Kevin Harvick Blames 23XI Racing’s Expansion for Tyler Reddick’s Underwhelming Form

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season hasn’t been kind to 23XI Racing’s star driver Tyler Reddick. He and teammate Bubba Wallace started the season strong with consistent front-raw finishes, while also earning significant amount of stage points. But the No:45 team failed to sustain the elite form and had to wait till the Coke 400 at Daytona to point his way into the playoffs.

What makes things more concerning for the 2024 regular season champion is the fact that, Bubba Wallace won the Brickyard 400 and should have had equal point tally as Tyler Reddick, if not for the seven DNF he had. This got the attention on 2014 Cup winner Kevin Harvick and on the latest episode of his podcast, has explained why the star racer is struggling.

Harvick believes, one of the major reasons behind the drop in performance was the expansion of the team. 23XI started fielding a third car in the 2025 season for Riley Herbst and this has spread their resources thin. This open more holes in an already young team and makes it harder for the crew to be as efficient as they used to be.

I think when you look at 23XI, obviously, they have a lot going on off the racetrack, but on the racetrack, they added another car, and any time you expand it’s going to take some time to spread those resources out to be able to understand the flow of your company and know where the holes are of where to get those details.

Kevin Harvick explained via Happy Hour podcast.

The veteran admitted that he always believes an expansion is always is a disruption for a team and this often reduces the chances of the drivers’ winning races. So, the veteran believes Reddick’s poor form compared to the previous season where he won three races. This year he has scored just five top-5 finishes, with a single P2 at Daytona being his best finish.

So, I always look at expansion as somewhat of a disruption to a team. To be able to maintain at a high level of winning is tough. Because of the things that change. So, if I were going to point my finger at one thing, I would point towards expanding to three teams. That would be my guess.

Kevin Harvick added.

Kevin Harvick admits Tyler Reddick underwhelming form is confusing

Earlier in the same conversation, the veteran racer admitted that he finds it really confusing that the No:45 team experienced such a massive drop in form as the season progressed. Reddick racing not getting better like Wallace’s did towards the end of the regular season, also shocked Harvick. This made him declare that the star driver isn’t a contender for the 2025 season.

It’s really confusing. When you look at the speed chart average for the first 26 weeks, he ranks fifth. So, they have speed, but they don’t execute…I really thought they would progress into, especially the way that the 23 car has run…. But they just, to me, don’t feel like contenders at this point.

Kevin Harvick said.

The comments from the former champion shows he like the majority of the NASCAR community is disappointed with the results from the No:45 team, considering he should have been the leading driver for them amidst all the noise around them over charter lawsuit. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for them in the coming years.

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