Two races into the 2026 season, and Tyler Reddick is already on another level! After snapping his long winless streak at the Daytona 500, the 23XI star backed it up with another clutch victory. This time it was at the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. But while the win should’ve been all celebration, things got a little complicated inside the 23XI camp. On the final restart, Reddick found himself in a position where pushing his teammate Bubba Wallace to victory seemed possible… until it wasn’t. And his post-race admission made it clear: this one still stings, and not just for Bubba.

NASCAR race winner Tyler Reddick’s hard choice

The final overtime restart at EchoPark Speedway delivered everything fans love (and everything teammates hate). Bubba Wallace lined up in prime position to take the win, with Carson Hocevar to his outside and Tyler Reddick locked on Wallace’s bumper. For a moment, it looked like 23XI was about to score a 1–2 finish with Wallace finally getting his moment. Instead, the track opened up, the field went three-wide, and Wallace’s momentum evaporated in seconds. Out in the front were left only Reddick and Hocevar.

“I tried to stay committed to somebody, and I don’t know, I didn’t have a choice. I had to find out if it was going to get clean air like that,” Reddick admitted after taking the checkered flag. And in the end, these words made clear just how tough that split-second decision was.

Hocevar and Reddick made contact twice in the dash to the line, but Reddick muscled through for a 0.164-second margin of victory over Chase Briscoe, leading a race-high 53 of 271 laps. In the process, he became the first driver since Matt Kenseth in 2009 to win the first two races of the season. Wallace, meanwhile, fell out of contention almost instantly.

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And the sting is only sharper when considering what Reddick went through just to be in that position. He’d been swept up in the massive Lap 225 “Big One,” and for a moment, his race looked cooked. Pundits called it another early-season miracle slipping away. But the No. 45 crew dug in, Reddick regrouped, and somehow he clawed his way back to the front.

“We got that damage there, and I don’t know. It’s so easy to settle for 20th or 15th. We got an air pressure adjustment, made some repairs, and the car was back. Definitely draggier, but what can you say? It’s just superspeedway racing,” Reddick later revealed.

Moreover, he made it clear that he wanted Wallace to win. “Just crazy, I hate it for Bubba. We both did a lot of good things throughout the night, he just got hung out by Hocevar,” he explained.

But in the chaos of superspeedway-style racing, loyalty takes a back seat to clean air, survival, and instinct. And instinct carried him. However, it left one teammate crushed in the process.

Jordan consoles his devastated driver

After the race, Michael Jordan didn’t hide how torn he felt watching his Bubba Wallace miss out on the win, while appreciating the efforts of both the 23XI drivers. “Both teams did an unbelievable job, and look, I wanted one of them to win. You know. I feel bad for Bubba, obviously, because you had an unbelievable day.”

And Jordan wasn’t exaggerating by any means. Bubba Wallace had one of his strongest performances in the race. From the moment the green flag dropped, Wallace looked locked in. He surged to the lead on lap 59, finishing P2 in Stage 1, and returned in Stage 2 with even more speed, running up front consistently and winning Stage 2 outright. For most of the afternoon, the No. 23 Toyota looked like the class of the field.

Stage 3 only strengthened that belief. Wallace stayed inside the top 10, methodically working traffic, before taking command again with 13 laps to go. Even when a late wreck forced the race into overtime, Wallace held firm by restarting as the leader. Then came another gut punch: a second caution, courtesy of Christopher Bell, triggered yet another restart. Once again, Wallace lined up at the front, carrying the weight of a breakthrough win on his shoulders.

And when it looked like this would finally be his moment, clean air, a strong car, and a teammate behind him, the lanes shifted. Wallace pulled high, Reddick saw air open up, and in the span of a heartbeat, Wallace’s winning chance dissolved. Jordan was offering Wallace encouragement post-race, but nothing could soften the blow of losing a race he controlled for so long.

The heartbreak was written all over Wallace’s face, because he knew: this one was his to lose… and fate took it away.