The 68th running of the Daytona 500 delivered the full superspeedway experience—packed racing, sudden chaos, and a last-lap scramble that flipped jubilation and heartbreak in an instant.
When the smoke cleared, Tyler Reddick was the one celebrating.
Reddick surged from the bottom lane on the final lap, slipping past Chase Elliott exiting Turn 4 to score his first Daytona 500 victory and a landmark win for 23XI Racing. It was a perfectly timed move—Reddick led just one lap all night, but it was the only one that mattered—putting team co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin in Victory Lane at NASCAR’s biggest race.
Behind him, the race unraveled into chaos—and heartbreak for two veterans still chasing the Great American Race.
A Final Lap Fueled by Mayhem
The white flag flew with Carson Hocevar out front, but the lead vanished instantly. Contact from Erik Jones sent Hocevar spinning in Turn 1, collecting Michael McDowell and triggering a chain reaction that reshuffled the field.
That opened the door for Elliott, whose Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet surged to the front of a Chevrolet draft with the finish in sight.
But as the pack stormed toward the tri-oval, Riley Herbst—who had earlier been pushing Reddick—attempted a desperate block on a charging Brad Keselowski. The move went wrong. Herbst clipped Elliott’s right rear, sending the No. 9 spinning hard and igniting a multi-car pileup just yards from the finish.
Reddick darted through the wreckage untouched, crossing the line 0.308 seconds ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with Joey Logano sliding home third.
Elliott, despite heavy damage and a trip into the SAFER barrier, somehow salvaged fourth. Keselowski—racing while recovering from a broken femur—limped home fifth in a battered Ford.
Another “What If?” for Elliott and Keselowski
For Elliott, it was another crushing near-miss in NASCAR’s most prestigious event. He led only two laps all night but inherited the lead when it mattered most—only to see it disappear in a blink.
“Really sucks to be that close… to have the lead coming off Turn 4 and come up short,” Elliott said, summing up the familiar frustration.
Keselowski was even more blunt. With a massive run forming on the outside, he called Herbst’s block “one of the dumbest things I’ve seen,” saying it wiped out his chance with no realistic payoff.
Both drivers remain winless in the Daytona 500—elite competitors still haunted by another last-lap heartbreak at the sport’s grandest stage.
Reddick Seizes the Moment
While the focus falls on the carnage, Reddick’s composure was the difference. After a winless 2025 season, he delivered when it counted most, giving 23XI Racing its first Daytona 500 victory and etching his name into NASCAR history.
The race featured 65 lead changes among 25 drivers—pure Daytona unpredictability—but none matched the drama of the final lap.
When the dust settled, the 2026 Daytona 500 belonged to Tyler Reddick… and to the lingering sting of “almost” for Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski once again.