NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 15, 2026

Tyler Reddick

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Our Daytona 500 winner, champion, has arrived, Mr. Tyler Reddick. Thank you so much for joining us. I know that the celebration has been well underway, so thanks for spending some time with us. Before we get started with questions, take us through that final lap from your seat in the car and really what did it feel like when you realized you had indeed won the Daytona 500.

TYLER REDDICK: Well, it wasn't until I was basically back around in front of the speedway on the cool-down lap when someone finally said, yes, you won the race, because obviously a number of these races have played out where -- I mean, I crossed the start-finish line first, but in the moment, I'm not looking for the flashing yellow lights or the green light on the fence, so I'm just, Did I win? Did I win? Are you sure we won?

It took a couple minutes to get that verification. But in the moment, crossed the start-finish line.

The only time I've ever felt the level of emotions I did in that moment was winning the pole at the Charlotte Roval when Rookie was in the hospital. For me that was a whole different set of reasons, everything that my son was going through, our family was going through.

But crossing the start-finish line here first in this race, the race that -- I watched a lot of NASCAR racing growing up, but I would never miss a Daytona 500 as a little kid growing up out in California, sitting with my family on Sunday watching this race.

I, again, dreamed of one day just having an opportunity to run in this race. I've had -- this is my eighth opportunity to run this race, I believe, and it wasn't the smoothest day, but when it mattered at the end, we did a really good job of being in the mix.

We had that caution with eight or nine laps to go. It was hitting me, like, the weight of the moment, how -- the situation that I am getting ready to be in on this restart is a situation I've been dying to have, an opportunity I've been dying to have my entire life, and to kind of screw it up and lose the lead a couple laps in and the top is rolling, taking the white, I was like, damn, that sucks. I mean, they wrecked.

It may have seemed chaotic watching it, but from my seat the whole last lap played out really slow and really smooth, and everything just kind of fell into place the way I wanted it to.

Q. I don't know how much you've been able to digest the replays or --

TYLER REDDICK: Just once. I've only seen it once.

Q. Just the importance of Riley there, how vital was he?

TYLER REDDICK: Critical. I mean, I don't win that race without Riley Herbst. That's a fact.

I think for me, I respect him even more on the frontstretch for -- he pushed me to the 38. I got to the 38. Now the 9 is in front of me, and I make my move.

I love that he made the move that at the moment was right for him to win the Daytona 500, and I told him that: Man, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you in the way that you wanted it to, but you did -- in my opinion, he did everything right on that last lap, as well, pushing me and then doing everything he could to win the race for himself.

Obviously they all crashed, but he did a really good job today, as well.

Q. Anyone that's covered you over the last year, we've seen the emotional roller coaster you've been on, just professionally and personally. To go through a winless season, to come back here, process that, all the things at home, to win the Daytona 500, what is that like riding that just from inside your shoes?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah. I mean, I never knew if -- when I had the opportunity to race Cup if I would win cup races, but when I did, I enjoyed it a lot. I had a number of years there where I won multiple races. To have last year play out the way that it did was -- it was rough. Obviously everything else happening outside of the racetrack was not easy to manage, as well, with my son.

So to get through all that, and here we go, it's 2026 and go race, I definitely worked really hard in the off-season, but it's tough when you don't win. You've got all these expectations to win multiple races, for championships, and we didn't really live up to those last year.

We had a lot of hard conversations in the off-season on top of everything else that was going on, and to be able to dig down deep and get recentered, reset, if you will, and come into this year -- I mean, yeah, we didn't have the perfect race, but the last stage went really well for us. It was the kind of execution we've been dying to have on the speedways to win like we did at Talladega a couple years ago.

To be able to do it the way that we did and just be in the mix at the end is everything we could have asked for. I'm just really proud of how honest everyone at 23XI on my team and in the organization was with each other, having the tough conversations to kind of work this stuff out so that when we get into 2026, we're not trying to fix 2025 into 2026.

We're reset, we're ready to go. It's one race, certainly, but do it the way that we did today, with the day that we kind of had, it says a lot about the work we put in in the off-season.

Q. Denny was in here talking about a team meeting a few weeks ago that I assume you were at, where he reminded everyone of how happy Michael was when you won Talladega, and he said, you guys are the only ones in the world who have the ability to bring him that joy. What does it feel like to give a guy who's won everything possible a Daytona 500 win?

TYLER REDDICK: It's kind of like what I told Matt; it's the stuff you dream of as a kid. I definitely didn't look in the future and know that I'd be driving for Michael Jordan in a Cup car.

But to be able to have someone like Michael Jordan believe in me enough to want me to drive here, someone like Denny Hamlin to believe in me enough to want me to drive here, and then deliver in these clutch moments like I've been able to do over the last couple years -- 2025 I didn't, obviously, but to bounce back from that rough year we had last year and just try and do my best to deliver on the promises that I made to them and vice versa, just to be able to do these great things for Michael, someone who loves racing as much as he does and is passionate about winning as much as I am or Denny is, to be able to come through on those promises and meet those expectations is the type of stuff that you just love to be able to do.

