Tyler Reddick doubled down from his Daytona 500 victory a week ago by motoring his way to a wild NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway on Sunday, February 22, amid two overtime shootouts.
Reddick, a native of Corning, California, led 12 times for a race-high 53 of 271 over-scheduled laps in an event where he was awarded the pole position through NASCAR’s qualifying metric formula and spent a majority of the event racing towards the front and shuffling the competition amid a series of drafts and aggressive racing within the field.
With 38 laps remaining, Reddick’s event nearly went south when he was involved in a nine-car wreck through the frontstretch that also involved his team owner, Denny Hamlin. Despite continuing without a right-front fender, Reddick spent the closing laps navigating his way back to the front.
Amid two overtime shootouts, Reddick, who restarted in third place during the latest shootout, seized an opportunity when teammate Bubba Wallace moved up the track in a missed blocking attempt to duel with Carson Hocevar for the lead before Reddick acquired it to start the final lap. Despite having Chase Briscoe and a trio of Chevrolet competitors lined up behind him for a final lap, Reddick was able to fend off the competition and cycle back to go two-for-two with a second consecutive victory to start the 2026 Cup Series season.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through a qualifying metric formula after a lightning hold combined with rain canceled the qualifying session that was scheduled to occur on Saturday, February 21. As a result, Tyler Reddick, winner of last weekend’s Daytona 500, was awarded the pole position and he shared the front row with Joey Logano.
When the green flag waved, and the event commenced, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano dueled for the lead in front of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott and the field stacked up through two-packed lanes for a full lap. When the field cycled back to the frontstretch, Logano barely muscled ahead from the outside lane to lead the first lap over Reddick. Reddick then muscled ahead from the inside lane and moved in front of Logano through the first two turns. With the clean air to his advantage, Reddick proceeded to lead the second lap.
Over the next three laps, Reddick and Logano swapped the lead while the field behind fanned out to three lanes. Logano proceeded to lead at the Lap 10 mark while Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott, Zane Smith, Riley Herbst, Chris Buescher and William Byron trailed in the top 10, respectively. By then, all 38 starters were separated by three-and-a-half seconds.
Through the first 25-scheduled laps, Brad Keselowski, who led his first lap during the previous lap, battled with Reddick for the top spot, with Logano, Josh Berry, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Carson Hocevar and Riley Herbst scored in the top 10, respectively. Behind, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Zane Smith, rookie Connor Zilisch, Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, Ty Dillon and Michael McDowell were racing in the top 20, respectively, while Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Dillon trailed in the top 30, respectively.
Ten laps later, Logano returned atop the leaderboard and he was pursued by Berry, Cindric, Reddick, Keselowski, Byron, Elliott, Stenhouse, Blaney and Larson, respectively, as the top-37 competitors were separated by nearly eight seconds. Meanwhile, Hocevar, who was racing within the top-10 mark in the early stages, was mired at the tail end of the field in 38th place and scored a lap down due to pitting under green on Lap 32. Hocevar’s move was due to the driver scrubbing the outside wall and cutting a right-front tire a few laps earlier.
Another 10 laps later, Logano, who was trying to lap Hocevar for a second time, retained a narrow lead over Elliott, with Berry, Reddick, Larson, Cindric, Wallace, Zane Smith, Byron and Gragson. With Hocevar racing on the outside lane and dueling against Logano with fresher tires than the latter, Elliott used Hocevar to rocket ahead of Logano and assume the lead during the next lap. Soon after, 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace moved up into the top-three mark while Logano was left to battle Larson for fourth place. As Logano tried to muscle his way back to the front along with Larson and Reddick, Elliott continued to lead at the Lap 50 mark.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Cindric, who navigated to the front after starting in 30th place, captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Wallace, who led the previous two laps with drafting help from Cindric before the latter overtook him on Lap 59, edged Larson to settle in second while Byron, Elliott, Reddick, Kyle Busch, Logano, Connor Zilisch and Blaney were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, the event featured 17 lead changes for seven different leaders and all but one of the 38 starters were scored on the lead lap. Meanwhile, Hocevar was mired two laps down in 38th place.
