HAMPTON, Ga. — Make it back-to-back for Tyler Reddick, Michael Jordan and 23XI Racing.
One week after winning the Daytona 500 and following an exhausting, whirlwind media tour, Reddick did it again on Sunday at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway and opened the season with consecutive victories.
Reddick became the sixth driver in NASCAR history to win the first two races of the season and the first since Matt Kenseth in 2009.
Though Reddick had no right front fender due to an earlier crash and was lined up behind teammate Bubba Wallace to start NASCAR’s second attempt at overtime, he ended up with clean air when Wallace suddenly moved up in a failed effort to cover the top lane.
That left Reddick to race it out for the win with Carson Hocevar, but Reddick ended up getting help from Toyota teammate Chase Briscoe — who had to pick between Reddick and Hocevar’s Chevrolet.
Just like that, Reddick was out front and in victory lane for the second straight week.
“When it’s your day, it’s just your day!” Reddick said with a laugh after crossing the finish line. “Can you believe that (stuff) boys? Wow.”
Meanwhile, Wallace finished eighth and was left disappointed for the second straight week.
“Look, I wanted one of them to win,” Jordan told Fox Sports. “I feel bad for Bubba obviously, because he had an unbelievable day, but Tyler drove his ass off. For us to come out and win the first two races says a lot about our whole team.”
The closing sequence was set up when William Byron suffered a flat tire with three laps to go in regulation and was trying to get down the track to safety, but instead he was tagged by Austin Cindric and triggered a huge 11-car crash — which also included Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin.
That caused NASCAR to red flag the race and take it to overtime.
In the first overtime, the aggressive young Hocevar tried to go for a three-wide hole on the restart and split the leaders in Turn 1, but there wasn’t enough of a hole and he wrecked front-row restarter Christopher Bell.
Then, in the second overtime, Hocevar had a chance for his first career win, but he just didn’t have the help when he needed it and finished fourth. — Jeff Gluck
Bundle up
For the second time in three races this season, fans attending a NASCAR race had to endure unpleasant weather. On Sunday, it was in the form of an ambient temperature of 47 degrees when the green flag dropped, plus a biting, persistent high wind — gusts between 20-30 mph — that made it feel much colder.
Not surprisingly, this was reflected in the number of people who attended. Although neither NASCAR nor Speedway Motorsports, the parent company of EchoPark Speedway, released attendance figures, pockets of empty seats said it all.
As a league whose season begins in February, and with a shortage of viable warm weather venues to utilize, NASCAR is in a box when it comes to laying out its early-season schedule. Regardless of how the calendar looks, it requires NASCAR catching a break with Mother Nature — a big ask that lately feels like too often goes against it.
How to resolve this is anything but straightforward.
The length of the 38-week NASCAR schedule, combined with limited options in Florida, California and other warm-weather settings — and especially combined with Fox Sports preferring Atlanta to follow Daytona due to their shared similar style of racing makes it enticing to viewers at home — means the weather will continue to be a roadblock to drawing a better crowd at what is unquestionably one of the most exciting tracks on the circuit. And that’s unfortunate.
Maintaining television ratings are critical, with many recent schedule changes reflecting this. But the at-track fan experience carries importance. And Atlanta’s spring date happening in late February is something that could be improved upon. — Jordan Bianchi
Points update
For the second straight year, Ty Gibbs will have to try and dig out of an early points hole. Gibbs and Josh Berry wrecked on Lap 82, relegating them to the last two positions in Sunday’s finishing order.
It was particularly damaging for Gibbs, who already was in a vulnerable spot in the standings after the Daytona 500. Now, after two races, he’s the realistic playoff hopeful lowest in points: 35th, with just 17 points to show for the first two races.
“Not ideal,” Gibbs said. “It definitely sucks, but we will keep digging.”
Berry’s last-place finish on Sunday negated his top-10 at the Daytona 500, and he tumbled 13 spots to 26th in the standings.
“In this style of racing, I think all of us just want to make it out with a decent finish,” Berry said. “We were able to do that last week and we were able to do that in the Duel, but not so lucky this time.”
But they weren’t the only big losers in the points at Atlanta. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. plummeted 17 spots after getting caught up in a crash when Riley Herbst (who lost 12 positions in points) lost the nose of his car and slid up into Austin Dillon. Stenhouse left Daytona in fifth, but is now 22nd.
Another potential Chase driver, Kyle Busch, saw his day ruined when he popped up in front of Noah Gragson on Lap 125 and got himself turned. He entered the day 14th in the standings but fell out of playoff position and is now 24th.
On the plus side, Briscoe’s second-place run vaulted him 22 spots – from 37th to 15th in the standings. — Jeff Gluck
“@TylerReddick drove his ass off.”
MJ is one happy team owner! pic.twitter.com/GhqpzapaVV
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 23, 2026
Larson’s stunner
Kyle Larson had led the most laps of the day as Stage 2 wound down and was in contention to win the stage on the final lap.
Instead, his shocking error took him out of the race.
Larson was coming to the checkered flag when he came down the track from the top lane and collided with Shane van Gisbergen, resulting in a crash that sent Larson to the garage.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know we were three-wide there,” Larson radioed.
But he wasn’t, spotter Tyler Monn said. It was only one car below him, albeit all the way at the bottom of the track.
The move and ensuing accident caused Larson to finish 32nd, and was exactly the kind of moment that can come back to haunt a driver when competing for the regular season championship in the new Chase Era.
“All my fault, obviously,” Larson said. “I hung a left and ran right into him. … Hate it. I need to listen more, I guess, and not just react off what I feel sometimes. Made a big error there.”
Larson is now 21st in points, while van Gisbergen rebounded to an impressive sixth-place result and is inside the Chase standings entering the Circuit of the Americas road course next week, where he is favored to win. — Jeff Gluck