Coble: Tyler Reddick storms to Daytona 500 victory in wild final lap finish
Victory makes NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordon Championship Car Owner
DAYTONA BEACH – Wildfires burned out of control four miles south of the Daytona International Speedway at the end of Sunday’s Daytona 500. They were so bad, the Florida Highway Patrol closed a portion of Interstate 95.
North
of I-95, a line of severe weather was moving closer with lightning, rain and
high winds.
But
it was nothing in comparison to the storm brewing in the closing laps of the
Great American Race.
Twenty-five
cars were wadded in a three- and four-wide scrum for a victory in the biggest
stock car race in the world, each jockeying like lottery ping pong balls for
last-lap run to the finish line.
Through
all the melee emerged the colorful Toyota that only led 150 yards all
afternoon. But they were the most significant 150 yards of the race.
The
final 150 yards.
“Did
I win? Did I win? Are you sure we won?,” Tyler Reddick called on his team radio.
“It took a couple minutes to get that verification. crossing the start-finish
line here first in this race, the race that — I watched a lot of NASCAR racing
growing up, but I would never miss a Daytona 500 as a little kid growing up out
in California, sitting with my family on Sunday watching this race.”
Carson
Hocevar started the final lap, the last 2.5 miles, with the lead. He was
overtaken by 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Then Reddick led
shortly, only to be passed by Chase Elliott.
As
the leading pack raced off the fourth turn, Reddick moved beside Elliott, and
Elliott tried to crowd against Reddick’s Toyota to impede his charge.
Behind
them, Brad Keselowski ran into Riley Herbst and they crashed in front of the
field. The wreck included Elliott, and it allowed Reddick to scooted away unscathed
to a 30-yard victory over Stenhouse.
“It’s
nice being the one that has the run,” Reddick said. “But yes, we’ve seen a
number of races play out where it’s two by two and you try and surge at the
right time. This was anything but that.
“Yeah,
certainly no one really knows what’s going to happen, and I think that’s where
I was fortunate to be in a position where I had momentum but also then just
trust my instincts.”
Joey
Logano finished third, followed by Elliott in fourth, Keselowski in fifth, Zane
Smith in sixth, Chris Buescher in seventh, Herbst in eighth, Josh Berry in
ninth and Bubba Wallace in 10th.
“We
had that caution with eight or nine laps to go. It was hitting me, like, the
weight of the moment, how — the situation that I am getting ready to be in on
this restart is a situation I’ve been dying to have, an opportunity I’ve been
dying to have my entire life, and to kind of screw it up and lose the lead a
couple laps in and the top is rolling, taking the white, I was like, (darn),
that sucks,” Reddick said. “It may have seemed chaotic watching it, but from my
seat the whole last lap played out really slow and really smooth, and
everything just kind of fell into place the way I wanted it to.”
And
in the process, Reddick made Michael Jordan a championship car owner.
“I
can’t even believe it. It was so gratifying. We had four guys that were really
fighting, helping each other out. You never know how these races are going to
end. You just try to survive, the six-time NBA Champion said. “I don’t even
know what to say. It feels like I won a championship, but until I get my ring,
I won’t even know.”
Jordan
said his championship ring size is 13.
The
other co-owner is Denny Hamlin. He’s won the Daytona 500 three times, so he
knows about championship rings, too.
Like
Reddick, he also knows how uplifting a victory in the biggest race can be.
Hamlin’s
father, Dennis, died in a house fire on Dec. 29. His mother, Mary Lou, suffered
burns in the fire, but she recovered enough to be at Sunday’s race.
Reddick’s
son, Rookie, was born in May 2025, and he faced serious health issues,
including surgery for a kidney tumor a few months ago. He was well enough to be
at Daytona to see his father win.
The
race was a classic from the start. There were 65 lead changes among 25
different drivers – both race records. There were also five cautions – three for
crashes that involved 31 of the 41 cars that started the race.
The
first dust-up came on the fifth lap when BJ McLeod’s brakes failed, and he spun
in the fourth turn. That prompted William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Casey Mears, Noah
Gregson and Reddick to all spin to avoid a crash.
After
that, Reddick seemed content with staying tucked in the middle of the pack and
out of trouble. His charge didn’t start until the final 25 miles.
After
going winless in 2025, Reddick said the team hit the reset button in the
offseason.
“We
didn’t have the perfect race, but the last stage went really well for us,” he
said. “It was the kind of execution we’ve been dying to have on the speedways
to win like we did at Talladega a couple years ago (2024).
To
be able to do it the way that we did and just be in the mix at the end is
everything we could have asked for.
“We’re
reset, we’re ready to go. It’s one race, certainly, but do it the way that we
did today, with the day that we kind of had, it says a lot about the work we
put in in the off-season.”
The
NASCAR Cup Series will move to the 1.5-mile EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta for
the Autotrader 400 on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 1:30 p.m. (FOX).
