Reddick Pounces for First Crown Jewel Victory

By: Derek Pierce

DAYTONA BEACH, FL. - Tyler Reddick emerges through the last lap chaos to win his first Daytona 500! Reddick stayed out of the chaos, hanging around the middle of the pack, waiting for the wrecks to erupt and saw his opportunity to strike once it did, leading his only lap of the race to secure the victory.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Early in stage one, BJ McLeod spins with a flat tire as John Hunter Nemechek takes the lead from pole sitter, Kyle Busch. McLeod's spin takes out William Byron, Casey Mears, Justin Allgaier, Tyler Reddick and Noah Gragson.

• Nemechek maintained control of the race after the caution until the field got tired of fuel saving, giving Chase Briscoe the lead.

• 10 cars manage to stretch the fuel to the end of the stage, giving them all stage points with Zane Smith as the winner.

• As the race restarts, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin trade the lead back and forth.

• The intesity starts to rev up causing the lead to constantly change until contact makes Cody Ware spin down into Ty Gibbs and collecting Connor Zilisch, Briscoe, Austin Dillon, and Todd Gilliland.

• Cindric takes the lead after the restart until the Trackhouse duo of Ross Chastain and Shane Van Gisbergen take control of both lines.

• Busch and Kyle Larson manage to get past them and challenge each other for the lead of the race.

• As the pack starts to get a little more rowdy, Allgaier and Hamlin make passes for the lead and battle each other until they make contact, sparking the big one including Chastain, Cindric, Larson, Busch, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Byron, Gilliland, Riley Herbst, Smith, Cole Custer, Nemechek, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman, Gibbs, Corey Heim, Michael McDowell, and Van Gisbergen. This wreck ends the stage giving the win to Wallace.

• Toyota commands the race for the majority of stage three as Heim, Wallace, and Christopher Bell lead all three lines, pacing the race to fit their strategy.

• Green flag pit cycle shakes up the running order, once mostly settled and laps wind down, the energy starts to ramp up until a bad push from Heim to Hamlin takes out Bell.

• On the last lap, a shaky push from Jones spins Carson Hocevar and takes out McDowell while pushing Byron off track. Chase Elliott leads from the exit of turn two to the exit of turn four until Reddick gets a huge push from teammate Herbst that allows him to advance past Elliott. As Reddick crosses the line, a bad block from Herbst wrecks Keselowski, Elliott, Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and Smith.

TAKEAWAYS

• Reddick earns first crown jewel win, first win since 2024.

• Bright performances from drivers with questions surrounding them, Van Gisbergen and Heim both held control of the race for a significant amount possibly showing towards positive development from both that many questioned possible.

• Team strategy at superspeedways seems to have changed as both green flag cycles saw teams opt for smaller pitting groups rather than coordinating larger groups like has been seen in the past.

• Even with the extended stages, fuel strategy seems to continue to be the main goal for superspeedway racing.

• 23XI seems to be back to previous form after the down year last year as Wallace and Heim were up front for a considerable amount of time, while Reddick went on to win.

The Cup Series will continue the draft heavy racing at EchoPark Speedway next Sunday, 2/22. Though similar on paper in terms of the draft and throttle input, the tracks are sure to offer a completely different experience.