Tyler Reddick takes Daytona 500 in dramatic finish to NASCAR opener

From the perspective of a very casual NASCAR fan, the finish to the 2026 Daytona 500 was … chef’s kiss.

The lead changed hands three times on the final lap, with two crashes, one within sight of the finish line, and a late pass by Tyler Reddick, who took the checkered flag by a 0.308-second margin over Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

That Reddick drives for 23XI Racing, which got the better of a bitter legal dispute with NASCAR over the charter system in the offseason, even better.

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“Last year was really hard for all of us, hard for me,” said Reddick, referring not to the legal issues, but his winless 2025.

“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,” said Reddick, who got past Chase Elliott in the closing stretch, first maneuvering to the top line to get in position, then sliding beneath Elliott for the lead, ahead of pure chaos.

23XI teammate Riley Herbst gave Reddick an aerodynamic push, then slid down to block the backside, causing the final accident of the day – a number of cars crossed the start-finish line sideways.

“Yeah, a lot of chaos,” said Brad Keselowski, who raced while still recovering from a broken right femur, and was the car that Herbst made contact with in the final couple hundred yards. “Last restart, I gave William Byron a great push, and just wasn’t enough to move our lane. I was giving him all I had, and then right here at the end, I had this huge run, and the 35 (Herbst) wrecked us. Really disappointed.”

Carson Hocevar led at the white flag signaling the final lap, but Hocevar spun in Turn 1 and fell out of the lead pack, taking Erik Jones and Michael McDowell – whose team had taken a chance on pit strategy to rise from 31st to first in the final 10 laps – with him.

“I’m not really sure what happened with the first (Hocevar) wreck,” said Elliott, who appeared to be in prime position to take the win with the issues taking Hocevar and the other leaders out. “But we ended up kind of getting gifted the lead, and the 38 (Zane Smith) and I had got out by ourselves down the back. He had given me a good shove off into (Turn) 3, and then it was kind of just he and I, and at that point I just felt momentum shift, like there was going to be another run coming behind us there at some point.”

That ‘nuther run came from Reddick, who only led one lap – the final one.

“Unfortunately, that was accurate, and then at that point in time, you’re just on defense,” Elliott said. “Man, that’s a really, really tough place to be, truthfully. Obviously looking back, you can run it through your mind a thousand times. Do you do something different? I feel like if I had thrown a double block on the 45 (Reddick), probably would have just crashed us at that point in time.”

Reddick was the 25th different leader – a record for the 500.

Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, slide across the finish line in third place, followed by Elliott and Keselowski.

Smith, Chris Buescher, Herbst, Josh Berry and Bubba Wallace finished sixth through 10th.

Byron, trying for a third straight Daytona 500 win, came home 12th, and pole winner Kyle Busch was 15th.

“Just speechless. I didn’t know if I’d ever win this race,” Reddick said of his first Daytona 500 win. “It’s surreal, honestly. The best part is my son (Beau) asked before this race, ‘Are you finally going to win this race?’ Something about today just felt right.”