"We've been a mess": Tyler Reddick introspects after nearly missing out on NASCAR playoffs

At Daytona, Tyler Reddick got involved in an early-race wreck, which temporarily hampered his chances of advancing to the playoffs. Reddick, who won last year's regular season championship, found himself winless and 15th in points heading into the final race of the regular season this year.

But because Ryan Blaney won the race instead of there being a new winner, Tyler Reddick advanced to the playoffs.

After the race, he was asked about his process of calming down and preparing for the playoff race at Darlington next weekend. Reddick answered:

"I know the playoffs are here, but we just need to have a couple weeks put together where we don't have any issues. That would be great. I think if we do that in the round of 16, that means we'll advance. We've been a mess. We've wrecked a lot, gave away a lot of races. It's been a tough year for sure."

Looking back on his race and his early wreck, Tyler Reddick said he was in a tough spot and it was 'really hard' for his team. When asked whether he was confident he'd finish the race, he said he had no idea, as his team kept working on a pretty torn up car.

"They had a plan. They worked on it, kept making it better. Obviously, we lost a lot of performance, but we had something we could somewhat race," Reddick mentioned.

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Tyler Reddick laments his early race mistake at Daytona

In a post-race interview, Tyler Reddick opened up on his lap 18 incident, which temporarily put his playoff hopes in danger. Reddick made contact with Tod Gilliland, after which he ended up spinning and hit the wall.

This was something he deemed 'a really awful mistake' on his part, which disappointed him because of the position he found himself in.

"As a driver, you never want to make a mistake like that that early. We got some breaks for sure, and that’s what ultimately got us in. I hate that it came to that, but yeah, we at least made [the playoffs]. I think we’re just going to have to find out in the playoffs now at this point, yeah," Reddick described.

He claimed his team has had the speed, but they've failed to execute and capitalize whenever they needed to. So far this season, Tyler Reddick has had five top 5s and four top 10s. But his last top 5 came at the Chicago Street race, since which he's only had a couple of top 10 finishes.

Reddick claimed his night in Daytona on Sunday 'encapsulates' his season so far, as he has 'time and time again' not taken advantage of his very capable racecar.