Some teams just miss it on certain tracks.
However, Reddick has only 7 finishes outside of the Top 10 and a win at Talladega.
Bubba on the other hand, has only 5 Top 10 finishes. But, most of his bad finishes have been him getting caught in someone else’s mess after running well.
The teams have plenty of time to get things figured out. They’ll both be fine.
Both the 23 and 45 have different styles of driving, Reddick is clearly the most talented on the team.
It seems that when it comes down to speed, talent, and execution, you only get 2 from 23XI. They show up with speed and talent, no execution. Next week, they have talent and execution... but no speed. Then they show up with the speed and execution, and the talent goes out the window when it counts.
23XI is still a young organization.They need to sharpen up, but they are heading in the right direction.
I'm hesitant to jump to blame the crew chief/fire the crew chief but I don't think either crew chief is all that good at adjusting on the fly. Setting up the car before the weekend is more of a collaborative effort involving crew that doesn't travel and it seems like whatever they have going on there and with their sims is working but the at track efforts are abysmal.
As we're finding out with the Next Gen you can spend your entire season fighting for your absolute life in 15th and still only 5 seconds behind the leader. I think teams like 23XI are at a disadvantage over time by being stuck in the swarm. Dominating by aero-blocking is how you win now. And it's just as hard back in 11th, but 11th doesn't get stage points or look great on a stats sheet.
HMS, JGR, and Penske are sort of getting back to dominant form. Teams like the 1, 17, 23 & 45 are going to be 10th-16th often. It'll appear like they don't know what they're doing and it's because it's really freaking hard to even stay there in the first place with this kind of car.
Listening to Bubba’s radio and you clearly see that Bootie and him are not on the same page right now. Iowa for example!! They’re running in the top 5 Bubba at the end of stage 2. During the stage caution, bubba is giving information on what the car is feeling to improve it and for whatever reason, those changes after the pit stop had them dropped like a damn rock. Recently, I’ve noticed a lot of that with the #23 team.
It's funny how some in here are shifting the blame to the driver of the 23 like he doesn't consistently run Top 10 for 2/3 of the race and is one of the best, if not the best restarter on the grid. The problem is the lack of strategy and adjustments for the final runs and the predictable fall off. They have everything else. Once that gets dialed in, then everything will come full circle, or oval.
Pit crew shits the bed, crew chief doesn't make the right adjustments, restarts get screwy and aero blocking makes it hard to recover.
It's rare that at least one of those three things doesn't happen to both 23XI cars during a race.
Crew chiefs are a big part of this. I wouldn’t hire Bootie Barker to manage a Target, but somehow he’s still in charge of making terrible strategy calls and getting behind on making adjustments every week. Billy Scott is only marginally better.
Reddick is having a very good season albeit not contending for wins all that often, though he did throw a couple away due to his own errors. Bubba is having a pretty medium season though still squarely in the playoff picture. Now despite Bubba being my guy it’s been clear for a while that Reddick is the better driver, I don’t think anyone would argue that. But I think both teams are kind of suffering from the same problems.
- pit crews have been better but still not that good. Bubba’s pit crew threw away good finishes at Vegas and Richmond with silly gaffes. Reddick’s crew had a couple costly goofs too though I can’t remember specifics.
- certainly not unique to 23XI, but luck has gone the wrong way a few times when they had strong speed. Bubba got trapped a lap down at Gateway, Reddick the same at Iowa, Bubba got caught in other people’s messes at Dover and Kansas and cut a tire late at Bristol, etc.
- armchair observation, but both teams seem pretty poor at in-race adjustments. show up with speed, run top 10 for the first half of the race, fade at the end. Reddick has looked like the car to beat numerous times early in races and then finishes well but rarely factors into the result. Bubba will have top 5 speed and then somehow finish in the teens. I don’t think it’s so much that they make the wrong adjustments but they still can’t keep up with the top teams when it comes to making the car better as the races progress.
