23XI Racing finds itself at the bottom of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff grid after a rough start to the Round of 12.

Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace were not only irrelevant during Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but both finished outside the top 20. Reddick, who started the round three points below the cutline after the reseed, is now 23 points behind. Wallace, who entered one point above the cutline, is now in a 27-point deficit.

“I didn’t expect that, that’s for sure,” Reddick said after finishing 21st. “The way the race started, I thought we were going to be able to run in the top 10 all day, but between the brake issues we had and yeah… It just got away quick.

“The balance went away, and next thing I know, we were trying to battle for 20th. Just a terrible day.”

Reddick faded from a fourth-place qualifying effort and averaged a running position of 12th throughout the race. Of the two stages, he earned a total of two points.

Wallace, meanwhile, finished 26th after qualifying 14th. He earned no stage points and had an average running position of 20.7.

“Just a miss all around,” Wallace said. “We couldn’t really seem to get things going. Our best run lasted for five laps, caution came out, and then it was right back to no good. I hate it. I was actually really optimistic, marched forward at the start and never really went anywhere. We kind of plateaued on lap five, and that was it. I hate that.

“It’s just a head scratcher. I told our team, ‘We’re way better than that.’ We know it. As much of a gut punch as this one is, we move on. That’s what we got to do.”

Reddick and Wallace are both former winners at Kansas Speedway, the second race in the round. However, both were reserved about that being a welcome sight after Sunday’s disappointment.

“There are just a lot of question marks, honestly,” Reddick said. “The places we have had speed at, we don’t bring speed, and that’s been one of them for us. Yeah, we need something special to happen. I’m hoping we find the answer.”

“Not to be pessimistic but realistic: my stats there the last couple of races haven’t done much,” Wallace said. “We gotta dig deep.”