Late in Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Darlington, there was a brief red flag for some light rain at the race track. When the race was ready to resume, most of the field fired back up – except the two 23XI cars. The No. 23 of Bubba Wallace and his 23XI Racing team-mate, the No. 45 of Tyler Reddick were dead on pit lane.
"Voltage is fine but starters dead," radioed Reddick. Neither driver was in danger of losing his position, provided the car could be restarted. In these situations , NASCAR will bring out a truck to push start the car and give the driver their position back.
But NASCAR didn't need to do anything this time around...
Reddick was running sixth with Chase Elliott directly behind him, and the Hendrick driver gave the No. 45 a push to help restart it.
— Skid (@WhoisSkid) September 7, 2026
No. 45 team radio: "Officials are waiting for the truck and he's sitting at the back of the line, so I'm not sure what the situation is...Oh the #9 [Elliott] is doing it. Well, thanks Chase."
The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team wasn't overly thrilled with that, telling Elliott: "Don't push him, don't f****** push him." However, it was no malice towards Reddick, as they explained that they were worried about burning up the clutch. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
Behind them in 10th, Wallace was facing the same dilemma with his good friend Ryan Blaney directly behind him. He pushed Wallace as well, and just like Reddick, they were able to get it quickly re-fired.
"What a guy...that's brotherly love right there," said the No. 23 team over the radio.
Reddick went on to finish third, Blaney fourth, Wallace eighth, and Elliott 14th. Christopher Bell won the race, and is now within 12 points of Denny Hamlin and the championship lead.
