Winners and losers from NASCAR’s first Darlington race of 2026

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Daytona, Atlanta, COTA, and now Darlington. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick is driving away with the championship lead, and in this age of parity, a win record like that is nearly unheard of.

But 23XI wasn’t the only team that turned heads on Sunday, with RFK and Spire both showing good pace, while titans like HMS and JGR lagged behind.

36 of the 37 starters finished Sunday’s race, but there was still plenty of on-track drama to discuss:

WINNER: Despite setbacks, Tyler Reddick’s dominance continues

Watch: Reddick on Darlington win: ‘I know never to give up’

What more can we say about the driver of the #45 Toyota? Reddick has now won four of the first six races of the year and leads the championship standings by 95 points. 33% of Reddick’s 12 career wins have come in the last two months. It’s astonishing, especially after all of the adversity he had to overcome during the race. A cool suit failure, electrical issues, a slow pit stop, a battery change, and even an incident in the final 50 laps of the race. But just how long can they keep this up before another team catches up?

LOSER: Bubba Wallace and what could have been

On the other end of the 23XI spectrum was Wallace, who was also very fast on Sunday. He started on the front row and looked to be a threat for the win as well. However, an awkward pit stop where the team had him backup to make sure the wheels were tight put Wallace in the middle of the pack. He quickly charged forward, only have a front row seat for an incident involving Erik Jones and his boss, Denny Hamlin. Wallace had nowhere to go, hitting Hamlin and the outside wall, knocking the toe out on his #23 Toyota. He limped around for the rest of the race, finishing 34th, five laps down.

WINNER: The right direction with this package

Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace lead the field to the green flag, 23XI Racing Toyotas

The updates rules package, which included more horsepower and a softer Goodyear tire, helped drivers to actually make moves on Sunday. It wasn’t a spectacular race, but drivers weren’t stuck and they could actually control their destiny a bit more, which was a step in the right direction. The series just needs to keep going that way. After the race, Ryan Blaney said, “This is like the first time I think in my Cup career that I would let a guy go, like a few laps into a restart if he’s hounding me or come off pit road and I said to myself, ‘I’ll see you in about 20 laps and that happened.” Now that’s good to hear.

LOSER: Joey Logano’s truly awful day

Joey Logano, Team Penske

While both Blaney and Penske teammate Austin Cindric had strong days, where was their other teammate, the three-time series champion? Logano had absolutely nothing to work with on Sunday, struggling from the start and never able to overcome it. He didn’t even know what to say to the team to try and help, as the #22 was so far off. He ended the race in 33rd place, three laps down. He dropped five positions in the standings, and is now on the Chase bubble.

WINNER: Spire rises even higher

Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

The top Chevrolet team at Darlington was not Hendrick Motorsports, as their top-running drivers could only watch as another Chevy team drove right on by in the closing laps. That team was Spire Motorsports, which continues to impress in 2026. Carson Hocevar drove from the very back of the field to finish fourth, and Daniel Suarez placed seventh. The top-finishing Hendrick driver was William Byron in eighth.

LOSER: Larson and Briscoe make late-race contact, losing valuable points

Chris Buescher, RFK Racing, Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports

In the closing laps, Kyle Larson looked like he was going to finish around 11th or 12th, while Chase Briscoe was about to score a top five finish. But when Briscoe collided with a slower Riley Herbst and hit the wall, he faded to 12th. For Larson, it was far worse, sliding into the wall, breaking a toe-link, and falling all the way back to 32nd, losing about 20 points in an unforced error.

WINNER: RFK Racing shows incredible pace

Watch: Keselowski OK with being ‘first-place loser’ to Reddick

At one point, the Biffle-themed Roush cars were all running 1-2-3 at Darlington. And while they didn’t win, it was another very impressive race for an organization that went completely winless in 2025. Brad Keselowski won both stages and finished second. Chris Buescher was going to be right with him, but a late-race incident dropped him to ninth. Ryan Preece ended up 13th, but he was running top five for a good portion of the race as well.

LOSER: RCR’s strong qualifying effort could not be replicated in the race

Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing

Both RCR cars qualified inside the top ten, but neither could maintain that during the race on Sunday. Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon finished outside the top 20, placing 21st and 25th, respectively. It was another disheartening race day for a team that showed some promise on Saturday. But RCR are not alone in searching for speed among the Chevy camp, a manufacturer that was expected to much more with this updated ZL1 body for 2026.