If profitable the Daytona 500 adjustments your life, it apparently begins together with your face.
Tyler Reddick‘s was scant seconds outdated and already his eyes, moist with tears, bulged inside his helmet. His face, pink with exertion and emotion, radiated pleasure.
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Neither his eyes nor his face betrayed any doubt concerning the consequence. His mind, although, needed to faucet the brakes. Reddick didn‘t wish to have a good time but. Not till it was official. Who can blame him? His life was about to start out a brand new chapter — and so was NASCAR‘s — so he needed to make certain he was proper. He nervous he had missed one thing — and certainly there was quite a bit to overlook within the loopy closing lap — and perhaps the warning had come out, and he didn‘t realize it.
3 times, he hit his microphone.
3 times, he requested his crew if he had received.
3 times, he was met with silence.
The place the hell was his workforce?
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“I feel they had been attempting to (reply),” he says. “However everybody was dropping their thoughts.”
As properly they need to.
of the 2026 Daytona 500 was as chaotic as they arrive.
The motive force who led when the white flag fell, Carson Hocevar, wrecked and completed 18th. Chase Elliott held the lead coming off Flip 4 on the ultimate lap — the game rose to its collective toes as NASCAR‘s favourite son barreled towards his signature win! — however he received evenly doored by Reddick, then wrecked and completed fourth. The third-place automotive, pushed by Joey Logano, crossed the end line perpendicular to the oncoming subject, which usually could be straight terrifying, although by that point nearly everyone was both wrecked or wrecking, so perhaps it wasn‘t so unhealthy.
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It‘s humorous to look again at one of many large questions heading into this race — whether or not the tip of the “win-and-you‘re-in” period of the playoffs would change the best way drivers strategy the ends of races. Possibly, one line of reasoning went, in the event you take away that oversized incentive, drivers shall be extra conservative and never wreck so dang a lot on the ultimate lap.
(Laughs hysterically)
There was zero proof of that.
When Reddick exited his No. 45 automotive and hugged Michael Jordan — his workforce’s co-owner and probably the most well-known and common athlete in historical past — after main just a few hundred yards of the race, the tough equal of a halfcourt buzzer beater, it turned the newest addition to Daytona Worldwide Speedway‘s long term of “perfect-storyline days” that would appear made up in the event that they didn‘t occur on stay TV and weren‘t witnessed by a number of hundred thousand individuals.
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That checklist consists of being the primary broadcast in its entirety and ending in a battle as a snowed-in Jap seaboard TV viewers watched with their collective mouths agape, Richard Petty getting his two hundredth win with President Ronald Reagan in attendance and Dale Earnhardt Jr. profitable the primary race at Daytona after his dad died there on the ultimate lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
Reddick‘s mad sprint to the checkered flag, his hug of Jordan, his heartfelt embrace of his son amid the celebration, is a narrative value telling as we speak, tomorrow and for years to return for the enjoyment of the driving force, the enjoyment of the proprietor and the enjoyment of a great story.
Beau and Tyler Reddick embrace at Daytona.
The enjoyment of pressure
Or actually, the enjoyment of many good tales.
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The day overflowed with storylines. Connor Zilisch, the 19-year-old phenom, ran his first Daytona 500. He began subsequent to 50-year-old Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time champion who’s Zilisch‘s racing hero and was competing in his next-to-last Daytona 500.
Bubba Wallace, Reddick‘s teammate who has twice completed second on this race, led a race-high 40 laps, and later stated it was the perfect Daytona 500 he had ever run. He completed tenth. Brad Keselowski, proprietor and driver of the No. 6 Ford, limped across the observe with a cane after breaking his femur within the offseason. He had a sliver of an opportunity to win till he wrecked with the end line in sight.
Sure, the 68th working of the Nice American Race even had one thing for detractors, particularly stretches the place your complete subject gave the impression to be in gas financial savings mode. That meant vehicles lined up three broad for 10 rows deep for lap after lap. Somebody requested Reddick‘s crew chief after the race whether or not that‘s fixable. A greater query could be, why will we wish to repair that? Do we actually not need 30 vehicles to be inside a second of one another, as they had been for a number of stretches?
Critics have a degree — drivers working at lower than full throttle within the greatest race of the yr makes it seem to be it‘s not really the largest race of the yr. These critics suppose that‘s boring as a result of we‘re ready for one thing to occur.
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However perhaps we should always give it some thought in another way. What we‘ve misplaced in pace we‘ve made up for in pressure. The stress of ready for one thing to provide because the vehicles barrel via flip after flip inches from one another on each aspect.
When 30 vehicles race three broad for 10 rows deep, everyone has to behave. All people has to remain in line. All people has to play alongside. All people has to submit their very own needs to the nice of the group.
Does that sound like one thing NASCAR drivers will do?
Not for lengthy.
And full throttle or not, the suspense as we wait for somebody, anybody, to interrupt the system is Hitchcockian.
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Who will step out of line? Who will push for extra pace from the center of the pack? Who will get impatient and say sufficient of this? That individual turns into a villain to his fellow drivers and a hero to followers.
Brad Keselowski and Riley Herbst amongst these concerned in a last-lap crash in 2026 Daytona 500.
‘What‘s going to be on this chapter?‘
All week, optimism permeated the NASCAR world. Hope had arrived anew. That‘s true yearly at Daytona, however particularly so this yr. You might see it on social media, hear it in driver‘s feedback, sense it as you jostled cheek to cheek on the grid earlier than the sold-out race with the largest purse in its historical past.
