DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tyler Reddick waited for the final doable second to make his transfer—and it paid off with victory in Sunday’s 68th operating of the Daytona 500.
Within the remaining 500 yards of the Nice American Race, Reddick bought a welcome push from teammate Riley Herbst, muscled his well past Chase Elliott and powered his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota towards the end line.
Because the monitor exploded in chaos behind him, when Herbst tried an ill-fated late block on Brad Keselowski and a knot of automobiles slid sideways throughout the end line, Reddick already was celebrating a 0.308-second victory over 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Reddick was the twenty fifth totally different chief—a file for the race—and the one lap he led was the final one.
After a winless 2025, Reddick expressed each satisfaction and aid at doing what 23XI co-owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan employed him to do.
“Final yr was actually arduous for all of us, arduous for me,” Reddick mentioned. “If you’re a Cup driver and also you get to this stage and drive for Michael Jordan, it’s anticipated you win each single yr.
“For us to go on that drought it made us look arduous within the mirror, and I’m actually happy with everybody on our Chumba On line casino Toyota Camry. Labored actually arduous within the offseason, and there have been many factors on this race the place we weren’t making choices we wished to, however we simply reset, and each alternative we bought to reset, we went again at it.
“Simply speechless. I didn’t know if I’d ever win this race. It’s surreal, actually. The perfect half is my son requested earlier than this race, ‘Are you lastly going to win this race?’ One thing about immediately simply felt proper.”
The ultimate two laps produced extra plot twists than a dime novel. Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar led on the white flag however spun in Flip 1 and fell out of the lead pack, taking Erik Jones and Michael McDowell with him. Elliott took management and appeared able to win his first Crown Jewel race earlier than Reddick gained momentum off Herbst’s bumper.
Moments later, Herbst’s tried block stopped Keselowski’s large run close to the surface wall and sealed the win for Reddick.
“I’m not likely positive what occurred with the primary (Hocevar) wreck,” Elliott mentioned. “However we ended up type of getting gifted the lead, and the 38 (Zane Smith) and I had bought out by ourselves down the again. He had given me a superb shove off into (Flip) 3 after which it was type of simply he and I, and at that time I simply felt momentum shift, like there was going to be one other run coming behind us there sooner or later.
“Sadly, that was correct, after which at that cut-off date, you’re simply on protection. Man, that’s a very, actually powerful place to be, honestly. Clearly wanting again, you may run it via your thoughts a thousand instances. Do you do one thing totally different? I really feel like if I had thrown a double block on the 45 (Reddick), most likely would have simply crashed us at that cut-off date.”
Behind Stenhouse, 2015 Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano slid throughout the end line in third place, adopted by Elliott and Keselowski.
“Yeah, a variety of chaos,” mentioned Keselowski, who raced whereas nonetheless recovering from a damaged proper femur. “Final restart I gave William Byron an ideal push, and simply wasn’t sufficient to maneuver our lane. I used to be giving him all I had, after which proper right here on the finish I had this large run and the 35 (Herbst) wrecked us. Actually disenchanted.
“Tore up the 9 (Elliott), tore up the 22 (Joey Logano), a bunch of automobiles that didn’t need to be wrecked, in order that was an enormous bummer and actually silly. Nonetheless a good day for us to return dwelling with a high 5 and to be aggressive and have a shot to win.”
As wild because the end was, the most important melee of the afternoon got here a lot earlier.
With seven laps left within the second stage, contact between the No. 40 Chevrolet of Justin Allgaier and the No.11 Toyota of three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin ignited a 20-car wreck within the tri-oval.
Allgaier was main the highest line however left a slim lane open to his proper. As Hamlin tried to fill the opening, Allgaier’s automotive twitched towards the wall, turned throughout the nostril of Hamlin’s Camry and lit the fuse of chaos behind him.
“I bought to the surface lane there, bought to the entrance—bought the surface lane,” Allgaier mentioned. “And I actually thought I had blocked sufficient of that high lane that the highest line was simply going to fall in behind.
“And as quickly as Denny went to that quarter-panel, it simply sucked me in there. It’s one hundred percent my fault. That’s the irritating half. I ought to have moved it up greater. However there are moments the place you get a little bit bit complacent. You suppose you probably did every thing proper, however you didn’t test all of the containers. That’s what occurred there.”
Despite the fact that Herbst was listed in that incident, his automotive was not severely broken and survived to grow to be a key element within the 23XI victory, as Jordan acknowledged after the race.
“I assumed Riley did an unbelievable job pushing on the finish,” Jordan mentioned. “That reveals you what teamwork can actually, actually do. He doesn’t get sufficient credit score. He received’t get sufficient credit score. However we really feel the love. We perceive precisely what he did.
“We hung in there all day. Nice technique by the workforce, and we gave ourselves an opportunity on the finish. Look, I’m ecstatic. I don’t even know what to say. It seems like I received a championship, however till I get my ring, I received’t even know.”
Smith, Chris Buescher, Herbst, Josh Berry and Bubba Wallace completed sixth via tenth, respectively. Byron, attempting for a 3rd straight DAYTONA 500 win, got here dwelling twelfth, and pole winner Kyle Busch was fifteenth.
The lead modified fingers among the many file 25 totally different drivers 665 instances. Smith took the primary stage win—the primary of his profession—and Wallace received the second underneath warning for the 20-car accident.
The end:
(26) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 200.
(16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 200.
(3) Joey Logano, Ford, 200.
(4) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 200.
(9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 200.
(30) Zane Smith, Ford, 200.
(41) Chris Buescher, Ford, 200.
(28) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 200.
(14) Josh Berry, Ford, 200.
(27) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 200.
(25) Noah Gragson, Ford, 200.
(39) William Byron, Chevrolet, 200.
(15) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 200.
(34) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 200.
(1) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 200.
(8) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 200.
(33) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 200.
(6) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 200.
(35) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 200.
(37) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 200.
(24) Erik Jones, Toyota, 200.
(10) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 200.
(20) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 200.
(23) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 200.
(19) Ryan Preece, Ford, 200.
(11) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, Accident, 199.
(5) Ryan Blaney, Ford, Accident, 199.
(29) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, 199.
(31) Jimmie Johnson, Toyota, Accident, 199.
(13) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 199.
(22) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 198.
(17) Casey Mears, Ford, 195.
(32) Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 195.
(36) Austin Cindric, Ford, 193.
(12) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 191.
(2) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 188.
(7) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 137.
(40) Justin Allgaier(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 123.
(18) Todd Gilliland, Ford, Accident, 123.
(21) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Accident, 123.
(38) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, Accident, 4.
