Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Tyler Reddick Interview After Winning at Darlington | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Tyler Reddick breaks down his dominant start to the NASCAR Cup Series season with four wins in the first six races, the success of Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing, and the fan reaction surrounding one of the hottest streaks in recent NASCAR history. In this episode of Victory Lap on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Mamba Smith sits down with Reddick to discuss what it has been like during this incredible run, why the team has been so successful, what it’s like having Michael Jordan at the track, how he responds to criticism and speculation from fans, his relationship with team owner Denny Hamlin, and how he is approaching the upcoming race at Martinsville as the team looks to stay hot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So I'm going to tell you this, Tyler. I'm going to make a deal with you. You guys pull it off at Martinsville. I will shave a 45 into my hair. If I can figure out Martinsville, they're in trouble. Welcome to the Kevin Harvick Happy Hour podcast. This is the Victory Lab this week with your boy, Mamba Smith. And we have this guy named Tyler Redding.

Tyler, welcome to the show. Thank you for your time. What a run you've been on, winning four of the first six races. What has this run been like? How do you feel? right now. It's pretty great. You know, you're in a really good place when, you know, I think it was after Vegas, we were all joking like, hey, guys, we had a little get together here at airspeed. And I was like, guys, we got to sort this out. We haven't one in two weeks. Like, get it together.

You know what I mean? So, yeah, it's fun to be able to, you know, joke like that and have that level of confidence going into a race weekend. And yeah, I mean, two of these four wins have come at, arguably some of my best racetracks on the schedule. I don't know. I haven't had the results of Atlanta, but I feel like you could put that up there as one of my better racetracks too. So, yeah, I'd be able to capitalize on this speed

and be able to win like we have overcome the issues we've faced. It's pretty cool, considering last year, you know, these little hiccups we'd have throughout the day would set us far enough back to not win. Do you feel like when you think about your career and what you did in the O'Reilly Auto Parts series of being back-to-backed. champion, doing it with two different teams.

You kind of were on runs like this before. Does it feel similar like that? Like, is it as enjoyable as those moments? Or is this even, obviously it's more because it's Cup series, but I feel like you're in the same flow state. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, the way we able to rattle off wins that my first year at RCR in the Riley car, that was special to be able to, you know, yeah, we won the championship at junior

motorsports, be able to follow it up with race wins, regular season championship, and then ultimately the championship. So, yeah, that was cool. I feel like we're in a similar place, but, like, happiness-wise, if you will, but yeah, it's definitely more meaningful now, being a dad, everything that goes into it, the amount of, you know, the amount of people involved, you know, on this race team, part of 2311. Yeah, I mean, I think just on the cup side, it, it just means. more, you know, for a number of reasons. It's just, it's so hard to be able to show up and win every

single week. We've been able to do that mostly. But yeah, it's just, it's really tough on the cup side right now. And when you can show up to the racetrack and nail it that good, it's a huge deal. I mean, we got to talk about it. Social media, you guys got social media buzzing. They don't believe that the 45 is as fast, it's funny internet just on its own. They feel like you guys got something else going on. I call Ronius on all accounts. I think you guys just put in a lot of work over the winter. Do you hear all the chatter on social that,

oh, it's because of the lawsuit. They won the lawsuit NASCAR's giving them all this stuff. Do you hear all that or you guys just block it out? It gives me a good laugh. You know, yeah, it is what it is. I feel like when I was younger, I would remember, I remember people, you know, when Kyle Bush would get rolling and rattle off some wins, like people have a lot to say about him.

Trying to think of one of the more recent ones that, like, come to mind. But, yeah, I mean, I guess winning four out of six is pretty uncommon. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, we all have SMT. We can look at the data, like, you know, I don't see what they think they're seeing. I think I love that they keep using that clip of me and SVG at Circuit the Americas because, like, yes, we're both driving the exact same corner, but we had two completely different approaches to the corner.

He was trying to get in the corner, and I was not worried about getting in the corner. I was trying to just get off the corner. So, of course, it's going to look as ridiculous as it did. But, again, this is what happens when you have tires that wear out, when you don't have a lot of downforce, and you have the added horsepower. Like, you know, instead of carrying the momentum, sometimes it's better to, to get things stopped and get off the corner as fast as you can. And so, yeah, whatever, it is what it is.

They're not going to listen to me anyway, so there's no point even trying to convince them. I was honestly thinking of ways that I can almost poke fun back at them and just egg them on, egg their conspiracy theories on a little bit, but I don't really have anything. No, I know your social team. Someone said something about the bigger battery,

adding more power to their car. That one made me laugh. That one gave me a really good chuckle too. A place like Darlington? Oh my gosh. Horsepower at Darlington? You kidding me? Yeah, you want every last bit of it.

We're like wide open around there, right? Like, oh my gosh, if I have five more horsepower than the next guy, I'm going to lap the field. Like, I love it, man. I love the conversation. You got everybody buzz in. You got the whole sports world buzzing with what you guys have been doing. Obviously with MJ at the racetrack every week.

I mean, he kind of came out of nowhere this week. I don't think anyone really knew he was. is in Darlington. Yeah, I mean, I was, I was, I mean, I'm cool with it. I get out of the car. I look behind me, I'm like, oh, hey, there he is. There's a boss man. He's here.

So, yeah, he, um, he was able to come to Phoenix and I didn't win. And he took a, he took a week off and we didn't win again. And then he came back and we won again. So yeah, we're, we're four for five with MJ tracks. So yeah, I don't know if he's going to Martin's or not. I got to figure that out. So maybe, maybe he wants to see something special out of practice first. Who knows.

