After the bombshell announcement Tuesday that Tyler Reddick will drive for 23XI Racing beginning in 2024, numerous questions arose.
Why choose 23XI Racing? Why Reddick? Why announce it early?
The trajectory of 23XI since the team’s inaugural season in 2021, caught the eye of Reddick immediately.
“For me, just seeing where 23XI has started, and where they’re going, it’s been very obvious to me that the ramp that they’re on and how they’re improving, it was very exciting for me, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Reddick said. “For me, just talking to Denny (Hamlin) and getting to watch and see the direction the team was going, where Toyota is and their commitment to the sport, to NASCAR, to this team, they’re all very exciting things, and I wanted to a part of it. That heavily influenced my decision.”
It was an easy decision for 23XI Racing, in large part because of Reddick’s character.
“One thing, whether you know Tyler, or just watch him. How he holds himself, how he races, he’s a good dude,” said Toyota Racing Development President David Wilson said. “He’s got the character that meshes well with us, and we’re honored, and flattered that he would consider being a part of our team. This is a direct reflection on Michael (Jordan), Denny (Hamlin), Steve (Lauletta), the 23XI organization being well ahead of schedule. It reflects our long-term commitment to their success.”
The commitment to being an innovative team is one item that 23XI Racing President Steve Lauletta emphasized when addressing the move.
“This is a couple of things from my perspective,” Lauletta said. “Number one, we’ve said from the beginning that 23XI wants to be a different kind of race team, and that’s a forward-thinking team, that’s an aggressive team, it’s an innovative team. We’re doing that with this identification by Denny (Hamlin) and Michael (Jordan) and David (Wilson), and everybody with Tyler’s talent.”
Lauletta mentioned three important aspects as to why 23XI decided to get the deal done now, well before the 2024 season.
“Today (Tuesday) is about, in my mind, a couple of T’s. It’s three T’s. It’s Tyler, it’s his talent, and then it’s about timing,” Lauletta explained. “The reason why we’re doing this today (Tuesday) is so you all know the ton of moving parts on the business side to get ready that need to be worked on for a season. We had four and a half months to get ready for the ’21 season with the 23. We probably had five and a half months to get ready for the ’22 season with the 45. We now have 18 months to get ready for how we bring Tyler into the 23XI family in 2024.
“We will have no answers to any questions about what those details look like, because literally, they start now,” he continued. “We’ve got the window to talk to current partners, potential partners and understand what that looks like. We’re in such a good place for the remainder of this year, and next year with our current lineup, our current partners and all they do for us, that this is truly about a longer window to get ready for 2024 and the talent that he brings to this team to continue that five-year path Denny talks about to get to a championship-level organization.”