Under the event’s first stage break period, nearly the entire field led by Cindric pitted for service while the rest, which included Keselowski, Ryan Preece, Shane van Gisbergen, BJ McLeod and Erik Jones, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited first ahead of teammate Byron, Wallace, Gragson, Cindric, Busch, Reddick, Logano, Zilisch and Berry, respectively, while Elliott plummeted towards the tail end of the field due to overshooting his pit box. Once the competitors who opted to remain on the track for a lap pitted, including Keselowski, Larson cycled into the lead. During the pit stops, Blaney received a penalty for speeding on pit road and sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road. Cody Ware also received a penalty for pitting outside of his pit box.
The second stage period started on Lap 68 as teammates Larson and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Larson used a push from Wallace from the outside lane to muscle ahead of Byron through the first two turns. As Byron fought back and dueled with Larson from the exit of the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4, Larson led the next lap. The latter continued to use pushes from Wallace from the outside lane to lead the field and Byron continued to lead the inside lane while the field behind fanned out to three lanes at the Lap 70 mark.
By Lap 75, Wallace, who went below Larson to assume the lead four laps earlier, retained the top spot over Byron, Larson, Cindric and Gragson while Busch, Logano, Zilisch, Reddick, Briscoe and the rest of the field pursued by within three seconds. Wallace led the next four laps before Larson used a push from teammate Byron from the outside lane and through the frontstretch to reassume the lead on Lap 80.
A lap later, the caution flew when Ty Gibbs, who was racing within the top-15 mark, was trying to make a move beneath Alex Bowman exiting the backstretch. In doing so, he made contact with Josh Berry’s right front. The contact got Gibbs sideways as the latter spun to the bottom of the track and barely clipped teammate Christopher Bell before he veered back to the right and hit the outside wall head-on in Turn 3. Berry was then hit by Gibbs while trying to avoid him and hit the outside wall. Denny Hamlin sustained right-side damage after barely hitting both competitors.
During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Larson returned to pit road, primarily for fuel. Once those who did not pit pitted shortly after, Larson, who exited pit road first ahead of Reddick, Byron, Logano and Chastain, cycled back atop the leaderboard.
The event restarted under green on Lap 92. Larson and Reddick, both of whom were being drafted by Logano and Byron, respectively, briefly motored ahead of the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. By the time they cycled back to the frontstretch, Larson used the outside lane to lead the next lap over Byron, Reddick and Logano while Ross Chastain joined the battle.
Over the duration of the next seven laps, Chastain navigated his way into third place while a majority of the front-runners migrated towards running a long single-file line towards the outside lane. With several competitors fanning out to three lanes within the mid-pack region, Larson retained the lead at the Lap 100 mark while Wallace, Byron, Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe, Logano, Cindric, Zilisch and Allmendinger trailed in the top 10, respectively.
On Lap 103, the caution returned when Riley Herbst, who was racing within the top-20 mark, made contact with Austin Dillon entering the first two turns. The contact sent both Dillon and Herbst spinning sideways through the turn. Stenhouse then hit Herbst on the left side. Both drivers, along with Todd Gilliland and BJ McLeod, wrecked against the outside wall. Meanwhile, Dillon slid down to the apron and barely missed Blaney before he veered back right across the track and hit the left side of Cole Custer before he spun back to the left with more damage.
During this latest caution period, some, including Daniel Suarez, Blaney, Zane Smith, Keselowski, Buescher, Custer and Erik Jones, all of whom were racing within the mid-pack region, pitted while the rest led by Reddick, who had taken over the lead from teammate Wallace a lap before the caution, remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 110 featured teammates Reddick and Wallace dueling in front of Larson, Briscoe and the field through the first two turns before Reddick moved in front of Wallace to maintain his momentum at the front for the following lap. Reddick continued to lead the next 10 laps.
By Lap 120, the on-track intensity around the field intensified as a bevy of competitors fanned out to three-wide formation and raced in close-quarters formation while bumping against one another and trying to navigate to the front. At the front of the field, teammates Reddick and Wallace dueled for the lead while Larson, Briscoe, Chastain and Byron trailed behind.
