Daytona 500: Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing win thrilling ‘Great American Race’

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick won the 68th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway after leading only the final lap in a thrilling finish to the “Great American Race.”

Reddick, who went winless during the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, made last-lap passes on Zane Smith and Chase Elliott to make his way to the front, bringing his No. 45 Chumba Casino Toyota to Victory Lane.

“I had that weird moment where I think everyone was too busy screaming and I was like, ‘Did we win?’” Reddick said. “Man, it’s something — as a kid, I grew up watching the Daytona 500 with my family and just dreamed of being a NASCAR Cup Series driver one day. And, then obviously really wanted to win the 500, so I just — it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of things to go the right way. We did it today.

“Yeah, you know, I think we had that crash and got really split up there. I was three-wide and wasn’t where I wanted to be and just everyone is kind of going for themselves out there and Riley Herbst, my teammate, picked me up and pushed me, got me back to those first two cars. From there, man, just tried to keep the momentum going in my favor. I wasn’t going to push anybody and just got really fortunate. Riley went to the top of Chase (Elliott) that I was able to get by them before they got to the end.”

2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. almost played spoiler, as the Hyak Motorsports driver found his way to the front of the pack on the final lap as well. The driver of the No. 47 Chef Boyardee Chevrolet ultimately finished second.

“It’s never bad to finish in the top five in the Daytona 500,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “It’s a big race and we have left here finishing in the 30s and have been pretty down about that. So, on one hand, it’s good because our strategy worked out perfectly today. We stuck to it. It was brutal riding around there for a while. Not sure what the Toyotas were doing, but I think that made the race pretty boring there for a while for the fans. It was chaos after they pitted, so yeah, our No. 47 Chef Boyardee Chevrolet was as strong as I needed it to be. It did the things I wanted, but we just came up one spot short.”

According to NASCAR Insights, the 68th Daytona 500 had 25 different leaders and 65 lead changes.

Results from the 2026 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

The 2026 America 250 Florida Duel race winners, Joey Logano (Duel 1) and Chase Elliott (Duel 2), both finished where they started the event (third and fourth). Elliott was leading entering Turn 4 before Tyler Reddick passed him. Then, Riley Herbst spun into him. Logano spun in the final moments of the race as well, crossing the line backwards.

Brad Keselowski, who broke his leg in December, brought his No. 6 Castrol Ford home in fifth, joining Logano and Elliott as the only drivers who started and finished inside the top 10.

“I’m happy that we were so competitive today, and where I was a few weeks ago, to just be able to run the race, feels pretty good,” Keselowski said. “But then super disappointed. I had a big run off of Turn 4, and I felt like I could have made a three-wide pass for the lead at the line, and the 35 just dumped me in the wall. But he got his part of it. All in all, we made something of it with a top-five day.”

Zane Smith earned his first career stage win en route to a sixth-place finish and scored the second-most points among all drivers (41 points), as race winner Reddick had 58.

“It’s painful that the 45 was, I guess, in my position, but I know I didn’t have the run on the 9 that I needed to win and so I tried backing up to any help I could get, and then obviously it fell apart there at the end,” Smith said. “All in all, it’s a great growing day for us and some great points scored, but frustrating to be that close and just miss out.”

Bubba Wallace won Stage 2, led the most laps (40 laps led), scored the fourth-most points (37 points) and went on to finish 10th for 23XI Racing.

Wallace and Reddick’s teammates, Herbst and Corey Heim, also had great days. Heim led eight laps in his first Daytona 500, while Herbst scored a career-high eighth-place finish, five stage points and 35 total points in the race. Herbst also got a shoutout from 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan after the race.

Reddick’s primary sponsor, Chumba Casino, now has two crown-jewel race victories, as they were also the primary sponsor on Wallace’s car when he won the 2025 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.

Caution Chaos

The 68th Daytona 500 did not consist of many cautions, with only five yellow flags. But the largest incident occurred on Lap 124 when 20 cars were involved. According to NASCAR, it was the second-most cars involved in a Daytona 500 accident in the sport’s history.

Interestingly enough, seven of the top eight drivers were either involved in an earlier caution or finished the 500-mile race with a totaled race car. Josh Berry was the only driver not to be involved in a wreck during the Duels or Daytona 500, per NASCAR Insights.

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.