After a winless 2025 NASCAR season, Tyler Reddick sped to his first-ever Victory Lane celebration as the Daytona 500 champion on Sunday.
Reddick, who surged to a dramatic final-lap lead and finish in the 2026 season opener, joined "Good Morning America" hours after he captured the checkered flag and hoisted the elusive Harley J. Earl Trophy alongside 23XI Racing team owner Michael Jordan.
"When you win, you become a Daytona 500 champion, and so everything that comes with it is just incredible," Reddick told "GMA."
The 30-year-old driver didn't lead a single lap the entire race until he slipped to the bottom of the track as teammate Riley Herbst of the No. 35 car clipped the rear of Chase Elliott in the No. 9 car, leaving Reddick to safely clear the pile up and secure the victory.
"We did a really good job of executing through that final stage," Reddick said. "...We were able to snake our way back up there, down the backstretch on the final lap, and came out with the lead for the final time on the last lap. Pretty crazy stuff."
The win marked a milestone for 23XI Racing, co‑owned by NBA legend Jordan and three‑time Daytona 500 winner, Denny Hamlin.
"He was just really proud of how we were able to deliver at the end of that race," Reddick said of Jordan's reaction.
Referring to Hamlin, Reddick added, "Obviously, it was a big win for Michael, but another owner of mine, Denny Hamlin, you know, in that [final lap], I was just trying to do everything that Denny would do.... How would he find a way this win race?"
Despite the chaotic finish, Reddick said "it was all very calm, everything happened really slow from my seat."
Reddick's win comes amid an emotionally trying time off the track, after his second son, known by his nickname "Rookie," underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his chest.
"As he started to grow and things were going on with him, he just started going the wrong way," Reddick explained. "...He was in heart failure, and then just pretty quickly [doctors had to] understand what was causing the heart failure and piecing it all together."
He added, "I'm really proud of my wife, she had to go through a lot during the entire process, but she was really the centerpiece that held everyone together throughout the whole thing."
Reddick said his team owners' "support along the way was incredible" as well.
Rookie is now "happy and healthy," Reddick said, adding that "when we got here a couple days ago in the bus, he started crawling, so it's incredible to have this milestone down here too."