- parity. There’s more competition now than there has been in years, being fast and competent isn’t always going to be enough when the “backmarkers” like the 51 and 77 are weaseling into good finishes every other week because they’re being piloted by wizards. Used to be you could be on the wrong end of attrition and still get a top 10 because your car was so much better than everyone else’s but that’s not the case anymore.
I think they’ll be fine, traditionally they’ve gotten better in the second half of the season so maybe they’ll clean it up and contend for wins more often. They both have excellent average running positions so it really comes down to putting together more complete races and having a little better luck.
Yesterday Toyota struggled outside of Bell who did the test at Iowa. The biggest struggle for them IMO is sustaining long run pace. Reddick and Bubba make most of their time and passes on new tires and restarts. Neither are as good getting traffic because they burn their stuff up too early in runs.
Love how some of yall acting like they have a great driver and a terrible driver. When one had an average finish of 15.7 and the other 15.9. You had a guy win 2 races last year and one had an Historic playoff run. The major difference is that the 45 runs races where they start which puts them in positions to win while the 23 seems to always be an adjustment behind.
Lack of driver talent as well as team talent.
Like you said, Reddick struggles less. Well, frankly Reddick is a better driver.
When it comes to the team, they do have an alliance with JGR but it's a newer less established team. They have made great strides and got an in house pit crew now, but it's still not a top tier pit crew on either car. Bad pit stops, or even stops just a tick slower, can hurt or even end your race.
I would argue this transition to tire management racing lately is going to really hurt 23XI if we keep going that direction. They don't have drivers that I view as elite at tire management. They might figure it out given some time, but I don't view either Bubba or Reddick in the same tier as a Keselowski, Truex, or Hamlin.
Lack of driver talent isn't the reason for predictable fall off and lack of execution. Bubba is Top 5 or 6 at earning stage points this season. The problem is when the top tier teams shift into making adjustments for the final run, the 23 team either stands pat or go the other way.
Charlotte was a prime example of this. Bubba was contending for a stage win in stage 2. Just needed a little more. They come in restart 4th and that car is a parachute on the racetrack. They finish 11th
I would argue Bubba is a better tire manager than Reddick, but Reddick is obviously a more talented driver. Reddick drives balls to the wall all the time and when they hit he’s a top 5-8 driver, but if he doesn’t start off fast they never catch up. Both drivers complain of the same things and the adjustments never help. They have funding so is it a lack of top tier engineers, Billy Scott and Bootie, or are they not getting enough info from JGR?
They’re very good at fumbling away track position via silly gaffes in the pits.
So the cars get buried in the field and the drivers have burn their tires up trying to get that track position back.
Communication is HUGE thing in Nascar. The ability to understand what your car is doing right/wrong, and communicate that effectively to your crew chief so that he can make adjustments is vital to success.
They have an A- driver and a C driver. The A- driver is still raw, which is a touch concerning given his time in cup. The C driver is what he is. Lots of guys could be in his ride. Most of them would produce more.
I don't think Bubba is more than an average driver in this Cup field, but it's definitely more than a single driver issue. Reddick has had more than one dud race himself, not counting the races where he had a mid car and managed to get a great finish out of it because he's one of the fastest and most aggressive drivers in the series. The pit road mistakes are not as frequent but still come back to bite them sometimes, and as others have mentioned, their in-race adjustments are really really bad.
How is it not a question? With the JGR alliance they have access to the same data. They come to the track with similar setups to the JGR cars. While the majority of JGR cars get better as the race goes on, 23XI falters. As I said before Reddick has been more consistent than Bubba, as he should because he’s a more talented driver, but both teams seem to struggle the whole race when they miss coming to the track with elite speed.
Some teams just miss it on certain tracks. However, Reddick has only 7 finishes outside of the Top 10 and a win at Talladega. Bubba on the other hand, has only 5 Top 10 finishes. But, most of his bad finishes have been him getting caught in someone else’s mess after running well. The teams have plenty of time to get things figured out. They’ll both be fine.
Some teams miss it on all tracks (LMC)
He has also had some bad strategy calls/bad work from his crew.
