NASCAR, like every organization in the world of sports, adapts to the changing environment around them and with the term “artificial intelligence” being of particular importance in this day and age, comes the need for teams in the sport to embrace it, or eventually die out. Tyler Reddick, who drives for 23XI Racing, a modern ambitious outfit, knows all about that.

The team may not be bonafide championship favorites, but is in the hunt with resources to match its ambition. Even so, when it comes to artificial intelligence, it is feeling its way.

In a time when AI has its fingerprints on almost every corner of the world, the question has been knocking on the garage door. Are teams using it to stay ahead of the curve? Reddick, who opened the season with three wins on the bounce, shut down the inquiries about the usage of AI from the driver’s seat, saying that the road has not been fully constructed yet.

He said in a CNBC interview, “For me, in the car, I don’t have access really to any of that. I think it is something that the teams are exploring, just trying to find ways that we can make use of the data that we have. I think right now, it’s not something we really rely on a lot…

“But I think we’re just trying to learn and find ways how can we utilize this is, can we, can we go down this path and find a use for it?”

Reddick added that the search is still on, with teams booting the tires and looking under the hood to see where it might fit. “I definitely think it’s something that they’re playing around with to see if we can find use. And I certainly think once we find what that thing is, it’ll be used on a more consistent basis.”

The modern Cup car produces a flood of data, enough to bury a team if left unchecked. Drivers can see more, engineers can measure more, and yet making sense of it all can feel like chasing shadows. The aim with AI is not to reinvent the wheel, but to cut through the noise, flag what matters, and leave the rest in the dust.

The #45 driver pointed to that overload, noting how the sheer volume can slow teams down rather than push them forward.

“But there’s a lot in the NASCAR world now that we race and live in with all the data that we’re able to see off of these race cars, the drivers are able to see of each other. There’s just so much data to go through that it is a bit overwhelming. So, trying to nail something down in that direction to make it just make it more efficient,” Reddick continued.

For now, AI remains a tool on the bench; more of a testing concept. Once teams find a clear lane, they can move from trial to track in short order.

Reddick, meanwhile, sees it in simple terms, likening it to everyday tech where answers appear with a tap, for example, using SIRI on his iPhone.

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Kaden Honeycutt’s Darlington outing began with huge promise, as he edged Carson Hocevar out by 0.02 seconds to bag his first pole in the Craftsman truck series. But in ended in bitter disappointment, leaving him wondering just what went wrong in the race, in which he finished fourth.

Honeycutt had set the pace at the drop of the green and backed it up by taking Stage 2 which his fourth stage win. But then the race slipped through his fingers. Corey Heim emerged as the ultimate winner of the outing.

The turning point came on a restart with 20 laps to go, as Hocevar drove low into Turn 1 to muscle past Honeycutt and take the lead. Then, with four laps left, Hocevar‘s run unraveled with a tire going down, throwing the order into chaos, something Ross Chastain took advantage of without a lot of thinking. It turned the race into a free for all and safe to say, Honeycutt was not happy.

The Tricon Garage driver pointed to moves from Hocevar and also Chastain, that, in his view, crossed the line as they fought for track position, knocking the wind out of his run when it mattered most.

“It was definitely the best truck long run for sure. The last restart, just the top lane wasn’t preferred. Everyone at Tricon, that was good. And just hate it wasn’t us, man. I mean, we definitely were the best. Just when you line up against Cup guys, they really don’t care about restarts or nothing. So they just plug you in the fence or do what they have to do to win it,” he said in an interview with Bob Pockrass.

Honeycutt said his truck had the pace on a long run and that the outside lane on the final restart left him boxed in. Racing against drivers who also log laps in the Cup garage, he added, came with its own set of rules, where elbows came out, and space was at a premium. He felt the contact in Turns 1 and 2, and again, off Turn 2 took him out of the hunt.

“And that’s what happened to me when Hocevar went to the bottom, and he shoved me in 1 and 2, and then Ross did it again off two and just flattened the right side out too good. So it’s what it is.”

“It’s, you know, what the hell do they care about, right? I mean, I understand racing for a win, but they knew I was the best truck, so they did what they had to do to take me out of it. It just sucks,” Honeycutt added.

Honeycutthas been knocking on the door of a win for a while, but the final step has stayed out of reach. He has shown he can run up front when the green flies, yet the closing laps have seldom been kind to him.

Across 63 starts in the series, Honeycutt has put together a stack of runs near the front, including a runner-up finish, four top-three results, and seven top-four finishes, with Darlington adding another to the list.

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Carson Hocevar has spent only four years in the NASCAR Cup Series, logging 82 starts and learning the ropes the hard way. But in that time, he’s seen enough limitations to urge the authorities to allow drivers to take part in as many different racing ventures as possible.

Hocevar has experienced the impact of trimmed practice windows, where track time has been cut back, and drivers are left to make do with less time to dial in a car, feel a new tire, or find a cadence with a new track package. NASCAR continues to hold off on these limits and Hocevaris pushing for a return to more seat time.

In his view, there is no substitute for the real thing. No simulator, no replay, no data set can match the effort of running laps, hitting pit road under pressure, and reacting on the fly as the field closes in. The Cup Series drivers are permitted to compete in a maximum of 10 races in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (formerly the Xfinity Series) and 8 races in the Craftsman Truck Series. The aim is to give others a shot, to spread the wealth and keep the ladder moving. Hocevar, however, is calling for a rethink.

“We say all the time how beneficial the sim is. Well, I much rather real life experience by all means,” he saidin an interview with Eric Estepp.

“Wanting them to reopen everything and let let us race all three series because I think we’d have a we would just race all three series,” he added, making the case for opening the gates and letting drivers run across all three tiers.

The idea harks back to a time when drivers did not pick and choose. Names like Kyle Busch would show up wherever there was a race, stacking laps across Cup, O’Reilly Auto Parts, and Trucks, keeping their edge sharp by staying in the thick of it week in and week out. It was a run-what-you-bring mindset, where more laps meant more lessons.

The Spire Motorsports driver wants that playbook back. In his eyes, the more a driver races, the more they learn, and the better they become. Sitting idle between race weekends does not move the needle. Behind the scenes, he has been beating that drum, pushing for a system that gives drivers more freedom to compete.

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