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Tyler Reddick wins a wreck-filled Daytona 500 — and delivers a defining moment for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing.
DAYTONA BEACH — The final lap wasn’t a finish. It was a chain reaction.
For 499 miles, the Daytona 500 did what Daytona always does: it built pressure. Cars stacked in tight formation, drafting inches apart, every decision amplified by air. And then, in the one lap that counts more than any other, the race turned into pure turbulence.
Carson Hocevar took the white flag with the lead. Moments later, he was turned from the front. The race stayed green anyway. Chase Elliott surged ahead out of Turn 4 with a push from Zane Smith — and for a split second it looked like Elliott had stolen it.
Then Tyler Reddick arrived.
With a perfectly timed shove from teammate Riley Herbst, Reddick slipped past Elliott at the exit of Turn 4. Behind them, the field fanned out four-wide. Herbst collided with Brad Keselowski and the pack detonated. Metal, momentum, and probability all collided at once — the kind of chaos that can only happen at Daytona.
Reddick led only the final lap.
And it was enough.
Result: Reddick won the Daytona 500. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished second against the outside wall. Joey Logano crossed the line backwards in third. Elliott recovered to fourth. Keselowski still salvaged fifth. Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Herbst, Josh Berry, and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top ten — and all three full-time 23XI cars finished inside the top ten.
It was mayhem — but it was also a clean, brutal reminder of what makes this race historic: you don’t always win Daytona by controlling the day. Sometimes you win by surviving the moment.
DRIVING FOR MICHAEL JORDAN
This win hits differently because it belongs to a project — not a lone driver. Reddick’s victory is a major moment for 23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. And it lands right on the doorstep of Jordan’s birthday week — the kind of symbolic “present” that feels like culture, not coincidence.
Jordan was ecstatic in the victory celebration, embracing Reddick and then moving through the team like a proud architect finally seeing the blueprint hold under stress. He high-fived the No. 45 crew as the circle widened: NASCAR chairman Jim France congratulated him, smiling and shaking hands.
That moment mattered because it didn’t just celebrate a win — it marked a shift. Jordan isn’t simply “an NBA legend who owns a team.” He’s now a Daytona 500-winning owner. Permanently.
THE HUMAN LAYER
Reddick described the previous year as difficult, shaped by disappointment and the weight that comes with elite expectations. “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,” he said. “For us to go on that drought we did made us look hard in the mirror…”
Then he said the part that makes the moment land: he didn’t know if he’d ever win this race. “It’s surreal,” he said. “Honestly, the best part is my son asked before this race, ‘Are you finally going to win this race?’ Something about today just felt right.”
Credit Fox News
THE BOTTOM LINE
Reddick didn’t dominate the day. He survived the moment. And for 23XI, this is what legitimacy looks like — not just a brand, not just a celebrity-owned team, but a championship-level operation that can win the biggest race in America. And Michael Jordan is now, in every sense, a Daytona 500 winner.
