Daytona 500

Tyler Reddick did not lead a single lap through the first 199 circuits of the 68th Daytona 500. He ran inside the top 15 for most of the afternoon while bigger names traded haymakers at the front — Bubba Wallace commanding 40 laps out front, Kyle Busch pulling away from the pole, Chase Briscoe flexing his front-row speed early. Then came the white flag, and Carson Hocevar — the 22-year-old leading the biggest race of his life — got turned into the outside wall by Erik Jones before the field even reached Turn 1. Three lead changes on the final lap. Chaos behind. And Reddick, pushed by 23XI teammate Riley Herbst, threaded past Chase Elliott exiting Turn 4 to steal the Daytona 500 with the only lap he led all day.

It was the exclamation point on a wild afternoon that featured a record 25 different leaders across 66 lead changes. The Big One struck on Lap 124 when Justin Allgaier threw a block on Denny Hamlin and the two made contact, triggering a 20-car pileup that swept up defending champion Kyle Larson, 2022 winner Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, and William Byron — whose historic bid for a third straight Daytona 500 had already been compromised by an early wreck on Lap 5. Bubba Wallace threaded through the carnage to win Stage 2 under caution, but even his 40-lap masterclass couldn't survive the final restart.

For Michael Jordan, watching from the pit box two days before his 63rd birthday, it was a moment 23XI Racing had been building toward since its founding. Jordan bear-hugged Reddick in Victory Lane, and the two hoisted the Harley J. Earl Trophy together — the basketball icon's first piece of Daytona 500 hardware. 'It's like winning a championship,' Jordan said, before requesting a size 13 championship ring. The $31 million purse — the largest in race history — didn't hurt either.