Goodyear 400: Tyler Reddick continues hot streak with Darlington win

DARLINGTON, S.C. — 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick’s hot streak remained intact after winning the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, earning his fourth win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season in the sixth race of the year.

Reddick faced many issues early on in the 293-lap event, despite starting on pole. However, once his team diagnosed the issue with the alternator and changed the battery in the No. 45 Xfinity Toyota, Reddick set sail back through the field.

After three runner-up finishes at Darlington previously, Reddick finally got his chance to tame the track that is “Too Tough to Tame.”

“It means everything,” Reddick said. “Some of the guys and I were talking about — we have it pretty good as Cup drivers, but it seemed like today, it was going to be a blue-collar type of day — we were going to have to really work for it. From Lap 1, to have the alternator problems we were having, and just be cutting fans and not to be able to run things that I was counting on to keep me cool all day was tough. Just an incredible Xfinity Camry. So proud of this team, and everyone that is a part of it.”

With his victory, Reddick becomes the third driver in Cup Series history to win four of the first six races, joining Bill Elliott (1992) and Dale Earnhardt (1987).

23XI co-owner Michael Jordan was in attendance again to see his organization visit Victory Lane in South Carolina.

Besides Reddick, RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski had one of the best cars all race long. Keselowski, who earned his last Cup Series win in the 2024 Darlington spring race, led a race-high 142 laps and swept the stages en route to a well-deserved second-place finish in his No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford, which had a throwback paint scheme to honor the late Greg Biffle.

His runner-up finish in the 2026 Goodyear 400 is now Keselowski’s fifth time finishing second since finding Victory Lane in the 2024 Goodyear 400.

According to statistician Daniel Céspedes, Keselowski’s runner-up finish is also his 11th of the Next Gen era. Every other driver with that many runner-up finishes has at least 11 wins, while the RFK owner/driver only has one victory.

“Tyler [Reddick] was really, really fast,” Keselowski said. “Those problems earlier in the race that he got kind of buried and he was just methodical. He did a great job. He took the fastest car and ran an amazing race. When he was by me he was way faster. We had to fall into racing the track and even at the end I think he was managing it pretty hard, so, all in all, it’s a great day for us. We won two stages, led a lot of laps, scored a bunch of points, so a lot to be proud of.

“It’s great. I was joking when we walked out of the garage area last night after qualifying that we’re on the right side of the garage area. Our hauler is parked to the right side and we’re just showing ourselves as a team that is highly capable.”

Keselowski earned 55 points, bringing him up seven spots in the Cup Series standings to ninth.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney earned a third-place finish, his best result ever at Darlington. Despite another race weekend with pit-road issues putting the No. 12 Menards/Delta Ford back in the field, Blaney fought to the front again to score 42 points and placed him second in the Cup Series standings, behind only Reddick.

“Really challenging,” Blaney said about the ongoing pit-road woes. “Having that deal after the first stage and then honestly didn’t really have good stops the rest of the day, so that’s something we’ve got to work on, but we had a fast enough car to get back to third. I’m proud of that effort. We’ll take it and move on, but definitely stuff to work on. I’m proud of the fight back to run third. I thought our car was pretty good, we just got set back too many times and it was hard to make it back up. I’m proud of our effort. We made gains on it all day, so that’s good. I was third and Austin (Cindric) was fifth, so a good showing for the Penske cars and I’m proud of that comeback.”

Results from the 2026 Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Carson Hocevar, in his No. 77 Chili’s Marg Machine Chevrolet, displaying a Dale Earnhardt throwback paint scheme, had to start at the rear of the field for “unapproved adjustments” after he hit the wall multiple times during practice and qualifying. However, that did not stop the Spire Motorsports driver from making his way up to fourth, earning his second top five of the 2026 season and the fifth of his young career.

“Super proud of this No. 77 Chili’s Marg Machine Chevrolet team,” Hocevar said. “It hasn’t been a lack of effort, but just a lack of luck that takes us out of finishes, so it’s nice to take one today. Chili’s put a lot of effort into this throwback scheme, so it’s great to give it a good run.”

Other impressive days came from drivers like Austin Cindric (fifth, 38 points), Ty Gibbs (sixth, 33 points), Daniel Suárez (seventh, 33 points) and Chris Buescher (ninth, 42 points). All of those drivers gained at least two spots in the NASCAR Cup Series standings.

Erik Jones was involved in an incident in Stage 2 that set him back despite running inside the top 15. The Legacy Motor Club driver battled back and went on to finish 10th at one of his best race tracks.

This was Jones’ second straight top-10 finish at Darlington (third in 2025 fall race), which is the first time he has earned back-to-back top 10s at the “Lady in Black” since he earned six consecutive top 10s during his tenures at Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing between 2017 and 2020.

Other drivers who were running well before having issues were Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace, who finished 32nd and 34th, respectively. Larson was fifth and third in the stages before having a toe-link issue that took him out of contention.

Wallace was fourth in Stage 1 before being an innocent bystander in the incident involving Jones and Denny Hamlin. Wallace’s top-11 streak to start the 2026 season came to an end, despite earning the Xfinity Fastest Lap bonus point.

GRID RANKING

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system and will be released on Sunday, April 5, 2026.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

Tyler Reddick currently leads the NASCAR GRID Rating and is still the projected leader of the GRID Ranking.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, March 29. Coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

 

GRID Network