NASCAR Cup Series star issues damning self-assessment ahead of playoffs

Tyler Reddick has given a damning assessment of his own performance at Daytona on Saturday night.

The 23XI Racing star's season will continue into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, with Alex Bowman's early DNF meaning that Reddick was under no pressure for the majority of the action in Florida.

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However, things had nearly gone horribly wrong for the driver of the No. 45 before Bowman was taken out in a Big One, being involved in a much less destructive incident just involving himself and Todd Gilliland.

Reddick and Gilliland spun off toward the inside of the track, with the No. 45 hitting the inside wall head on to send him to pit road for repairs and damaging his cushion over Bowman.

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Reddick bemoans poor form

The 29-year-old just needed to avoid being outscored by Bowman to the tune of 29 points to secure his spot in the postseason, an outcome which was guaranteed just a few laps later when Bowman's DNF was confirmed.

“That was all my doing there at the start of the race,” Reddick said after the race of the wreck, which briefly looked like it could threaten his near-unassailable lead over Bowman.

In the end Reddick cruised round on the lead lap to finish the race 21st and comfortably take his playoff spot, avoiding even being on the bubble thanks to Ryan Blaney ensuring there was no first-time winner.

However, he was still self-critical after the race ended, having hit a slump in form in which he's failed to secure a top-five finish in his last seven races, averaging just 18.6th place in that stretch.

“Story of our year. Just messy, not executing well, just filled with mistakes,” Reddick said. “So yeah, we got very fortunate when the 48 had problems, but yeah, we’ll try and clean it up going into Darlington.”

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