsville, he had to pull himself out of the race because he wasn’t feeling well.

His team owner, Denny Hamlin, said he doesn’t feel Reddick is at a disadvantage with no experience — and the team not having experience — at a championship run. Reddick has a veteran crew chief in Billy Scott and the team has personnel who have worked on championship teams.

“It’s so week-to-week and how fast you are on any given week,” Hamlin said. “Experience does matter. When you haven’t been in this position before, certainly nerves can be a factor.

“But there is no disadvantage. The car doesn’t know who the driver is or what team it is.”

Much like Reddick, Buescher has never been in this position. Few expected RFK Racing to still have a driver alive at this point, and Buescher knows that any advice he gets likely will come from within his own walls.

“At this point, we’ve probably worn out our welcome from a lot of people that would have given advice before now,” Buescher said prior to the start of the round. “[They] probably aren’t going to at this point as we’ve been able to get this far. So in a lot of ways, we’re keeping with the status quo.

“What we know has gotten us to this point. … We’re very capable of making it into this next one. We certainly have that long-shot ability to go to Phoenix and be a contender for this thing.”

And after Vegas? Buescher appeared to have a hard time stomaching that an 11th-place finish would be considered a bad day. He ended up 10th after the Blaney disqualification.

“It’s crazy to think we’ve finished 11th and talking about a bad day,” Buescher said. “It wasn’t a bad day, it just wasn’t good enough compared to those we were racing.”

Blaney has the longest road. The team does have the option of appealing the penalty, and any appeal likely would be heard this week because of the playoff implications. He was 17th at Homestead a year ago and has top-10s in his past two Martinsville races.

“It’s not only about having speed, it’s about executing a good race, too,” Blaney said before the start of the round. “Hopefully we can do that.”

Now it will be about having speed and possibly taking gambles with strategy if they don’t have winning speed.

Thinking Out Loud

NASCAR penalized two drivers for laying back on restarts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The penalty is a drive-through down pit road.

That will always be a judgment call for NASCAR, but one thing is clear: NASCAR certainly has given drivers enough warning.

NASCAR penalized Nick Sanchez in the truck race at Talladega a couple of weeks earlier for the infraction. And NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer reminded drivers not to lay back — a way for them to get momentum on those ahead of them — during their pre-race drivers meeting.

So what’s the next step? NASCAR being consistent in issuing these calls. They are judgment calls and the onus is on the sanctioning body. If NASCAR is going to enforce the rule, drivers must know where the line is as far as what is considered laying back.

In The News

-Sonoma Raceway will repave prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race next June. When and whether any sections of the original pavement will remain on the road course is still to be determined.

-In Xfinity Series news, Riley Herbst will return to Stewart-Haas Racing next season. Sheldon Creed will not return to Richard Childress Racing — his future ride has not been announced.

-In the truck series, Matt Mills was named as the replacement for Carson Hocevar starting next season in the Niece Motorsports No. 42 truck.

Social Spotlight

Stat of the Day

Kyle Larson has won 16% of the Cup races he has driven while at Hendrick Motorsports.

They Said It

“Thankfully Christopher always races extremely clean. Could have got crazier than it did coming to the start/finish line. Thank you to him for racing with respect there.” —Kyle Larson on his close finish with Christopher Bell at Las Vegas

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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