EchoPark Speedway (Hampton, Ga.) — Tyler Reddick spent the entire 2025 season wondering when he would win. He spent the offseason wondering why he didn’t win.
Now some might wonder: When will he lose?
OK, that’s probably going a little bit too far in a sport where there is one winner and 35 or more losers every week. But Reddick followed his 2025 winless season with back-to-back victories, capturing the Daytona 500 last week and the Cup race Sunday at Atlanta to open 2026. He won Sunday with a car without a fender that came off during an accident that appeared would end his chance to win.
Tyler Reddick is a perfect 2-for-2 to open the 2026 Cup Series season.
“That’s crazy, ain’t it?” Reddick said in his television interview after the race.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Michael Jordan, Reddick Now 2-for-2
Team owner Michael Jordan obviously loves to win. So no doubt to see the excitement from him in Victory Lane to celebrate with Reddick, who became the first driver since 2009 to open the season with back-to-back wins.
It appeared that the 23XI Racing driver who would win at Atlanta was Bubba Wallace, who was leading going into overtime with the damaged Reddick behind him. But Wallace moved to block Carson Hocevar on the outside and Hocevar ducked to the inside, leaving Wallace with no help.
Tyler Reddick is embraced by 23XI owner Michael Jordan after Reddick’s second straight win.
“I feel bad for Bubba, obviously, because he had an unbelievable day, but Tyler drove his ass off, and I’m very happy for Tyler,” Jordan said in his television interview. “I’m very happy for 23XI.”
Reddick’s view?
“Sometimes things are just meant to be,” Reddick said in his postrace news conference. “For some reason there … no one was able to ever get back to us. I don’t know how, but I’ll take it.”
2. Bubba Disappointed
Bubba Wallace was left wondering what he did wrong to finish eighth.
“Unfortunate, but man, what a race car we had today,” he said in his television interview.
Teammates Tyler Reddick outlasted Bubba Wallace and other for the win Atlanta.
But sometimes a driver doesn’t make the wrong move at the superspeedway, just an unfortunate one as the runs come so fast and drivers make wild blocks.
“Superspeedway racing is the king of hindsight is 20/20,” team co-owner Denny Hamlin said in his postrace news conference. “If you knew where every car was going to go, then you would always make the right move, but you just don’t know when you pull up in front of a line what that line — how that line is going to react, are they going to push, are they going to shoot middle or going to go high? You just don’t know.”
3. Hocevar Aggresive
Hocevar apologized for contact with Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano during the race. But contact with Christopher Bell in the first overtime restart? He felt that he was going for the win. He saw a hole, went for it and it closed.
Criticized at times for his aggressiveness but even more for his timing, at least this last instance came with the race on the line.
“I felt like if [the Toyotas] bought lazy and left the center open, I used to be going to be actually aggressive to attempt to fill it,” Hocevar mentioned. “And I noticed it for a split-second proper after I had an enormous run, and there was most likely simply sufficient proper after I was coming.
“I simply went for it. … I do not even must see the replay. I am positive it was closed up. I do not imply to destroy their automobile.”
Carson Hocevar defended his strikes close to the tip of the Atlanta race.
Bell tried to chew his tongue with out seeing a replay when he talked to me and one other reporter afterward: “You by no means anticipate something [in these races], particularly from him. I have not seen the replay. Possibly there was a gap there, and that is what he thought he was going to attempt to fill.”
4. Larson Embarrassed
Kyle Larson didn’t mince phrases about himself after his wreck when he didn’t notice he was three-wide and ended up wrecked.
“Sometimes I get caught up in others’ errors on these tracks,” Larson informed me and different reporters after his crash. “That was utterly my fault. So that is what’s embarrassing and irritating.”
Larson is amongst drivers who’re in just a little little bit of a factors gap after simply two races exterior the highest 16 within the standings. However he shouldn’t sweat it an excessive amount of being simply three factors out. A number of drivers are 20-30 factors out, however with a victory incomes 20 extra factors than second, a win or two can permit a driver to leap a number of spots.
Kyle Larson’s day got here to an early finish on Sunday.
4 ½. What’s Subsequent
The Cup Sequence heads to Circuit of the Americas for its first street course of the season.
It’s a spot the place Tyler Reddick has received in 2023, and he’ll now go for 3 consecutive wins to open the season — a feat no Cup driver has completed.
“For me, with the place this season began and what I must do as a driver, it is all about simply doing the whole lot I can and displaying up each week being as ready as I can,” he mentioned.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent many years masking motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seaside) Information-Journal. Comply with him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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