Yeah, yeah. So I want to ask you about kind of your guys' approach. Billy Scott has the boys tuned up. I feel like, tell me if this is true. So you talked a little bit about CODA. Cota wears out tires quickly and more horsepower at Cota. We go to Phoenix, kind of a similar situation. And at Cota, everyone was talking about all your forward drive. It seemed like you had a lot of forward drive again at Darlington with a similar package. Is that just coincidental? Did you guys learn something? about Ford Drive at Coda, or is it just kind of coincidental that your process is that good? Yeah, I think it's just our process. You know, a place like Darlington, yeah, if you can have more Ford Drive than the next guy, great. But I don't think that was, you know, where we were better. I think it was just we were able to manage our tires good. We did a good job of taking advantage of our long run speed and like kind of baiting other cars. I mean, I don't even know if you really baited anybody to pit road.

I mean, they just, when we would catch them, they're just like, well, we better pit and just try and get back ahead of him further out front. So, yeah, I think those two races in particular, we just really nailed the handling of our race car. And, you know, it allowed me to do my job inside the race car like a Coda. And that's hit my marks every lap, not make a mistake to open the opportunity for, you know, Blaney to get by early in the race or Shane to get by at the end. So then at Darlington, you know, it was a bit different.

and I wasn't really ever at any point pressured from behind, you know. So I was always the guy having to come from further back and apply the pressure to those ahead. So I'd say those two, it's just like, I mean, we just really nailed the bounce of our race car. Truly, we did the same thing in Atlanta. I mean, our car drove really good up until the crash. And then, I mean, thankfully, you know, we got that quick caution.

I drove way over my head, damn near wrecked it. And we got that caution. I told Billy, I'm like, all right, this is what I need. I'm like, way too loose. you know, let's try some stuff. And yeah, we tighten that thing up. It's hard to nail it, right? But with a crash car, we held the balance adjustment necessary to make the thing not want to spin out all by itself. And yeah, we're able to go back up there. So I don't know. I mean, I feel like we can keep doing this. You know, we're going to be competitive, you know, for us, Vegas and Phoenix, you know, we did miss it.

But it was nice that with missing it, we were still kind of able to stay around the top 10. Vegas, I think we had a, I mean, Vegas, if, if, you know, I don't cord the tire at the end, we could have been 10th or 11th, maybe, maybe inside the top 10. So when we miss it, if our floor can continue to be around 10th, and if we nail it, our ceiling be winning, we're going to have a really good year. Yeah, for sure. It's been a really great year for that 45 group so far. So we're looking at Martinsville.

It's been a little bit of the Achilles heel for your group is the short. So I'm going to tell you this, Tyler. I'm going to make a deal with you. You guys pull it off at Martinsville. I will shave a 45 into my hair. Sounds good. I already said if I went in Martinsville, the world's going to end the next thing.

Might just be over. If I can win at Martinsville, everyone else must have to load up and go home. If I can figure out Martinsville, they're in trouble. But, I mean, all joking aside, though, whether it was my truck days or, or, you know, my time in the cup car, more specifically the Gen 6 era, when we got the downforce back off the car and we put horsepower back in. Martinsville just started to make more sense.

And we went back to the next gen car. We went to the next gen car. You know, we had less power. We had way more grip, way more down force. And Martinsville started to not make sense again. So I think for me at a place like that, I only really start to thrive there when it really wears out. and so I've just got to figure out how to understand what my car is doing while it's good so that we get a balance that that's close to what I need on the longer runs when the tires do go away.

You know, a guy that's been able to nail it and manage it so well, well, too, but obviously two come to mind, but one has been damn near perfect, and that's Blaney, what he's able to do on the short run to maintain his track position and then just take off on the long run. It is impressive. And so, like, for me, while that is a competitor, you could look at as, man, that's disheartening. I mean, he's just so good on the long run.

It's like, well, okay, my strength's a long run, too. So how can I figure out how to kind of patch it up on the short run and maintain or qualify decent, so I'm not having to come from the back. Well, I guess he's made that work too. So, you know, maybe it can work out that way. But, you know, him between how he drives his race car and then, you know, my naturally close relationship with Denny and how good he is there. I'm doing a disservice, but not mentioning Bubba.

Obviously, Bubba's amazing there too. So I've got some really good people that I can lean on, and I've been doing that over the years to try and close that gap. But to come back to the start of it, I think having the extra power in Martinsville is just going to make all that more challenging, and it's just going to help my strengths and hopefully get rid of some of my weaknesses at that racetrack. Well, we're looking forward to seeing you back behind the wheel of that 45 Camry.

this weekend in Martinsville. Good luck, brother. Go after a clock. I mean, you might as well just keep winning. You've already gone this far. He might as well just keep it going. I'm telling you if I can win in Martinsville. Oh, boy.

Big party. I'll be in trouble. Like, seriously, I know I'm joking, but like if I can win a Martinsville, it's, I don't know what to say. But again, it comes back to the brakes. If we can keep our brakes on a race car and not have braking issues, I think we're going to continue.

to, you know, the speed we're able to bring to Richmond. I don't know, there's no reason we can't take it to Loudoun and in Iowa and some of these other racetracks. And we've shown moments of that. And so for us, we can just clean it up and make the car, make the brakes on the car, a little bit more reliable and consistent. I think it's going to very quickly even it out. And it's going to look like the other track types. For sure. Thanks for joining us, Tyler. You got it. Thanks, guys.