Tyler Reddick, the same rough-and-tumble teenager who cut his teeth in the Dirt Late Model ranks from 2009 to 2013, has become one of NASCAR’s most complete Cup Series drivers. After Sunday’s career-defining victory at the Daytona 500, he is now forever linked to presenting team owner Michael Jordan with his first Harley J. Earl Trophy.
Intermediates, road courses, superspeedways – Reddick has triumphed in every type of configuration except short tracks in a Cup car. Sunday’s dramatic Daytona 500 victory, sealed by making all the right moves in a frenzied last-lap push to the finish with help from teammate Riley Herbst, also connects him to an exclusive and legendary company.
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The Corning, Calif., native is now one of four drivers whose first nine Cup Series victories came at nine tracks, joining Kyle Busch, Bill Elliott and Jeff Gordon. And he knows exactly where this adaptability comes from.
“I think it’s my experience racing on dirt. It really is,” Reddick said during his post-race Daytona 500 press conference. “When I grew up racing outlaw karts in California, we raced at three or four different tracks, but man, you could go to these places and every night they’re a little different.
“Volusia (Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.) down the road, I remember some years we’d come here and the track would be wired all night, and some years we’d come here and it would just be smooth and slow and hard to master. I think just like a dirt racer growing up, you always have to be ready for things to go in an unexpected direction. That can happen in asphalt racing and stock car racing.”
Even after the greatest victory a stock car driver can achieve, Reddick’s mind returns to the unassuming and humble moments at tracks like Paducah (Ky.) International Raceway and I-55 Federated Raceway Park in Pevely, Missouri, that shaped his racing art.
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“I feel like Paducah, Kentucky, is a great example of that,” Reddick continued. “You go in there sometimes and it’s slippery on hot laps, and other times you go in there and it’s wide open all night.
“I-55 Speedway…same thing. I think being versatile is the name of the game of a good dirt racer. I did everything I could to emulate what I would see from those guys growing up. When I was a young kid, I would go to Silver Dollar Speedway (in Chico, Calif.) and watch Steve Kinser dice it.”
Although Tyler Reddick’s Dirt Late Model career lasted only five seasons, highlighted by a single Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory in February 2011 at the now-closed East Bay Raceway Park, he hasn’t forgotten the key figures who invested in him.
“As I got older, I got to work with guys like Scott Bloomquist and be around guys like Steve (Baker and Mark) Richards with Rocket Chassis,” said Reddick, who hasn’t competed in a Dirt Late Model race since the May 2016 Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri. this versatile experience on the dirt racing side has somehow allowed me to be able to adapt to the different tracks that we run.
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Sunday’s Daytona 500 victory had a deeper meaning for Reddick beyond just winning stock car racing’s biggest prize. Last October, he and his wife Alexa revealed that their son Rookie, now 9 months old, had been diagnosed with a chest tumor that was putting dangerous pressure on his heart.
Doctors determined that the mass was restricting blood flow in the kidney vein and artery, eventually forcing surgeons to remove Rookie’s right kidney when he was just 4 months old. Emotions ran particularly high last October 5 when Reddick, threatened with elimination from the second round of the NASCAR playoffs, started from the pole in a virtually must-win situation at Charlotte’s Royal while Rookie remained hospitalized.
“For me, it was a whole different set of reasons, whatever my son was going through, our family was going through,” said Reddick, who added that Rookie “has been doing really well since he came home” before the end of last October.
Reddick’s two sons, Rookie and Beau, 6, were able to tearfully celebrate Sunday with him and his wife Alexa.
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“The emotion that I shared with my wife, my sons…it’s more of a reflection on the personal things that we’ve been through, the struggles, the difficult times, the uncertainties of knowing what’s going on with Rookie. Is Rookie going to be okay? What’s going on out there,” Reddick said. “For us to have this moment in this race, you know, again, everything that we went through, the end of last year and the offseason coming back under our feet, has its own place.”
While Reddick carried that weight as a father, he endured a winless 2025 season and a second-round elimination from the Cup playoffs, while 23XI Racing was mired in a legal battle with NASCAR over the sport’s charter system — a dispute calling into question how team ownership, revenue distribution and long-term stability are structured in the Cup Series.
The dispute was ultimately settled, with 23XI Racing gaining permanent charter status under the revised agreement. A decision in favor of NASCAR, however, could have strengthened the existing charter structure and left teams like 23XI — which declined to sign the charter agreement ahead of the 2025 season — facing serious questions about long-term viability, an uncertainty that weighed on Reddick amid the unknowns surrounding the team.
Entering his fourth season with 23XI Racing, co-owned by Jordan and Denny Hamlin, Reddick appears positioned for another title run, much like 2024 when he won three races and reached championship four at Phoenix Raceway.
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“Denny and Michael, those two have believed in me for years,” Reddick said. “They wanted me to be part of the 23XI. It’s a mix of being able to fulfill the promises I made for them and they did those kinds of things for me. They believed in me a lot and they really wanted me to be here, as part of the 23XI. We made it all work.
“Those are the kinds of moments I’m supposed to make them for, and it’s just nice to be able to do that.”
Denny Hamlin highlights Reddick’s keen instinct for driving a race car to the limit while finding speed that others, even sometimes himself, cannot achieve.
“I just know his ability. The ability to get the most out of a car, get the most out of it, certainly sometimes I can’t get out of cars. It might be just for one lap, but he’ll get speed out of it,” Hamlin said. “Once you find someone who can do that with raw talent, then you give them a little bit of know-how, give them a little bit of 20-year wisdom from the mistakes I’ve made in the past, the next thing you know you’ve created a driver there that has all the elements necessary to win a championship.”
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Could Reddick reappear in a Dirt Late Model? There has been no recent indication that a return is imminent. He did, however, tell DirtonDirt in April 2023 – after the final dirt Cup race to date at Bristol Motor Speedway – that he wanted to “settle down” at 23XI Racing, then in its first season with the organization, before considering a one-time return.
“Once we get in a good position, hopefully I can start playing and do some more dirt racing,” Reddick said then.
Whether or not he returns to his roots, Reddick’s on-track journey remains central to how he became a Daytona 500 winner – a point of pride for many in the Dirt Late Model community, who rightly claim him as one of their own.
