Connect with us

NASCAR

Tyler Reddick Finally Tames Darlington in Clutch Goodyear 400

Tyler Reddick Finally Tames Darlington in Clutch Goodyear 400
Photo Credit to Peter Stratta/TSJSports

NASCAR

Tyler Reddick Takes First Darlington Triumph in Goodyear 400, Fourth Win of 2026

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Tyler Reddick and Michael Jordan were celebrating big after a NASCAR win. For the fourth time in 2026’s opening six weeks the No. 45 went to victory lane. Darlington was perhaps their most impressive and adversity-laden run yet, coming back from multiple issues and with fresher tires late. The points leader remains on top after conquering The Track Too Tough To Tame.

Reddick leapt out to an early advantage from the pole before a long first trip down pit road. This gave the lead and eventual Stage 1 win to Brad Keselowski, trying to erase a nearly two-year winless drought. The RFK Racing No. 6 Ford in a Greg Biffle tribute scheme would go onto sweep both stages. At one point, all three of their Mustangs held a top-three lockout on track. Reddick, meanwhile, was battling alternator voltage issues and a broken cool suit that he had to drain under a caution.

The RFK Racing duo of Keselowski and Buescher appeared to be in a league of their own to start the final Stage. That party up front would soon have a new contender in Tyler Reddick, who inadvertently spun out Buescher as the No. 17 tried coming to pit road late.

Thanks to making his final pit stop two laps later than Keselowski, Reddick was able to rocket back through the field and soon found the 6’s bumper. Reddick made the winning pass with 28 laps left, driving off to a nearly six-second winning gap. Team owner Michael Jordan was in attendance yet again and was as energized as anyone post-race.

“I know never to give up,” Reddick said. “I think it’s very fitting that when we finally get our first win here at Darlington that The Lady in Black would test us like that. We’ve been so close so many times. I mean, lap one we had the charging problem where the battery wasn’t charging at all. All day long just not running fans. Sweat my tail off inside the race car, and we knew it was going to be physical. Yeah, I don’t know. Really wore out, but I guess I don’t need as much of that cooling stuff as I normally have.”

“Ever since I made my first lap here in an O’Reilly Auto Parts car, there’s just something about this racetrack that’s so special, so challenging. It’s been really fun for my evolution as a driver over the years, my time in O’Reilly Auto Parts car, my time at RCR and what we’ve perfected, my time here at 23XI. Just really proud of everybody, and it’s cool to get boss man his fourth win on the year.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s frustrating for [Reddick] because he had an unbelievable car,” Jordan said. “You know, you never know what’s going to happen, especially at Darlington. I think that the key to him winning was just keeping his head.”

“I think Billy [Scott, crew chief] did a good job of trying to keep him calm. We knew we had a fast car. We knew on a 30-lap run we were real good. On a short-lap run we were real good. We just had to get the car right. And he kept his composure, and he did an unbelievable job.”

“I wanted everything to be good. Once he gets back out there, I feel like his competitive juices are going to carry him all the way to the end. Those are the longest 18 to 20 laps that I can even imagine. I just didn’t want to see a caution. The caution would have changed everything. But he did the job. He earned it all week, and I’m real proud of the team.”

Behind Reddick and Keselowski at the checkers were: Ryan Blaney, Carson Hocevar, and Austin Cindric. The rest of the Darlington top 10 were: Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez, William Byron, Chris Buescher, and Erik Jones. Hear post-race thoughts from some of these drivers below.

Reddick’s gap atop the standings only grows after Darlington, now standing at 95 points. Reddick does face perhaps his biggest challenge yet of 2026 next week, however, with NASCAR heading to Martinsville Speedway. The Cook Out 400 goes green Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Reddick, Hamlin, and others call short tracks 23XI Racing’s last true hurdle to being a complete team. It will be fun to see how the hottest driver of 2026 can adapt to the technical Half-Mile of Mayhem.

Written by Peter Stratta

Be sure to follow us on Twitter/X

Be sure to follow the writer on Twitter/X

Photo credits to Peter Stratta/TSJSports

Related Topics

More in NASCAR