Darlington, South Carolina: Tyler Reddick couldn’t have started his weekend any better. Winning the pole again this time on a natural oval (1st came at COTA) and having prime track position. Coming off of the 1st turn Reddick’s car went sideways a little and ended up messing up the battery in the car.

The 45 team sacrificed numerous spots to fix the car but Reddick stayed in the game. Even when his cool suit also failed Reddick gutted it out and won his 4th race of the year.

It sets new career marks both for him and 23XI. The previous career high for Reddick was 3 back in 2022 with RCR and then 3 in 2024. 23XI most wins was 3 in that same year.

When Michael Jordan is your boss you best not quiver under the pressure. At this point the best answer to that pressure is doing exactly what the 45 team has been doing: Winning.

RFK Stout

Brad Keselowski, still dealing with that broken leg from the offseason, had probably the 2nd best car in the race. Keselowski kept his car up front all day long. The 6 actually captured both stage wins so more points were added to Keselowski’s total in what ended up being a great day for the organization.

Chris Buescher was right there battling up front with the contenders at a track that he is growing to both like and dislike. During what was set to be his last pit stop the No. 17 team chose not to let the competition know when they were pitting.

This left a hard charging Reddick unaware going into turn 3 and he hit Buescher so hard the only thing keeping Buescher from spinning was the wall. The damage was too much for Buescher to continue his stellar day in the top 5 but he kept with it for a 9th place finish.

Ryan Preece finished 13th but at one point he was in 3rd. Actually during that time RFK were running 1-2-3 all based off pure speed and execution. Shows how far this organization has come since the Gen 7 was introduced along with Keselowski coming on as part time owner.

Blaney, Hocevar Battle Back for Top 5s

The only top contender you could make the case that they left more on the board is Ryan Blaney. Blaney had a top 5 car maybe even a top 3 car but he was constantly buried in traffic and losing spots each time he went to pit road.

The No 12 pit crew has been really bad in recent weeks at leaving wheels loose. They did so at Phoenix (though Blaney and Crew Chief Jonathan Hasselar had a great car to win) but at Darlington Blaney was always in a uphill battle.

If the No 12 team wants to win a Championship this year they gotta clean up the execution. Especially if the No. 45 team is gonna continue to bring fast cars to each track.

Carson Hocevar, who was rocking the Wrangler inspired throwback of Dale Earnhardt, had what looked like an uninspiring performance going at the track “Too Tough To Tame.”

He had to start at the rear of the field due to a change the team made before the race. He slowly but methodically started making his way forward but it was the strategy calls that had the No. 77 hard charging to the front late.

Hocevar had on 5 lap fresher tires compared to most of the field. Tires were matterring Sunday and the No. 77 who came out around 13th place with 40 to go ended up in 4th and helping Hocevar in the point standings with a +2 jump to 13th place.

What’s Next

The Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway which is known as “The Paperclip”.

It is the shortest oval on the schedule at 0.526 miles.

Will see who can pick up a Grandfather clock.