All of the the explanation why the Daytona 500 meant a lot to Tyler Reddick

Tyler Reddick has romanticized a lot about this second over the previous 20 years as a result of it was so unfathomable.

He gained the Daytona 500.

However even after crossing the end line, Reddick didn’t enable himself to really feel actually something. There was no rapid pleasure. No exuberance. He wasn’t even on the microphone’s button celebrating along with his group.

“I did not know if I might gained the race or not,” Reddick mentioned. “Within the second, I knew I crossed the start-finish line first, however I do not know if the yellow gentle was on earlier than I bought to the start-finish line and Chase (Elliott) was forward of me. I did not know any of that stuff.

“Yeah, everybody wrecked, however once more, I did not wish to get forward of myself. I did not wish to suppose I might gained the race after which be informed a pair seconds later I hadn’t. That will be devastating, particularly after operating second final 12 months. I used to be simply making an attempt to maintain myself in test till I knew I might gained.”

This race has at all times meant an important deal to Reddick, whilst a California grime racer who grew up driving Outlaw Karts and Filth Late Fashions, who wasn’t completely positive there was a pathway for him to even attain the Cup Sequence.

“I watched a variety of NASCAR racing rising up, however I’d by no means miss a Daytona 500 as just a little child rising up out in California, sitting with my household on Sunday watching this race,” he mentioned. “I dreamed of in the future simply having a chance to run on this race.”

His first laps on the facility got here within the annual January open check for the ARCA Racing Sequence. He drove a automotive for Briggs Cunningham.

“Yeah, I simply bear in mind going on the market in an ARCA check and considering that is loopy quick, and it simply appears so surreal,” Reddick mentioned. “I’ve watched so many races right here as a child rising up and I am lastly on the racetrack. I am testing on my own, single-car stuff. However nonetheless, I’ve at all times dreamed of having the ability to drive off of Flip 4, by means of the tri-oval and see the stands. Sure, they had been empty after I examined right here, however simply seeing this place, simply stuff I dreamed about.

“By no means would I do know it will result in me speaking to you guys about successful a Daytona 500, however actually as a younger child rising up, I at all times dreamed that hopefully this may in the future be actuality.”

He ended up racing the ARCA race that 12 months and completed within the top-five. That kick began a pavement profession. On the time, Reddick was already the youngest winner within the historical past of the famed Lucas Oil Filth Late Mannequin Tour. It wasn’t a fait accompli that he would at all times find yourself in NASCAR.

“I used to be racing at Volusia Speedway,” Reddick mentioned of the 2009 Daytona 500. “I feel it was the 12 months Kenseth gained the rain-shortened race right here. However racing Volusia for my first or second time in a late mannequin, and me and my household got here out to the racetrack, we parked our toter house I really feel like a mile-and-a-half away from the dang racetrack, however we had tickets on the backstretch grandstand, and our entire household, we went up within the backstretch there and we watched the race.”

He referred to as it the craziest factor he had ever seen.

“However for me, being at Daytona and seeing the Cup automobiles on the racetrack was simply so unreal,” Reddick mentioned. “I’ve gotten to look at it on TV however being right here and watching that was only a actually cool second. It was a disgrace the race did get rain shortened and every little thing, however each time the automobiles got here down the backstretch, they’re transferring. They are going so quick.

“It was only a actually enjoyable second to have the ability to spend with my household. Yeah, it was a disgrace it bought shortened by rain however we nonetheless had a bunch of enjoyable.”

That isn’t the one motive this victory was so impactful. The previous 12 months had been genuinely terrible for Reddick. He went winless in 2025 after a three-win championship-race marketing campaign in 2024. At house, he welcomed his second son, Rookie, in Could however the roddler developed a tumor that created some tough moments within the second half of the season.

He’s doing nicely now and the Reddicks had each Beau and Rookie on the observe to have fun with them on Sunday.

“The one time I’ve ever felt the extent of feelings I did in that second was successful the pole on the Charlotte Roval when Rookie was within the hospital,” Reddick mentioned of the race weekend in October. “For me that was a complete completely different set of causes, every little thing that my son was going by means of, our household was going by means of.”

How Reddick responded to every little thing, each on and off the observe, actually impressed group co-owner Denny Hamlin, who had his personal share of non-public woes to cope with this previous winter. Hamlin mentioned 23XI had a contest assembly final month to handle among the issues that went fallacious in 2025 and that Reddick was the one one with a pen and paper.

“That is what we wish out of him, proper,” Hamlin mentioned. “I knew 4 or 5 years in the past, each time it was that I talked to him for the primary time about, ‘hey, I would like you over right here’ … I simply knew that his ceiling was so, so excessive.

“Final 12 months, the expectations had been actually greater than the outcomes as a complete however hopefully, successful a race like this may relieve a variety of the self-pressure Tyler places on himself. Hopefully, he can race this season unfastened like he at all times has.”

All informed, all of this can be a reflection that that is merely what Reddick does, working onerous from day one. It landed him within the Cup Sequence and now it’s earned him the Harley J. Earl Trophy.

“I feel for me, you by no means know what the long run holds in case you maintain your desires massive, in case you work actually, actually onerous,” Reddick mentioned. “Clearly you have to make sacrifices alongside the way in which, as nicely, whether or not it is your self or your loved ones.

“Everybody in my household put rather a lot into this. I put rather a lot into this, my mother and father, my grandfather, my grandparents, and it simply took everybody’s teamwork like we had right this moment to make moments like this actuality.”

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– The Motorsport.com Staff