Reddick’s Daytona 500 victory comes in a dramatic finish worthy of his owner: MJ
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Michael Jordan has acquired another championship ring.
With a buzzer-beater maneuver as impressive as a long-range NBA Finals shot against the Utah Jazz or a decisive play against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tyler Reddick navigated his No. 45 Toyota — co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin — through a chaotic field as if he were evading Craig Ehlo to make a game-winning shot. This was the most significant event in stock car racing, the Daytona 500.
“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what transpired because I was so immersed in the moment and I haven’t reviewed the footage yet,” the 30-year-old stated in Victory Lane amid embraces from family and sips from a champagne bottle. “But here’s what I’ve learned from my two bosses: You must be in a position to win when the time comes. Otherwise, you won’t win!”
The race itself was a nearly flawless depiction of the Daytona 500’s evolution in recent years. A historic speedway and its hallmark event, which has centered around speed since 1959, has now, at least for the time being, transformed into a strategic game of conserving fuel and tires. While this approach is not new to the 500, it has never been as dominant for such an extended period. This strategy has typically been more common on short tracks and road courses. The focus on equipment preservation and strategic planning, often executed on laptops in the pits, aims to position drivers near the front late in the race, allowing them to finally implement their own strategies when the “laps to go” count drops to single digits.
Now, due to increased parity among cars and drivers, the Great American Race, after hours of a measured pace, transforms into a highly intense, brief race. A sprint race. Reddick, who grew up on the same Midwestern dirt tracks that produced Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and even Mario Andretti, is naturally a sprint racer.
“You hire a driver like Tyler because he is exceptionally skilled, and anyone who follows racing was already aware of that,” remarked Hamlin, who joined Victory Lane after his pursuit of a fourth 500 victory concluded with a 31st-place finish due to a late crash. “Patience is challenging, especially for race car drivers.”
Reddick began the race from the 26th position. By the end of the first stage, he was in 20th place. At the conclusion of the second stage, he had moved up to eighth. When the white flag indicated one lap remaining, Chase Elliott was leading, and Reddick was in third … or perhaps fifth … positioned right in the middle of a three-wide, 30-car formation. By the end of that lap, with cars spinning both in front of and behind him, he suddenly found himself in first place.
He spent only 18 of the 200 laps within the top five and led precisely one lap. The final one.
“Games aren’t won in the first quarter, or even the third. They can certainly be lost then,” Jordan noted before discreetly exiting the celebration. “But you can’t make a buzzer beater if you’re not present for the buzzer.”
This team, 23XI Racing, has seemed to be in a constant state of buzzer-beater situations for years.
In 2024, Reddick secured the regular-season points championship but was unable to translate that success into a Cup Series title during the NASCAR playoffs. The following year brought a serious health scare for his infant son, which necessitated the removal of a kidney.
Last November, Hamlin, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, faced a heartbreaking end to his lifelong pursuit of a championship. In December, he lost his already-ailing father due to injuries sustained in a house fire.
All of this occurred while 23XI was engaged in a lawsuit against NASCAR on antitrust grounds. Ultimately, this resulted in a settlement favoring the team, but not before revealing a great deal of hurt feelings and raw emotions that overshadowed much else in the NASCAR garage.
Thus, when NASCAR officials lined up for their customary congratulatory handshakes and photographs with the Daytona 500 winners, it felt like the conclusion of a chapter in stock car racing history that everyone in the sport was eager to close.
Former legal adversaries embraced. Hamlin, although more subdued than usual, was smiling. Reddick ended a 38-race winless streak. Both of his sons, both in good health, were present in Victory Lane to welcome him.
And indeed, Michael Jordan ensured he caught a glimpse of Tyler Reddick’s Daytona 500 championship ring before he left. A piece of jewelry sufficiently shiny to join MJ’s collection of buzzer-beater-inspired basketball accolades.
Reddick gazed at that ring and swallowed hard.
“There are many people here with us right now who have longed to feel good about something for quite some time,” he remarked. “I can’t envision a feeling much better than this.”
Source: espn.com
