After going winless in 2025, Reddick kicked off the season with a victory for 23XI Racing in the sport’s biggest race. Reddick narrowly dodged a spinning Carson Hocevar and bypassed Elliott with a move to the inside on the front stretch, all within the final 2 ½ miles around Daytona.

“Last year was really hard for all of us, hard for me,” Reddick said. “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.

The Corning, California, native said 2025 forced the team to take a hard look in the mirror.

“There was many points in this race where we weren’t making decisions we wanted to,” Reddick said. “But we just reset, and every opportunity we got to reset we went back at it.”

Reddick restarted alongside Michael McDowell during a restart with five laps to go, but didn’t lead a lap until it mattered most. He is the fourth driver to lead only the final lap in the Daytona 500 and joined team owner Denny Hamlin as the second Toyota driver to hoist the trophy.

“I didn’t know if I’d ever win this race,” Reddick said. “It’s surreal, 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.”

Six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan, 23XI Racing co-owner, added another ring and title of Daytona 500 champion to his long list of accolades in professional sports.

“I can’t even believe it,” Jordan said in victory lane. “I’m ecstatic. 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.”

This victory follows the settlement of a year-long legal battle between 23XI and NASCAR in December of 2025. Jordan and NASCAR CEO Jim France shook hands in victory lane.

Bubba Wallace, another of Jordan’s drivers, led a race-high 40 laps and won a stage. However, the 2025 Brickyard 400 winner sacrificed a top-five finish in avoiding a wreck with William Byron.

“I thought this was our week, the best 500 I’ve ever had,” Wallace said after finishing 10th. “It was a good day for us, but damn. Try again next year.”

Jordan credited Riley Herbst with an incredible effort to push Reddick at the end. Herbst stayed loyal to his teammate until Reddick was alongside Elliott, but collided with Brad Keselowski entering the tri-oval. This knocked Herbst into Elliott, collecting several of the top finishers.

While Jordan was thrilled with Herbst’s effort, Keselowski called it a “really stupid” move.

“At the end, I had this huge run and the 35 wrecked us,” Keselowski said. “Tore up the No. 9, tore up the No. 22, a bunch of cars that didn’t deserve to be wrecked, so that was a big bummer.”

The RFK co-owner gave it all he had and left Daytona Beach without the Harley J. Earl trophy for the 17th time. Keselowski is one of five active champions without a Daytona 500 victory.

Elliott joined Keselowski in the trip back to the infield care center and remains winless in the Great American Race.

“This really sucks,” Elliott said. 

The 2021 Cup Champion hated having victory within reach and failing to finish it off for Hendrick Motorsports. Reddick’s victory broke a streak of two-straight Daytona 500 triumphs for Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon. 

JR Motorsports failed to duplicate its ninth-place finish in the 2025 Daytona 500. While leading on lap 86, Justin Allgaier blocked Denny Hamlin late in the tri-oval, triggering a 17-car wreck.

The Traveler Whiskey Chevrolet retired to the garage on lap 123 and finished 38th.

Zane Smith won the first stage but was collected in the Allgaier incident. After repairs, Smith recovered for a sixth-place finish and sits second to Reddick in the all-new Chase standings.

Race two of the Cup Series season is set for Echopark Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 3 p.m ET. The Georgia track hosts 260 laps of superspeedway action on Fox Sports and PRN Radio.