Four laps later, Kyle Busch, who was racing within the top-15 mark, tried to move in front of Noah Gragson entering the backstretch. In doing so, Busch lifted off the throttle and was bumped by Gragson. This resulted with Busch spinning to the bottom of the track and hitting the inside wall head-on. The incident spoiled Busch’s hopes of winning two NASCAR national touring series divisions at Atlanta this weekend after he won Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series event. During this caution period, some, including Blaney and Hamlin, pitted while the rest of the field, including the leader Reddick and the front-runners, remained on the track.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 131, Reddick received a strong push from Byron from the inside lane to motor ahead of teammate Wallace through the first two turns. Reddick then quickly moved in front of Wallace through the backstretch and he proceeded to lead the next lap. Not long after, Larson aggressively bolted to the front while using every lane that was open to him and he dueled against Reddick from the outside lane during the next lap. Larson then managed to clear Reddick on Lap 134 and motored ahead. Reddick was left to battle with Wallace, Briscoe and Byron for the runner-up spot. As Larson continued to lead at the Lap 140 mark, the field fanned out to three-packed lanes while Chastain moved up to second place ahead of Wallace, Byron, Reddick, Briscoe, Shane van Gisbergen, Elliott, Bell and Logano.
Then, on the final lap of the second stage period, trouble struck when Larson, who was racing in third place, went down the track and collided with Shane van Gisbergen. The contact got both competitors loose in Turn 4 and van Gisbergen spun through the frontstretch’s grass while Larson veered back up the track and hit the outside wall head-on.
Amid the accident, the caution flew just as the leaders were approaching the start/finish line to complete the second stage period. As a result, Wallace, who was ruled ahead of Byron with the lead when the caution flew, was awarded his second Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Byron settled in second while Briscoe, Reddick, Elliott, Hocevar, Preece, Blaney, Keselowski, and van Gisbergen were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Wallace pitted for service. Following the pit stops, where mixed pit strategies ensued, Blaney exited pit road first. He was followed by Zane Smith, Buescher, Preece, Keselowski and Hamlin, all of whom opted for a two-tire pit service. Wallace, the first competitor with four fresh tires, followed suit along with Byron, Reddick and Elliott, respectively.
With 91 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Blaney and Zane Smith occupied the front row in front of Buescher, Preece, Keselowski, Hamlin, Wallace and Byron. At the front, Blaney and Smith received drafting pushes from Buescher and Keselowski, respectively, as both dueled for the lead for a full lap. Smith managed to lead the next lap from the inside lane and in front of two-stacked lanes before Keselowski used a draft to overtake Smith from the backstretch and led the following lap. As the field fanned out to three lanes during the next lap, Hamlin motored his way to the front along with Byron, and Hamlin led the following lap.
Down to the final 75 laps of the event, the field, which featured aggressive racing at the start of the final stage period, had settled with two-packed racing at the front, with some three-wide racing occurring within the mid-pack. At the front, Briscoe was leading over teammate Hamlin, Blaney, Byron, Chastain, Elliott, Wallace, Keselowski, van Gisbergen and Logano. Behind, Erik Jones, Preece, Reddick, Cindric, Bowman, Buescher, Ty Dillon, Zilisch, Bell and Allmendinger in the top 20. By then, the top-29 competitors were separated by nearly three seconds.
Then, with 62 laps remaining, the caution flew when van Gisbergen, who was racing in the top-15 mark, spun for a second time in Turn 4. Van Gisbergen’s latest incident was due to the New Zealander getting loose by himself and spinning from the middle groove. At the time of caution, Briscoe was scored the leader over Wallace, Hamlin, Blaney, Byron, Keselowski, Reddick, Elliott, Allmendinger and Bell.
During this latest caution, the lead lap field led by Wallace returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited first ahead of Reddick, Blaney, Elliott, Logano, Briscoe, Keselowski and Byron, all of whom only opted for fuel to their entries. Allmendinger and Cindric, the first pair of competitors with tires, followed suit.
