Kevin Harvick is ready to sound the alarm for 23XI Racing and its two top drivers following Wednesday’s qualifying round for NASCAR‘s Daytona 500 on Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX).
In Thursday’s live episode of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” at Daytona International Speedway, Harvick said he was “really concerned” about 23XI Racing after how Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick performed in qualifying, as they placed 30th and 40th, respectively, in the race for pole position, which Kyle Busch won.
“Last year, we gave them a mulligan with everything they had going on with the lawsuit, internally,” Harvick said. “But the expectation is for those cars to win. They spend the money, they have the resources, they have the tie to Joe Gibbs, Tyler Reddick’s expected to be a championship contender, Bubba Wallace got to Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Tyler Reddick’s gotta win.”
As Harvick mentioned, the 23XI Racing’s two top drivers didn’t have the greatest seasons in 2025. Wallace actually had a relatively good year, with his 11th-place finish in the Cup standings being his second-best ever. His win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was also historic and the third of his career.
But Reddick slipped a bit in 2025. While he finished ninth in the Cup standings, that was down from his fourth-place finish in 2024 and sixth-place finish in 2023. Reddick also failed to win a race, marking the first time since 2021 that he didn’t win a race in a season.
With Reddick seeing his results slip, Harvick wonders if the 30-year-old driver might seek to move on from 23XI Racing when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season.
“We talked about contracts and all the things that are up. There are a lot of drivers’ contracts that are up,” Harvick said. “If those cars aren’t performing, a caliber driver of Tyler Reddick isn’t going to sit around for you to figure your cars out. He wants to be able to have what he needs to get to Victory Lane and has done that.”