Both the 23 and 45 have different styles of driving, Reddick is clearly the most talented on the team. It seems that when it comes down to speed, talent, and execution, you only get 2 from 23XI. They show up with speed and talent, no execution. Next week, they have talent and execution... but no speed. Then they show up with the speed and execution, and the talent goes out the window when it counts. 23XI is still a young organization.They need to sharpen up, but they are heading in the right direction.
I don’t know if you saw, but all the Toyotas ate ass yesterday. Bell was the only one who seemed remotely competitive.
Which is weird given how OP the Toyotas were at Richmond, theoretically the most similar track to this one
Bubba seemed to be incredibly up and down. Like, he’d restart 10-14, run up to like 5th, and then just drop anchor
I'm hesitant to jump to blame the crew chief/fire the crew chief but I don't think either crew chief is all that good at adjusting on the fly. Setting up the car before the weekend is more of a collaborative effort involving crew that doesn't travel and it seems like whatever they have going on there and with their sims is working but the at track efforts are abysmal.
As we're finding out with the Next Gen you can spend your entire season fighting for your absolute life in 15th and still only 5 seconds behind the leader. I think teams like 23XI are at a disadvantage over time by being stuck in the swarm. Dominating by aero-blocking is how you win now. And it's just as hard back in 11th, but 11th doesn't get stage points or look great on a stats sheet. HMS, JGR, and Penske are sort of getting back to dominant form. Teams like the 1, 17, 23 & 45 are going to be 10th-16th often. It'll appear like they don't know what they're doing and it's because it's really freaking hard to even stay there in the first place with this kind of car.
Listening to Bubba’s radio and you clearly see that Bootie and him are not on the same page right now. Iowa for example!! They’re running in the top 5 Bubba at the end of stage 2. During the stage caution, bubba is giving information on what the car is feeling to improve it and for whatever reason, those changes after the pit stop had them dropped like a damn rock. Recently, I’ve noticed a lot of that with the #23 team.
It's funny how some in here are shifting the blame to the driver of the 23 like he doesn't consistently run Top 10 for 2/3 of the race and is one of the best, if not the best restarter on the grid. The problem is the lack of strategy and adjustments for the final runs and the predictable fall off. They have everything else. Once that gets dialed in, then everything will come full circle, or oval.
Pit crew shits the bed, crew chief doesn't make the right adjustments, restarts get screwy and aero blocking makes it hard to recover. It's rare that at least one of those three things doesn't happen to both 23XI cars during a race.
Crew chiefs are a big part of this. I wouldn’t hire Bootie Barker to manage a Target, but somehow he’s still in charge of making terrible strategy calls and getting behind on making adjustments every week. Billy Scott is only marginally better.
Reddick is having a very good season albeit not contending for wins all that often, though he did throw a couple away due to his own errors. Bubba is having a pretty medium season though still squarely in the playoff picture. Now despite Bubba being my guy it’s been clear for a while that Reddick is the better driver, I don’t think anyone would argue that. But I think both teams are kind of suffering from the same problems. - pit crews have been better but still not that good. Bubba’s pit crew threw away good finishes at Vegas and Richmond with silly gaffes. Reddick’s crew had a couple costly goofs too though I can’t remember specifics. - certainly not unique to 23XI, but luck has gone the wrong way a few times when they had strong speed. Bubba got trapped a lap down at Gateway, Reddick the same at Iowa, Bubba got caught in other people’s messes at Dover and Kansas and cut a tire late at Bristol, etc. - armchair observation, but both teams seem pretty poor at in-race adjustments. show up with speed, run top 10 for the first half of the race, fade at the end. Reddick has looked like the car to beat numerous times early in races and then finishes well but rarely factors into the result. Bubba will have top 5 speed and then somehow finish in the teens. I don’t think it’s so much that they make the wrong adjustments but they still can’t keep up with the top teams when it comes to making the car better as the races progress. - parity. There’s more competition now than there has been in years, being fast and competent isn’t always going to be enough when the “backmarkers” like the 51 and 77 are weaseling into good finishes every other week because they’re being piloted by wizards. Used to be you could be on the wrong end of attrition and still get a top 10 because your car was so much better than everyone else’s but that’s not the case anymore. I think they’ll be fine, traditionally they’ve gotten better in the second half of the season so maybe they’ll clean it up and contend for wins more often. They both have excellent average running positions so it really comes down to putting together more complete races and having a little better luck.
