If you were looking for subtlety in the 68th running of the Daytona 500, you brought the wrong binoculars.
This was not a race. This was a bar fight conducted at 200 miles an hour with 40 participants and very little adult supervision. And when the smoke finally drifted away, it was Tyler Reddick standing there, somehow untouched, having led exactly one lap.
The only lap that matters.
The final lap began with Michael McDowell in front, Carson Hocevar charging, and the sort of tension usually reserved for bomb disposal units. Hocevar crossed the stripe as the leader, then promptly got introduced to the concept of “relocation” by Erik Jones. Both spun into Turn 1, collecting McDowell like loose change. NASCAR kept the caution flag neatly folded and decided, quite reasonably, to let them sort it out.
Which they did. Violently.
Suddenly it was three-wide with Chase Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Reddick clawing at the asphalt. Elliott edged ahead off Turn 2 thanks to a shove from Zane Smith. It looked tidy. Predictable. Almost civilized.
But this is Daytona. Civilization is merely a suggestion.
Reddick launched to the outside off Turn 4, carrying momentum like a runaway freight train. Elliott defended. Behind them, Riley Herbst moved up, clipped Brad Keselowski, and the pack detonated. When Reddick crossed the line, he was pointed straight. The seven cars behind him were not. Twisted sheet metal fanned out across the tri-oval as if the track had sneezed.
We had the lead there when that caution came out, lined up next to McDowell,” Reddick said. “And we just kind of kept getting hung a couple times in the closing laps there. Yeah, just every time we’d kind of break up, there would be nowhere left to go but to push, and they pushed me, obviously.
“My teammate Riley Herbst gave me a lot of pushes there and then tried to win the race for himself, as he should at the end there. Just incredible how it all played out. Just true Daytona madness.”
It was a fitting end to a day that never once pretended to be calm.
The opening laps were chaotic in the way Florida thunderstorms are “a bit damp.” On lap five, B.J. McLeod broke something important and spun. William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Casey Mears, and Noah Gragson piled in. Most of the leaders dove for pit road. Polesitter Kyle Busch did not. Because of course he didn’t.
He led the restart on lap 11 and spent the next stretch swapping the top spot with Joey Logano like two men arguing over the last steak. By lap 30, John Hunter Nemechek was involved up front. By lap 33, a third lane formed, surged, and nearly unraveled the entire field. Brad Keselowski had a moment exiting Turn 4 that would have aged a normal human five years.
Pit strategy became a chess match played with sledgehammers. Zane Smith stayed out and stole the Stage 1 win. Stage 2? That’s when the real mayhem arrived.
On lap 122, just past halfway, the “Big One” arrived on schedule. Allgaier moved to block Denny Hamlin, got pinched, hit the wall, and ricocheted across the field. Twenty cars were involved. Twenty. The infield care center briefly resembled a group therapy session for sheet metal.
Somehow, most continued. Alex Bowman, Allgaier, and Todd Gilliland did not.
Fuel strategy then turned the race into a rolling math exam. McDowell, Reddick, Hocevar, Keselowski, and Byron stretched their tanks to the breaking point. With nine laps to go, Hamlin and Christopher Bell tangled, bringing out the fifth caution and setting up a four-lap sprint.
Green with four to go.
McDowell led. Hocevar surged. Elliott loomed. And Reddick waited.
One lap. One perfectly judged run. One perfectly timed slingshot to the outside.
Behind him, pandemonium. In front of him, history.
At Daytona, you don’t have to dominate. You just have to survive long enough to be pointed in the right direction when everyone else isn’t.
“It’s going to be a long night if I’ve already lost my voice from screaming,” a smiling Reddick said. “Never thought I’d be Daytona 500 champion.”
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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