Tyler Reddick's summer slump has No. 1 Chase seed now looking distant

Over the last seven NASCAR Cup Series races, Tyler Reddick has finished 25th or worse five times. 

For the Daytona 500 champion and one-time points leader, the prolonged summer slump has been a complete 180 from the way his season started. Reddick is now 68 points back of leader Denny Hamlin and only 19 points ahead of third-place Ryan Blaney going into the Brickyard 400 on July 26. 

Reddick finished 30th at North Wilkesboro on Sunday after being an innocent bystander of Alex Bowman pitting from the top lane, which resulted in heavy contact with Reddick. 

Tyler Reddick mired in summer slump

"Really disappointing weekend," Reddick said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "I was bleeding some lap time there and Alex had just gotten to my outside. There's a lot there. Do I feel like it was on purpose? Of course not. At the end of the day, you can be upset at the situation and what happened, but back in the days of driving for Chevy, I worked with Alex quite a bit. I know that wasn't intentional, egregious, all of the above."

Reddick could use a good run at Indianapolis not just to gain ground on Hamlin in the fight for the points lead, but also to gather momentum before NASCAR's final off-weekend of the season. He finished runner-up in the 2024 Brickyard 400 to Kyle Larson after starting on the pole.