Tyler Reddick led exactly one lap of the 68th Daytona 500. It was the only one that mattered.
With cars wrecking behind him and Carson Hocevar’s shot at glory already spinning into the Turn 1 wall, Reddick took a push from 23XI Racing teammate Riley Herbst. He powered past Chase Elliott in the final 500 yards and won NASCAR’s biggest race by 0.308 seconds over Ricky Stenhouse Jr.. The victory, the first Daytona 500 win for both Reddick and 23XI Racing, delivered co-owner Michael Jordan a crown-jewel moment in the sport he has invested in since launching the team ahead of the 2021 season.
“Last year was really hard for all of us, hard for me,” Reddick said after climbing from his No. 45 Toyota. “When you’re a Cup driver and you get to this level and drive for Michael Jordan, it’s expected you win every single year. For us to go on that drought we did made us look hard in the mirror.”
Jordan, who turns 63 on Tuesday, met Reddick in victory lane with a bear hug before the two hoisted the Harley J. Earl Trophy together. The moment marked the 10th career victory for 23XI Racing and the end of a 38-race winless stretch for Reddick dating back to Homestead-Miami Speedway in October 2024.
“It feels like I won a championship, like a huge championship,” Jordan said. “Unbelievable.”
Michael Jordan is a Daytona 500 champion! pic.twitter.com/awIrrSY4fp
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 15, 2026
A Final Lap Nobody Will Forget
The chaos on Lap 200 started before anyone crossed the stripe.
Hocevar, the 23-year-old Spire Motorsports driver pulling triple duty across all three national series during Speedweeks, took the white flag as the leader. He had driven a gutsy race and put himself in position to win his first Cup event on the sport’s biggest stage. But before the lead pack reached Turn 1, Erik Jones tagged the back of Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet and sent him spinning, collecting teammate Michael McDowell in the process. Spire had been running 1-2 at the white flag. In an instant, both cars were sideways.
Elliott grabbed the lead coming off Turn 4 and looked set to finally win his first crown jewel race. Then Reddick and Herbst executed the move they had been setting up for the final handful of laps. Herbst planted his bumper on the back of Reddick’s Toyota, and the push gave Reddick enough momentum to clear Elliott before the finish line.
The carnage did not stop there. Herbst, still racing for a win of his own, moved to block Brad Keselowski on the outside as they approached the stripe. The two collided, triggering a wreck across the finish line. NASCAR kept the race under green, and Reddick crossed first.
“My teammate Riley Herbst gave me a lot of pushes there and then tried to win the race for himself, as he should at the end there,” Reddick said.
Keselowski, who finished fifth, was less diplomatic about Herbst’s block. “One of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen,” he said.
25 Leaders, 65 Lead Changes, and the Keselowski Subplot
Sunday’s race featured a Daytona 500-record 25 different leaders who combined for 65 lead changes, the second-highest total in race history behind the 74 swaps in the 2011 event. With the Next Gen car producing tight aerodynamic packs, no single driver or team could break away for long. Bubba Wallace, Reddick’s 23XI teammate, led a race-high 40 laps but faded in the final sequence and finished 10th. Reddick’s only lap out front was the last one, making him the fourth driver in Daytona 500 history to win by leading just the final circuit.
A 20-car wreck with seven laps remaining in Stage 2 reshaped the field early. Contact between Justin Allgaier and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing, triggered a massive pileup in the tri-oval in the tri-oval that ended the day for several contenders. The constant shuffling through 200 laps put a premium on restart strategy, pit timing and the ability to find drafting partners when the field stacked back up.
One of the best stories of the day belonged to Keselowski, who broke his right femur in a skiing accident in December and was only cleared to race on Feb. 9, six days before the 500. The 2012 Cup champion showed up to the track with a cane, started ninth and worked his way into contention by the final stage. He had a legitimate shot at his first Daytona 500 victory before Herbst’s block ended his charge at the stripe. He still walked away with a fifth-place finish, his best Daytona 500 result since 2014, and said his leg felt fine after 200 laps.
23XI’s Top-10 Sweep
All three full-time 23XI Racing drivers finished inside the top 10: Reddick first, Herbst eighth and Wallace 10th, per Toyota’s official statement. That kind of collective finish at Daytona is rare for any organization, and it did not happen by accident.
Throughout the race, the 23XI entries consistently found each other in the draft, choosing to work together through the pack even when it meant giving up short-term track position to build a stronger line. The team spent the days before the race drilling radio communication and practicing how to form up quickly after restarts. When the field fanned out over the final two laps, that preparation showed. Herbst knew where to be, Reddick trusted the push, and the result followed.
For Jordan and Hamlin, the Daytona 500 carries weight that goes beyond a single race. It locks Reddick into the 2026 playoff field, provides a marketing platform that lasts all season, and shows sponsors (and prospective talent) that 23XI can deliver on the biggest stages.
What Comes Next
Reddick now owns nine career wins, a Daytona 500 trophy, and a locked-in playoff spot that takes the survival pressure off 23XI for the first half of the season. After going winless in all of 2025, the question entering this year was whether Reddick and the team had hit a ceiling. Sunday’s answer put that to rest.
Whether superspeedway success carries over to the short tracks, road courses, and 1.5-mile ovals that fill the rest of the schedule is a fair question. But 23XI heads into the remaining 35 races with a Daytona 500 champion, a Brickyard 400 winner in Wallace, and the proof that their three-car operation can run as a unit when it counts. As Jordan put it after hoisting the trophy: “I can’t even believe it. You never know how these races are going to end. We hung in there all day. Great strategy by the team, and we gave ourselves a chance at the end. I’m ecstatic.”
