Last-lap Pass Makes a DAYTONA 500 Winner of Tyler Reddick

By Reid Spencer; NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 15, 2026) — Tyler Reddick waited for the last possible moment to make his move—and it paid off with victory in Sunday’s 68th running of the DAYTONA 500.
In the final 500 yards of the Great American Race, Reddick got a welcome push from teammate Riley Herbst, muscled his way past Chase Elliott and powered his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota toward the finish line.

As the track exploded in chaos behind him, when Herbst tried an ill-fated late block on Brad Keselowski and a knot of cars slid sideways across the finish line, Reddick already was celebrating a 0.308-second victory over 2023 DAYTONA 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Reddick was the 25th different leader—a record for the race—and the only lap he led was the last one.
After a winless 2025, Reddick expressed both satisfaction and relief at doing what 23XI co-owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan hired him to do.

“Last year was really hard for all of us, hard for me,” Reddick said. “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. (We) worked really hard in the offseason, and there were many points in this race where we weren’t making decisions we wanted to, but we just reset, and every opportunity we got to reset, we went back at it.

The final two laps produced more plot twists than a dime novel. Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar led at the white flag but spun in Turn 1 and fell out of the lead pack, taking Erik Jones and Michael McDowell with him.

Elliott took control and appeared ready to win his first Crown Jewel race before Reddick gained momentum off Herbst’s bumper. Moments later, Herbst’s attempted block stopped Keselowski’s huge run near the outside wall and sealed the win for Reddick.
Behind Stenhouse, 2015 DAYTONA 500 winner Joey Logano slid across the finish line in third place, followed by Elliott and Keselowski.

“Yeah, a lot of chaos,” said Keselowski, who raced while still recovering from a broken right femur.
As wild as the finish was, the biggest melee of the afternoon came much earlier.
With seven laps left in 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 in the tri-oval.

Allgaier was leading the top line but left a narrow lane open to his right. As Hamlin attempted to fill the hole, Allgaier’s car twitched toward the wall, turned across the nose of Hamlin’s Camry and lit the fuse of chaos behind him.

Smith, Chris Buescher, Herbst, Josh Berry and Bubba Wallace finished sixth through 10th, respectively. Byron, trying for a third straight DAYTONA 500 win, came home 12th, and pole winner Kyle Busch was 15th.