With a stellar final lap, Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500 on Sunday evening.
NASCAR
For the first time since 2020, Toyota is celebrating a victory in the Daytona 500 with Tyler Reddick. The California-native drove a masterful final few turns, dodging multiple incidents to pick up his first win in the Great American Race. It is the first Daytona 500 win for 23XI Racing, as well. Co-owner Denny Hamlin now can lay claim to all four of Toyota’s Daytona 500 victories – three as a driver (2016, 2019 and 2020) and now as an owner.
“I had that weird moment where I think everyone was too busy screaming and I was like, ‘did we win?’ Man, it’s something -- as a kid, I grew up watching the Daytona 500 with my family and just dreamed of being a NASCAR Cup Series driver one day. And, then obviously really wanted to win the 500 so I just – it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of things to go the right way. We did it today,” said Reddick.
- Tyler Reddick
23XI had a stellar day with all three of their full-time drivers – Reddick, Riley Herbst (eighth) and Bubba Wallace (10th) finishing in the top-10. Wallace also led the most laps in the race – 40, with Chase Briscoe (23 laps led) and John Hunter Nemechek (19 laps led) also spending considerable time out front. Toyota led over half of the race, pacing for 103 total circuits.
Toyota has won the last three Crown Jewel races in NASCAR – the Brickyard 400 (Bubba Wallace), the Southern 500 (Chase Briscoe) and now the Daytona 500.
On Saturday, all six Toyota GR Supras had issues and failed to finish the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series opener, won by Austin Hill.
In the NASCAR Truck Series race on Friday evening, Gio Ruggiero came up just short for the second straight year as the Toyota Development Driver finished second in the season opener to Chandler Smith. It was a wild four-wide finish at the line, with John Hunter Nemechek (fifth) also amongst the battle.
“It was tight there at the end of the race. Everybody was just trying to do whatever it takes to win and that’s what I did for myself and my team,” said Ruggiero. “I thought me, Tanner (Gray) and Taylor (Gray) worked really well together but everybody else just seemed like they were out there on their own. I definitely think we learned some things for the next superspeedway.”
- Gio Ruggiero
ARCA
Ruggiero got redemption on Saturday afternoon as he won his first ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona. It was a Toyota top-two sweep as Nitro Motorsports driver Jake Bollman was scored in second.
WHAT’S NEXT
NASCAR continues their superspeedway run with three races at EchoPark Speedway, near Atlanta, next weekend. On Saturday, February 21, the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series kicks off the racing action at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, followed by the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at 5:00 p.m. ET on the CW.
On Sunday, February 22, the NASCAR Cup Series closes the weekend in Atlanta at 3:00 p.m. ET on FOX.