With the race restarting with 56 laps remaining, Hamlin received a strong shove from Blaney from the outside lane to motor ahead entering the first two turns. Reddick was then able to make a bold move beneath Hamlin exiting the backstretch and stormed back to the lead, where he led the next lap. Reddick and Hamlin then spent the next three laps dueling in front of Byron, Blaney and a stacked field racing in two-wide formation through every turn and straightaway before Reddick slightly motored ahead from the inside lane. Amid the aggressive, three-wide action that ensued, Reddick continued to lead with 50 laps remaining.
Then, with 38 laps remaining, the caution flew when Logano made contact with Hamlin entering the frontstretch. The contact got Hamlin loose and scrubbing the outside wall before he spun in front of Reddick and triggered a nine-car wreck that involved Allmendinger, Buescher, Byron, Bowman, Michael McDowell and Zilisch.
The next restart with 29 laps remaining featured Chastain and Cindric dueling in front of Elliott, Blaney, Bell and a stacked field through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field quickly fanned out when cycling back to the frontstretch, Cindric led the next lap and he continued to lead with 25 laps remaining while teammate Blaney, Bell, Chastain, Wallace and teammate Logano followed suit.
With 23 laps remaining, the caution returned. Logano, who was racing in the top six, got bumped and went for a spin through the frontstretch’s grass by Hocevar, during which Logano was trying to block Hocevar. Despite spinning, Logano continued without sustaining any sigificant damage to his entry.
As the event restarted under green with 17 laps remaining, Bell and Cindric battled dead even for the lead in front of Blaney, Wallace, Keselowski and the field for a full lap as Bell barely led the next lap from the outside lane. Bell and Cindric continued to fiercely duel for the lead with 15 laps remaining before Hocevar threw a bold three-wide move beneath Blaney to move into the top five. This caused Blaney to lose momentum and a handful of spots. Cindric would also lose momentum while leading the inside lane. Bell and Wallace motored ahead with the top-two spots from the outside lane.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Wallace was leading over Bell, Reddick, Hocevar, Chasten, Cindric, Suarez, Zane Smith, Byron and Blaney as the aggressiveness towards the front intensified amid two-stacked lanes. Despite being placed on defensive mode through every lane, turn and straightaway, Wallace maintained the top spot with drafting help from Bell over the next five laps. Hocevar, Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe and Byron kept pace.
Then, with four laps remaining, the caution flew when Byron, who had scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 from sixth place and was falling off the pace through the backstretch, clipped Cindric while trying to veer to the left and steer clear of the pack. The contact with Cindric sent both the latter and Byron spinning back up the track and igniting a multi-car wreck entering Turn 3 that involved Logano, John Hunter Nemechek, Todd Gilliland, Cole Custer, Gragson, Cody Ware, Hamlin and Austin Dillon. This latest incident placed the event in a red flag period for 10 minutes and 31 seconds.
When the red flag lifted and the event restarted in overtime, the caution quickly returned when Hocevar, who spotted a hole in the middle lane and tried to make a bold move in between the leaders Wallace and Bell, made contact with Bell. The contact turned Bell into Wallace before Bell veered back to the right and hit the outside wall in Turn 1 head-on. Amid the incident that caused the field to scramble, Wallace retained the lead over Hocevar, Reddick, Chastain and Suarez. The event, however, resulted in a second overtime attempt.
The start of the second overtime attempt featured Wallace gaining an advantage from the inside lane as he had teammate Reddick, along with Briscoe, drafting him, while Hocevar only had Chastain drafting him from the outside lane. Then, as Wallace opted to shift to the right and move in front of Hocevar, the latter went beneath Wallace on the left. This shoved Wallace out of the lead as both Reddick and Hocevar dueled for the lead entering Turns 3 and 4.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Reddick held a narrow lead over Hocevar and Briscoe while Wallace, Chastain and the rest of the field tried to reel in through the frontstretch. As both Hocevar and Wallace lost momentum amid contact between them exiting the frontstretch, Reddick muscled ahead. Briscoe, Chastain and van Gisbergen followed through the first two turns. With no drafting runs formulating throughout the final lap, Reddick was able to maintain pace and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim his second consecutive checkered flag in the early stages to the 2026 season.
