By leading only the 200th of 200 laps on Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick became a Daytona 500 champion.
Though he may not have been one of the outright favorites, Reddick has had success on superspeedways before, both in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and in the Cup Series. He won the 2018 O'Reilly Series season opener at Daytona, and he added a victory at Talladega Superspeedway in 2019.
In the Cup Series, he won a Daytona Duel race, plus a race at Talladega Superspeedway, in 2024, and he finished runner-up in the Daytona 500 in 2025.
After beginning his Cup Series career with five DNFs in six Daytona 500 starts, with his only actual result being 27th, suffice it to say that things have started to go his way at the "World Center of Racing".
Tyler Reddick not locked into NASCAR playoffs
One thing that hasn't gone his way, however, is the fact that his win doesn't mean he is locked into the playoffs.
NASCAR no longer utilizes a "win and in" system when it comes to determining who the 16 playoff drivers, or the 16 "Chase" drivers, are, after abandoning the postseason format that he been in place from 2014 to 2025. The top 16 drivers in the point standings are the 16 playoff drivers, period.
Technically, past Daytona 500 winners weren't locked into the playoffs either, since the 16 playoff spots used to go to the regular season champion and the 15 drivers who ranked highest in wins.
Because there could be more than 16 winners during the regular season, nobody could mathematically lock themselves into the postseason in the first race of the year.
But for all intents and purposes, winning the Daytona 500 previously locked a driver into the playoffs, even after running just one of 26 races on the regular season schedule. During the knockout Championship 4 playoff era, the only winners who missed the playoffs missed the playoffs because they were either part-time drivers or had their victories encumbered for infractions of some kind.
EchoPark Speedway, formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway, is scheduled to host the second race on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule on Sunday, February 22, and nobody will clinch a playoff spot in that race either. The Autotrader 400 is set to be shown live on Fox beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET, so start a free trial of FuboTV today and catch all of the action!