Being a Daytona 500 winner is a whole lot like being a Masters champion or an Oscar winner. No matter where you go for the rest of your life, no matter what you do in the rest of your career, you’ll always be known as a Daytona 500 winner.
Plus, you get a pretty sweet ring and a Rolex, too.
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Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500 Sunday night in one of the wildest, most chaotic final laps in recent memory. Probably a good dozen drivers had a shot at winning the race as it wound through its final turns, but in the end, 23XI’s Tyler Reddick was the last man driving. (Almost literally; the second through fifth cars crashed behind him, joining the dozens that had wrecked earlier in the race.)
Going on a couple hours’ sleep — “I’m used to that with an 8-month-old and a 6-year-old” — Reddick spoke to Yahoo Sports Monday morning to discuss that finish, his new jewelry, and what happens when Michael Jordan himself tells you you’re his driver.
“Something felt right from the beginning of the day, to go the way it did,” Reddick said. “It’s surreal. You dream of having the opportunity to cross the finish line first in the Daytona 500. To be able to seize the opportunity was huge, because some drivers go their whole career with only getting one shot. Some drivers never get that opportunity to win that race. So it was super important for me to capitalize on the moment in front of me.”
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In front, behind and around him. Reddick combined data, strategy and good old gut instinct in that final lap. “It took a little bit of everything,” he said. “The things we’ve learned, been working on on the Cup side, the strategy to get in that position, leaning on numbers and data decisions about the final laps. And then I leaned on and relied on instincts, the type of things that helped me get to where I am today from dirt racing.”
A self-professed late bloomer, Reddick first attended the Daytona 500 as a fan, sitting in the backstretch and watching Matt Kenseth’s rain-delayed win in 2012. Back then, he was a dirt track racer just trying to break through the dirt-to-asphalt barrier. He found a seat in Ken Schrader’s ARCA car in 2013, and then caught the attention of Brad Keselowski, who put him in a Camping World Truck in 2014. From there, he moved upward through the ranks of then-Xfinity and Cup series … until the day in 2022 when he received the proverbial summoning before the throne.
Two days after the now 30-year-old Reddick was born, Michael Jordan — then with only three championships to his name — dropped 48 points on the Philadelphia 76ers. So Reddick knows Jordan as a basketball player only from highlight films. Even so, the GOAT’s shadow was long enough to intimidate Reddick … right up to the moment that Jordan and Denny Hamlin — co-owners of 23XI Racing — made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“The first time I met him,” Reddick recalled, “he and Denny both told me, ‘Of all the drivers in the Cup garage, you’re the guy we want the most. You’re our first pick, and we’d love to have you drive our race cars.’”
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That made an impression on Reddick, even if he can only remember Jordan on the Washington Wizards. “When you have someone like (Jordan) that believes in you and what you do, what you’re about and how hard you work, and how much you care about racing,” Reddick says, “and then hearing how much he cares about racing too on top of that, it just helps really sell it that 23XI is where I need to be.”
Jordan and Hamlin’s faith paid off. Reddick has won six races since joining 23XI at the start of the 2023 season, and he’s made the playoffs every year. He won the 2024 regular-season championship and was one of the now-defunct Championship 4 that year. He and his family struggled through personal challenges last year — his infant son Rookie had to have surgery after doctors found a tumor in his chest — but wife Alexa, Rookie and Rookie’s older brother Beau were in victory lane Sunday night.
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“We travel on the road together,” he said. “I feel it’s important to share these moments with our children. To celebrate the biggest times together is important, especially coming off of some of the things we went through the last year.”
Reddick is in the midst of a media crush — his voice is already ragged, and he’s got a New York media car wash to go — and then he’ll need to get ready for the Atlanta race this coming weekend. But he’s already getting used to the fact that, yes, he’s a Daytona 500 champion.
“Looking at the ring, it helps,” he said, laughing. “Looking down at my Daytona Rolex watch, yeah. Every time I look at the time on this thing, I’ll think of this race and that day.”
