Tyler Reddick secured his first Daytona 500 victory on Sunday, navigating a chaotic final lap that involved a 19-car crash to deliver a historic win for 23XI Racing and co-owner Michael Jordan. The 68th running of the Daytona 500, a sellout event for the 11th consecutive year, saw Reddick cross the finish line ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, and Chase Elliott.
The victory snapped a 38-race winless streak for Reddick, dating back to his win at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October 2024. He became the 44th different driver to win the prestigious race. The dramatic finish saw Reddick pass Chase Elliott exiting Turn 4 on the final lap, according to reports from ESPN and Yahoo Sports.
“Last year was really hard for all of us, hard for me,” Reddick told Fox Sports after the race. “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. For us to go on that drought we did made us gaze hard in the mirror, and really proud of everyone on our Toyota Camry. Worked really hard in the off-season, and there was many points in this race where we weren’t making decisions we wanted to, but we just reset, and every opportunity we got to reset we went back at it. Just speechless.”
The win marks Michael Jordan’s first Daytona 500 victory as a team owner. The NBC Sports report highlighted the significance of the win for 23XI Racing, a team co-owned by the basketball legend.
Away from the track, a Lafayette, Indiana, resident, Nick Yeoman, a 2006 Jefferson High School graduate, recently made his debut as a co-anchor for the Performance Racing Network, calling a second consecutive Cup Series victory for Reddick at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Yeoman’s path to broadcasting began with a tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1992, when he was four years old. He credits his grandfather with an introduction to former IndyCar announcer Mike King, which opened doors to opportunities in motorsports broadcasting. Yeoman will continue to broadcast 10 IndyCar races this season, including the Indianapolis 500, balancing his modern role with NASCAR.