Tyler Reddick opened the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series with a Daytona 500 win, then followed it a week later by surviving a damaged car, a late multicar crash, and two overtime restarts to win the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway on Sunday night.
Reddick’s victory in Hampton, just outside Atlanta, made him the first driver in nearly two decades to win the first two races of a Cup season. Matt Kenseth was the last driver to do it in 2009. Reddick is the sixth driver in Cup history to start a season that way.
The race ended with Reddick beating Chase Briscoe by .164 seconds after a frantic final lap. Briscoe’s push helped move Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota ahead of teammate Bubba Wallace and the Chevrolets of Carson Hocevar and Ross Chastain in the closing seconds. Reddick led a race best 53 laps in a race that stretched to 271 laps because of overtime.
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The final margin was close, but the bigger surprise was that Reddick had a car left to race with. He was collected in a nine car crash with about 40 laps left in the scheduled distance, and the right front of his Toyota took visible damage. After the win, he climbed out, grabbed the checkered flag, and then stopped to look over the missing bodywork before celebrating. Jayski’s race recap noted the team used heavy tape on the front end after the crash, with crew chief Billy Scott saying the cold made repairs difficult. The temperature at the checkered flag was listed at 39 degrees.
Reddick’s first reaction matched the way the race unfolded.
“That’s crazy, how about that EchoPark Speedway?’’ Reddick said. “This place over the years it just puts on some amazing racing. Handling matters here, but I don’t know, I guess determination outweighs handling.”
The race had chaos from start to finish. NASCAR’s postrace analysis described EchoPark’s event as wall rattling and noted the track record 57 lead changes, part of a combined 122 lead changes through Daytona and Atlanta, the most through the first two races of any NASCAR season. NASCAR also reported 29 of the 38 cars in Sunday’s field were involved in accidents, following a wreck filled Daytona 500 the week before.
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Briscoe, who finished second, said the style of racing at Daytona and Atlanta made the result less shocking than it looked.
“Nah, it’s Daytona and Atlanta,” Briscoe said. “That’s just the product of the beast. No surprise at all.”
Hocevar was one of the drivers in position to win late, and he nearly pulled off an aggressive move before the overtime trouble. He passed three cars on the final lap of regulation to get to the front, then made contact with Christopher Bell on the first overtime restart, which brought out the caution that set up the final restart. NASCAR’s analysis and race coverage both highlighted Hocevar’s late charge and the style required to race in the Atlanta pack. Hocevar said, “Felt like you have to be really confident here, and you’ve got to be willing to kind of video-game it a little bit.”
On the final restart, Hocevar lined up next to Wallace on the front row. Wallace got the jump and held the lead briefly, but moved high, and Reddick came from the bottom lane and drove past both of them to the flag. Wallace, who led 46 laps and won Stage 2, ended up eighth despite spending much of the day near the front.
The top five were Reddick, Briscoe, Chastain, Hocevar, and Daniel Suarez. Shane van Gisbergen finished sixth despite being caught in three separate incidents. Zane Smith, Wallace, Ryan Preece, and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10. Jayski also noted the top 12 cars finished within one second of Reddick, which says plenty about how packed up the field remained to the end.
Team co owner Michael Jordan celebrated the 23XI result, especially after both Reddick and Wallace had cars capable of winning.
“Tyler did an unbelievable job, both teams did an unbelievable job’’ Jordan said.
“I wanted one of them to win, I feel bad for Bubba because he had an unbelievable day, but Tyler drove his ass off,’’ Jordan continued. “I’m very happy for Tyler and very happy for 23XI.
Reddick’s strong weekend began before the green flag. Cup qualifying at EchoPark was canceled Saturday because of rain and lightning, which put the Daytona 500 winner on pole for Sunday’s race. Joey Logano started alongside him on the front row.
By the end of Sunday night, pole position was not the story. Survival was. Reddick had a damaged car, a crowd of contenders, and two overtime restarts, and still left Atlanta with another trophy and the points lead over Wallace by 40. Next up is Circuit of the Americas, where Reddick will try to turn a two race heater into a season opening streak that almost never happens.
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