For me, as a kid growing up, I wanted to be a Cup driver. I wanted to win races in the Cup Series. But to be able to do it for the type of people that I'm able to is just, again -- it just doesn't seem like real life. It doesn't seem like reality. I'm just trying to do everything I can to soak in the moment, and just really thankful that people like Michael, people like Denny, Curtis, Gene, my team, the whole organization believe in me enough to let me strap into the 45 and go out there on the racetrack.

Q. I feel like probably a lot of the preparation for superspeedways comes down to thinking that it's going to be a big pack at the end and making moves with the lines and stuff.

TYLER REDDICK: Correct, yeah.

Q. This was such a weird one where the pack was broken up and you had a couple guys out on an island and the runs are coming back and forth. What did you do to adjust, and what was going through your head as you're like -- you're taking a run, but you don't know -- we haven't seen it enough to really know what that kind of stuff does, if that makes sense.

TYLER REDDICK: True, but also, the nice thing about having the run is the guys that you're catching also don't know what's going to happen either, right, because they're not used to it, as well.

It's nice being the one that has the run. But yes, we've seen a number of races play out where it's two by two and you try and surge at the right time. This was anything but that.

Yeah, certainly no one really knows what's going to happen, and I think that's where I was fortunate to be in a position where I had momentum but also then just trust my instincts.

The way this race ended kind of reminds me of Talladega a couple years ago when I was at RCR. It was kind of the same thing, just a very unorthodox ending to the race and just kind of trust your gut. I feel like some of these races I've been able to win, whether it's in Cup or other things in my life, when things get really chaotic. I'm able to just lean on instinct, and things feel like they happen slow, and more times than not I'm able to get the job done.

Q. Will people go back and watch this and try to learn what happened from this, or are people going to say, there's so many things that happened, it's so weird, that was just a weird one?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, in the moment, it felt that way. But after watching the replay once or twice, it's like, man, there's a lot -- it's all very specific, but there was a lot of things that certain drivers did, whether it was Riley or whether it was Zane or even Chase that kind of set up the perfect scenario for me to do that.

To some degree, yeah, as a driver you want to go back and look at the stuff and see what you can learn, but yeah, the way the whole last lap played out with the crash, with the Spire cars, it makes it very outside of the normal of what we've seen it at a place like Daytona.

Q. Tyler, how is Rookie doing? You had a big update last night. How is he doing? Was he able to travel --

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, he's here. He did great. He came home around Martinsville weekend last year. He's just been doing really good ever since he came home. He was doing good in the hospital, too.

But yeah, it was really cool. We got to take like a three-day vacation, do a little Disney cruise out of Canaveral before coming up here on Monday, and it was awesome. He's always been kind of crawling, but he started to figure it out on the cruise ship, which was fun.

And then basically ever since we've been here in the bus, here at the track from Monday on, he's been like a speedster crawling fast. He's seen some of the other kids, some of Briscoe's kids, some of the other little ones running around the playground that probably weigh less than Rookie -- he's a big kid for his age -- walking, and he wants to already do that, too.

Fun little milestone happened while we were here. He started really crawling fast, and we have to keep up with that, keep him away from the stairs in the bus.

Q. Was Rookie in Victory Lane? I saw Beau was there --

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, they both were.

Q. Explain the emotions of seeing Rookie in Victory Lane and what that meant to you, and then compare that to seeing Michael Jordan in Victory Lane --

TYLER REDDICK: We're kind of hitting all of it at once. I mean, yeah. Basically the way it plays out, I was wondering where my family was as I'm out on the frontstretch doing the interview and everything. I thought my -- I was just ready for my son, like in the Duel a couple years ago, to come running across the grass, but my wife and everybody was kind of waiting for Victory Lane.

I didn't see them out there, but when I was rolling up to Victory Lane, I saw Chip Wile, I saw Beau with Chip. Beau jumped in the car, so that was really fun.

But yeah, I just remember getting out of the car, and typically I've just been able to focus on Beau and my wife, and it's like Rookie is getting to experience this for the first time, too. Rookie is a trooper, whether it's been the Thunderbirds blasting over the track, just super loud, stuff I love.

I think I remember when Beau was really young when the Thunderbirds would go over the track, whatever it was, things that were super chaotic, Beau was okay with, but he'd cry. Rookie, he's the total opposite. The more crazy it is, whether it's from me, whether it's from Beau, whether it's from the Thunderbirds or just stuff happening around like in Victory Lane, Rookie loves this stuff. The crazier it is, he just starts laughing and loves it. He's wild, like his dad.

Q. I'm curious, was it different emotions to see family versus seeing -- it's an interesting dynamic.

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I understand what you're saying. The emotion I shared with my wife, my sons is -- it's more reflecting on the personal things that we've went through, the struggles, the hard times, the uncertainties of knowing what's going on with Rookie. Is Rookie going to be okay, what's going on there.

