The sports gods are messing with NASCAR, giving Tyler Reddick, of 23XI Racing, which sued the France family over the sport’s antiquated charter system, and came out on top, his second straight win to open the 2026 Cup Series season.
On Sunday, Reddick, who won the Daytona 500 last week, won the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway in the metro Atlanta area in double OT.
Reddick got his #45 with a damaged front right fender 0.164 seconds ahead of Chase Briscoe, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, which was among the many teams that stayed above the lawsuit fray, and nonetheless gets to reap the benefits.
Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suárez rounded out the Top 5.
23XI’s Bubba Wallace, who led at the end of regulation and had the lead at the start of both the OT periods, finished eighth.
“I wanted one of them to win. I feel bad for Bubba because he had an unbelievable day, but Tyler drove his ass off. I’m very happy for Tyler and very happy for 23XI,” 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan said
Reddick, the sixth driver in NASCAR history to open with two wins, and the first since Matt Kenseth in 2009, led a race-high 53 laps, including the one that mattered.
“How about that EchoPark Speedway?” Reddick said after the race. “This place over the years it just puts on some amazing racing. Handling matters here, but I don’t know, I guess determination outweighs handling.”
Shane van Gisbergen finished sixth – his best oval finish in his two years in the series – despite getting caught up in two of the yellow-flag incidents on the day.
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Chris Graham