With the victory, Reddick notched his 10th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his third on a superspeedway venue and his first at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway. Above all, Reddick became the sixth competitor overall to win the first two events on a Cup schedule, a feat achieved by Marvin Panch, Bob Welborn, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth.
Reddick’s first Atlanta victory also made the Toyota nameplate and 23XI Racing two-for-two to commence the 2026 season, with 23XI Racing winning for the 11th time in Cup history.
“I mean, that’s crazy, isn’t it? How about that?! EchoPark Speedway!” Reddick exclaimed on the frontstretch on FOX. “This place, over the years, man, it just puts on some amazing racing. Handling matters here, but man, I don’t know. I guess determination outweighs handling.”
“We were back there in 30th after we got collected with [Hamlin],” Reddick added. “[The car] was definitely really loose and we were able to make a little bit of an adjustment on it with the error and whatnot. [The field] just kept stacking up in the middle and top lanes, and I just found a way to kind of get back in the top five. I tried to stay committed to somebody and I don’t know, I didn’t really have a choice. I had to find out if [the car] was going to go out in clean air like that.”
Like Reddick, co-owner Michael Jordan was both ecstatic and victorious for a second race in a row while also applauding the competitiveness exhibited by Reddick and Bubba Wallace.
“I don’t even know what to say, “Jordan said on FOX. “Tyler did an unbelievable job. Both teams [Nos. 23 and 45] did an unbelievable job. I wanted one of them [Reddick or Wallace] to win. I feel bad for Bubba, obviously, because he had an unbelievable day, but Tyler drove his ass off and I’m very happy for Tyler. I’m very happy for 23XI [Racing]. The guys worked hard all summer, and I know we had our little ordeal, but they never gave up. They kept working hard and this is the fruit of their labor. They put forth the effort. For us to come out and win the first two races says a lot about our whole team.”
Behind Reddick, Chase Briscoe settled in second place ahead of Ross Chastain while Carson Hocevar, who rallied from falling two laps from the lead lap field and was in striking position of achieving his first Cup career victory, ended up in fourth place in front of teammate Daniel Suarez. Shane van Gisbergen rallied from a pair of spins to finish in sixth place ahead of Zane Smith, while Bubba Wallace, who led 46 laps, ended up in eighth place ahead of Ryan Preece and Ryan Blaney.
Notably, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, all of whom led a combined 57 laps, finished 11th, 13th, 17th and 18th, respectively, while Christopher Bell, who led nine laps, finished 21st, the last competitor on the lead lap, following his first overtime incident with Hocevar.
There were 57 lead changes for 14 different leaders. The event featured 10 cautions for 67 laps. In addition, 21 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the second event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick continues to lead the standings by 40 points over teammate Bubba Wallace, 44 over Chase Elliott, 51 over Carson Hocevar, 54 over Zane Smith and 57 over Joey Logano.
Results:
1. Tyler Reddick, 53 laps led
2. Chase Briscoe, 27 laps led
3. Ross Chastain
4. Carson Hocevar, two laps led
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap led
7. Zane Smith, one lap led
8. Bubba Wallace, 46 laps led, Stage 2 winner
9. Ryan Preece
10. Ryan Blaney, six laps led
11. Chase Elliott, 11 laps led
12. AJ Allmendinger
13. Denny Hamlin, 10 laps led
14. Noah Gragson
15. Chris Buescher
16. Ty Dillon
17. Brad Keselowski, 10 laps led
18. Joey Logano, 26 laps led
19. John Hunter Nemechek
20. Michael McDowell
21. Christopher Bell, nine laps led
22. Cole Custer, one lap down
23. Alex Bowman, two laps down
24. Erik Jones, two laps down
25. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Accident
26. Austin Cindric – OUT, 21 laps led, Stage 1 winner
27. Cody Ware – OUT, Accident
28. William Byron – OUT, Accident
29. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident
30. Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
31. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident
32. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident, 48 laps led
33. Riley Herbst, 114 laps down
34. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident
35. BJ McLeod – OUT, Accident
36. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident
37. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident
38. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ sixth annual visit to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for the DuraMax Grand Prix. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 1, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
