If any sport needed to get off to a good start this year it was most certainly NASCAR. 2025 started with yet another rain-delayed Daytona 500 and ended with a confusing and disappointing stretch run that languished in obscurity as it is want to do amidst NFL football. A schedule that begins with arguably your marquee event needs to overachieve all the more.
Well, for a change, the sports gods were smiling upon the blacktop. CBS SPORTS’ Jordan Dajani & Shanna McCarriston gushingly detailed how yesterday afternoon:
The 2026 Daytona 500 lived up to the hype, as Tyler Reddick of 23Xl Racing took home the win after one of the most wild final laps you’ll ever see. The No. 45 Toyota Camry avoided a Carson Hocevar spin just seconds after the white flag dropped, then went from third to first coming out of turn four — passing Chase Elliott down the back straightaway for his first Daytona 500 victory. Sunday marked just the fourth time in Daytona 500 history that the winner didn’t lead until the final lap.
Reddick finished runner-up to William Byron in the Daytona 500 last year, but ran the gauntlet to emerge as the top dog in 2026. He gets team owner Michael Jordan to victory lane for the first time at the “Great American Race” just two days before his 63rd birthday.
And as the even more overcrowded press box from the DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL–Chris Vinel, Ken Willis, Zach Allen and Chris Boyle –noted, it even got a rise out of a typically detached and jaundiced dude when it comes to basketball:
Jordan is no stranger to victory celebrations and the hoisting of trophies. But he joined Tyler Reddick in Victory Lane and looked like it was all new to him.
“I’m ecstatic,” said the basketball legend, co-owner of the 23XI team that fields three full-time Cup Series cars, including the No. 45 that Tyler Reddick drove to the Daytona 500 win. “It’ so gratifying. You never know how these races are gonna end. I feel like I won a championship.”
If you think he’s happy, you can only imagine how the braintrust in Charlotte are feeling as they look forward to keeping fans’ attention better than they have in recent years, FOR THE WIN’s Nick Schwartz detailed their game plan:
For the Cup Series in 2026, there will be a 26-race regular season (which ends at Daytona on August 29th) and a 10-race playoff ending at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 8th. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top 16 drivers in the point standings will qualify for the playoffs and have their points reset. Bonus points will be applied depending on position in the standings, and the regular-season champion with have a 100-point advantage over the driver in 16th position.
The “win-and-you’re-in” rule is gone. Race victories will no longer grant automatic qualification to the playoffs, and the elimination system has also been removed. There are no more “rounds” of the playoffs where a number of drivers will be eliminated throughout, and there is no more “championship four” in the final race.
I figure anyone who can connect with Michael Jordan quicker than Tyler Reddick would be overjoyed to read that. And such a list would include moi right at the head of it.
Courage…