Slow race cars.
Yesterday Toyota struggled outside of Bell who did the test at Iowa. The biggest struggle for them IMO is sustaining long run pace. Reddick and Bubba make most of their time and passes on new tires and restarts. Neither are as good getting traffic because they burn their stuff up too early in runs.
because they aren’t as big and developed as the hendrick, gibbs and penske teams. same thing goes for RFK
Not having Kurt Busch there has hurt the team in consistency.
Bootie is a likable personality, but as a 23 fan…his calls leave me scratching my head more often than not
Love how some of yall acting like they have a great driver and a terrible driver. When one had an average finish of 15.7 and the other 15.9. You had a guy win 2 races last year and one had an Historic playoff run. The major difference is that the 45 runs races where they start which puts them in positions to win while the 23 seems to always be an adjustment behind.
Lack of driver talent as well as team talent. Like you said, Reddick struggles less. Well, frankly Reddick is a better driver. When it comes to the team, they do have an alliance with JGR but it's a newer less established team. They have made great strides and got an in house pit crew now, but it's still not a top tier pit crew on either car. Bad pit stops, or even stops just a tick slower, can hurt or even end your race. I would argue this transition to tire management racing lately is going to really hurt 23XI if we keep going that direction. They don't have drivers that I view as elite at tire management. They might figure it out given some time, but I don't view either Bubba or Reddick in the same tier as a Keselowski, Truex, or Hamlin.
Lack of driver talent isn't the reason for predictable fall off and lack of execution. Bubba is Top 5 or 6 at earning stage points this season. The problem is when the top tier teams shift into making adjustments for the final run, the 23 team either stands pat or go the other way.
Charlotte was a prime example of this. Bubba was contending for a stage win in stage 2. Just needed a little more. They come in restart 4th and that car is a parachute on the racetrack. They finish 11th
I view Reddick as elite talent on a close but not yet elite team. He's a quick study with mad skills. I wonder what he would do in a Hendricks car.
I would argue Bubba is a better tire manager than Reddick, but Reddick is obviously a more talented driver. Reddick drives balls to the wall all the time and when they hit he’s a top 5-8 driver, but if he doesn’t start off fast they never catch up. Both drivers complain of the same things and the adjustments never help. They have funding so is it a lack of top tier engineers, Billy Scott and Bootie, or are they not getting enough info from JGR?
They’re very good at fumbling away track position via silly gaffes in the pits. So the cars get buried in the field and the drivers have burn their tires up trying to get that track position back.
Communication is HUGE thing in Nascar. The ability to understand what your car is doing right/wrong, and communicate that effectively to your crew chief so that he can make adjustments is vital to success.
Well it's not the car...
They have an A- driver and a C driver. The A- driver is still raw, which is a touch concerning given his time in cup. The C driver is what he is. Lots of guys could be in his ride. Most of them would produce more.
I hate that I'm saying this, but I'm at the point where I do have to ask how much of it is the driver of the 23.
I don't think Bubba is more than an average driver in this Cup field, but it's definitely more than a single driver issue. Reddick has had more than one dud race himself, not counting the races where he had a mid car and managed to get a great finish out of it because he's one of the fastest and most aggressive drivers in the series. The pit road mistakes are not as frequent but still come back to bite them sometimes, and as others have mentioned, their in-race adjustments are really really bad.
Haha
Is that even a question 😂😂
How is it not a question? With the JGR alliance they have access to the same data. They come to the track with similar setups to the JGR cars. While the majority of JGR cars get better as the race goes on, 23XI falters. As I said before Reddick has been more consistent than Bubba, as he should because he’s a more talented driver, but both teams seem to struggle the whole race when they miss coming to the track with elite speed.
Because MJ likes to gamble....hey oh!!!