Peter Lyon
February 17, 2026
For the first time since 2020, Toyota is celebrating a victory in the Daytona 500 with Tyler Reddick. The California-native drove a masterful final few turns, dodging multiple incidents to pick up his first win in the Great American Race. It is the first Daytona 500 win for 23XI Racing, as well. Co-owner Denny Hamlin now can lay claim to all four of Toyota’s Daytona 500 victories – three as a driver (2016, 2019 and 2020) and now as an owner.
Driving Camry cars, the 23XI team had a stellar day with all three of their full-time drivers – Reddick, Riley Herbst (eighth) and Bubba Wallace (10th) finishing in the top-10. Wallace also led the most laps in the race – 40, with Chase Briscoe (23 laps led) and John Hunter Nemechek (19 laps led) also spending considerable time out front. Toyota led over half of the race, pacing for 103 total circuits.
Toyota has won the last three Crown Jewel races in NASCAR – the Brickyard 400 (Bubba Wallace), the Southern 500 (Chase Briscoe) and now the Daytona 500.
Reddick said after winning that, “I had that weird moment where I think everyone was too busy screaming and I was like, ‘did we win?’ Man, it’s something — as a kid, I grew up watching the Daytona 500 with my family and just dreamed of being a NASCAR Cup Series driver one day. And, then obviously really wanted to win the 500 so I just – it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of things to go the right way. We did it today.”
For the record, the Daytona 500 is a 500-mile-long NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
The inaugural Daytona 500 was held in 1959 coinciding with the opening of the speedway and since 1982, it has been the season-opening race of the Cup series. The Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar, carrying by far the largest total purse which, in 2026 is set at $31,045,575, with the winner receiving 5.16% of the total, or $1,601,950.
