Tyler Reddick is bringing back a key aspect NASCAR was missing

Following a poor, winless 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign for Tyler Reddick, 2026 held a lot of uncertainty which, for one reason and another, even brought into question whether he and 23XI Racing would be on the race track together at all.

But just a handful of months after the team effectively won its antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, Reddick and Michael Jordan's squad have either broken or tied several records to start the new season. Reddick became the first driver to win each of the first three races of a season, and the third ever to win four of the first six.

All of a sudden, Reddick has brought fans to suggest NASCAR is rigging races, or allowing them to "cheat" to essentially pay it forward for the fallout from the lawsuit. Whether you believe that theory or not (you shouldn't!), it is undeniably a great story. He and the team have already scored their most wins ever in a single season, and there are still 30 races to go.

Hiding beneath the surface of Reddick's historic start are the returns of several things the NASCAR community has been clamoring for.

Since the start of NASCAR's Next Gen era in 2022, a common complaint about the largely spec race cars is that they are too evenly matched from one driver, and one team, to the next.

It's been argued that level of parity, among many other things, has hurt the ability to pass other cars, and stopped the best of the best from rising above the rest. In the four full seasons NASCAR has run with this car, the most wins a driver has scored in a single season is six, achieved by William Byron in 2023, Kyle Larson in 2024, and Denny Hamlin in 2025.

Yet through six races in 2026, with largely the same rules package, Reddick has already won four times, and he has done so in many different ways.

In the Daytona 500, with the help of a push from teammate Riley Herbst, Reddick did a great double-fake move on Chase Elliott off of turn four to take the win. At EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, the No. 45 Toyota was caught in a pile-up on the front straightaway, ripping off the right-front fender of his car, before storming back to win the race anyways.

At Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Reddick dominated most of the race, holding off NASCAR's road course king, Shane van Gisbergen, for his historic three-peat. And at Darlington Raceway, despite early battery issues forcing him to the back of the field and racing without fans or his cool suit, he stormed back to take a 5.8-second victory.

For a sport that has had a difficult time establishing star power, especially since the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Jimmie Johnson retired, Reddick seems to have achieved just that.

While he's no "The King" Richard Petty, "The Intimidator" Dale Earnhardt, or "Wonder Boy" Gordon, it's probably a safe bet that more people outside of motorsports know his name than Kyle Larson's, Chase Elliott's, or Denny Hamlin's, who are all current household names in their own right.

Reddick has been all over SportsCenter with his dominance. He's been all over social media, namely with his re-make of Jordan's iconic three-peat trophy photo after his win at COTA. NBA legend Magic Johnson expressed his congratulations to his former rival MJ and Reddick on X.

His performances and records, while not sitting well with some of the fanbase, have opened the eyes of millions across the world. He, with the help of MJ's legendary status across the sports world, has ascended NASCAR to a level of mainstream it hasn't seen in probably over a decade.

Superstar, indeed.

To go along with that, he has also fully shown off the strengths of NASCAR's much-anticipated return to its old "Chase" points format.

Entering this weekend's Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, Reddick holds a massive 95-point lead over second-place Ryan Blaney in the standings. However, he would only have a 50-point lead if not for NASCAR adding a bonus of 15 points for wins this season.

Would four wins in six races and an average finish of 4.17 really feel like it's being rewarded with the old points structure?

Is Reddick really primed to keep up this historic pace? If he does, he would break virtually every record in the history books and be able to retire on the spot at season's end, with nothing left to chase. Currently, he's on track to win 24 races and score 30 top 10 finishes, which everyone can agree is essentially impossible in modern day NASCAR.

But could he score, say, 10 wins, and notch his and Jordan's first Cup Series championship? Even in the Next Gen car, he's almost halfway there already, and considering the fact that Larson won as many races in his maiden championship season just five years ago, it's certainly a possibility.