“There‘s been a lot that has gone on,” Johnson says. “Our sport has seen some headwinds within the final 4 to 6 months. To have that each one behind us now and have the largest race of the yr kick off our season, it‘s the proper factor. It‘s the correct drugs for us.”
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This was extra than simply the primary race of a brand new season, greater than a pivot, greater than a reset.
It felt like the primary race in the remainder of NASCAR‘s life.
Or as Jordan put it: “It is a entire new starting.”
And a much-needed one at that.
Keselowski has a shelf stuffed with NASCAR season yearbook magazines at dwelling. They recap the season that simply ended and look forward to the season to return. “Once you flip via them, among the seasons simply blah collectively,” he says. “Like, oh, that was a special season?”
Now and again — like this season — a giant change occurs, and NASCAR enters a brand new chapter.
As final season concluded with a completely unsatisfying finish of the ultimate race (which managed to make a worthy champion in Kyle Larson appear much less so and shall be remembered as a muted finale to the playoffs period), the lawsuit between two groups (and led by 23XI Racing, the workforce that Jordan began with Denny Hamlin 5 years in the past) and NASCAR that led to a settlement, and NASCAR chairman Steve Phelps resigned, it was clear NASCAR wanted to jolt itself out of its doldrums.
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That jolt got here within the type of a “new” factors system. Gone is the win and also you‘re in, elimination-style system. Instead is a return to The Chase by which the season is damaged up into 26 regular-season races and a 10-race Chase.
“I feel all the trade is trying ahead to having an historic yr,” says Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Toyota. “The adjustments that got here to our sport are massively constructive.”
NASCAR has had different “new period” seasons like this. When Winston signed on because the title sponsor earlier than the 1972 season, NASCAR modified in a single day. That yr is now seen as the beginning of NASCAR‘s fashionable period. The following new chapter began in 2004 with the departure of Winston, the arrival of Nextel and the introduction of The Chase.
With the return to The Chase and the tip of the lawsuit, NASCAR once more finds itself at a crucial juncture in its historical past. There‘s an outdated proverb that claims in the event you get on the mistaken prepare, get off on the subsequent station. That‘s the place the game is now — embarking on what everybody appears to imagine is the correct prepare taking us to the correct place.
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“I‘m actually curious what‘s going to be on this chapter,” Keselowski stated. “What‘s it going to be identified for?”
Michael Jordan celebrates in Victory Lane at Daytona.
deliver again the enjoyment
For a solution about what this subsequent chapter of NASCAR‘s life shall be identified for, let‘s begin within the foyer of a resort a block from Daytona Worldwide Speedway just a few days earlier than the race. The quiet breakfast space burst to life upon the arrival of Monica Pickerell, a member of NASCAR‘s Fan Council who attended her first Daytona 500 in 1969 and, as of Sunday, has been to 26 in a row.
As she ate breakfast, seemingly everybody within the resort stopped to say good day. She likened the opening of this season to the moments after a married couple has a battle the place one guarantees to alter, and the opposite folds their arms and says, “show it.”
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She desires NASCAR to laser deal with one query: “How will we deliver again the enjoyment?”
What an incredible query.
And in Sunday‘s race, we discovered the reply.
There‘s the enjoyment of profitable, broadcast on the face of Jordan, co-owner with Hamlin of 23XI, which Reddick drives for.
NASCAR has had well-known automotive house owners previously, however none as well-known as Jordan, and none who clearly love being concerned as a lot as he does. He delights in telling tales of boyhood household holidays to NASCAR races. His profitable crew chief, Billy Scott, Hamlin and Reddick from bringing pleasure to Jordan. It‘s good to be the king. It‘s good to please him, too.
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Who higher to herald the resurgence of pleasure in NASCAR than the world‘s most well-known athlete who grew up loving these items? “I‘m ecstatic,” Jordan stated in a Fox Sports activities interview after the race. “I don‘t even know what to say. .”
It‘s value noting, too, that Jordan and NASCAR CEO Jim France, main figures in that aforementioned lawsuit, shared large smiles and handshakes in Victory Lane, a sign that relationships are being patched up as the game strikes ahead.
And there‘s the enjoyment of desires fulfilled, modeled by Reddick. His pleasure for racing started when he was a boy sliding throughout grime tracks in his dwelling state of California. He finally moved to inventory vehicles, received two championships within the O‘Reilly Auto Components Sequence and had three straight multi-win Cup seasons earlier than going winless final yr.
He instructed a narrative of attending the Daytona 500 in 2009. He sat within the stands together with his household, mesmerized by these sheet steel behemoths flying round this concrete Valhalla at practically 200 mph. As an up-and-coming racer, certainly he puzzled what it will be prefer to drive a kind of vehicles slightly than watch them.
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He instructed one other story of the primary time he did simply that. It was 5 years later. He participated in a single-car take a look at that he wanted to go with the intention to enter an ARCA Menards Sequence race the following day after which the Craftsman Truck Sequence race the day after that. He stated he couldn‘t imagine his eyes when he got here off Flip 4 and noticed Daytona‘s large grandstands. “I‘ve at all times dreamed of having the ability to drive off of Flip 4 via the trioval and see the stands.”
He dreamed larger than simply driving there.
He dreamed of profitable there, too.