For us to have this moment in this race, you know, again, everything we went through, the tail end of last year and the off-season getting back under our feet has its own place.

Then over on the other side, with Denny and Michael and my team, for my team, we worked really hard on all these things in the off-season to improve it and come out of the gates strong. Well, we did. We won the first points race.

Then with Denny and Michael, those two have believed in me for years. They've wanted me to be a part of 23XI. It's a mix of can we throw on the promises that I made for them and they made for me type of thing. They believed in me a lot, and they wanted me to be here, part of 23XI really badly. We made it all work.

These are the type of moments that I'm supposed to deliver on them for, and it's just nice to be able to do that.

Q. Do you buy Riley Herbst a beer? How do you thank a guy for pushing you to a Daytona 500 victory?

TYLER REDDICK: Whatever he wants, I'll buy it for him, yeah. Me and him will figure it out.

I remember when he was -- last year starting the year, we both liked coffee a lot, and I was telling him, yeah, I really want to have a -- we've got Keurig machines on the hauler, and I'm like, I don't like drinking coffee out of a plastic cup. I'm like, I want to have a nice coffee machine on the hauler. And I said, Yeah, a Jura would be really nice. He's, Oh, I love Jura.

So right from the very beginning -- he didn't have to. He's a good guy -- me and him split a Jura coffee machine. They're fairly expensive, but freshly ground coffee is way better than coffee in a plastic cup. Just from day one he's always been outstanding.

Yeah, I don't know what I can do for him, but whatever it is, I'll make it happen. That's a fact.

Q. I think if I saw correctly, you got out of the car initially with Beau on top of it, correct?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah.

Q. That photo is one of the most popular things that comes out of this race and it's going to be seen all over the world until the end of time when people look at this race. When you think of that as a father and getting to share that moment with Beau, and he's old enough to remember this, how important is that to you, to be able to have him with you in that moment?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah. I mean, it's super important. I was standing in the grass in front of the start-finish line at Daytona after I'd just won the Daytona 500 and I'm looking for my family. It's the biggest race you can win as a Cup Series driver, and I'm looking for my family to try to figure out -- it's important for me to celebrate it with them.

On the way to Victory Lane, being able to pick him up, take him with me into Victory Lane in the car, that's what it's all about. Yes, I'm the one in the car driving it, but we go on the road as a family.

I remember when I was a kid growing up racing dirt, me and my family went on the road, my family, my sister would make their sacrifices to go on the road with us. It's about celebrating the wins as a family.

In the tough times, my son has done a great job of really helping lift my spirits up. I can't think of a specific moment at this time, but there have been plenty of times I've come back to the bus and we're getting ready to go ahead to the plane when I've just been irate or just sad because of something I did on the racetrack, and my son has done a really good job of picking me up in those moments. We share these moments together as a family.

Q. I don't have the exact way that Denny phrased it, but he said essentially that winning the Daytona 500 and then especially so early in the year would kind of lighten you up to go through the rest of the season and possibly hit greater heights. I'm curious, are you conscious of that feeling yourself?

TYLER REDDICK: I would say for me and my career in the Cup Series, I typically come here, go to Atlanta, whatever it is, and like crash at both these places and start really heavy in the hole. Then we go out west and I kind of catch up.

For me, in the grand scheme of things, starting the year off on a good note, winning this race is obviously a big thing, but having a solid points day, all those things with how this is going to work out this year, it's a big positive.

Again, kind of tying back into the conversations me and the whole team had in the off-season about what we've got to improve and correct, to be able to come out to a race like this that's so hard to win and it's easy to kind of get off on the strategy and the execution of, we did a really good job of in the final stage.

We've done a really good job of setting ourselves up for success, and I think this just, if anything, is going to motivate us to work that much harder at the start of this year as we get going.

Q. When you made your move that won the race and you were thinking about it and you held off just until the right moment, after last year, did you lose your confidence last year? And B, it's such a commitment track, you've got to go. When you decide to go, you've got to go get it. Were you at all thinking, what if it doesn't work, and how did you boost the confidence from last year into making a move like that?

TYLER REDDICK: They played out very differently to me, the two years. But again, I feel like middle of the race, we kind of had a chat about we've got to do what's best for the 45, and yeah, we're going to work with our Toyota teammates as much as we can.

But I was definitely worried about other people a little bit too much. It was a good time in Stage 2 to kind of have that conversation because it really set myself up to have a real big shift going into stage 3 of how I'm going to approach the rest of the race, how am I going to approach the end of the race.

For me, I feel like as much as it stung to not really have a good Stage 1 and Stage 2, it was necessary to have the stage 3 that we did to be able to win the race.

Q. You talked about the coffee maker and all that, but did you ever have a conversation with Riley? The manufacturers meet and talk about we're going to work together. Did you ever have that conversation about helping each other, pushing each other, hey, I'm going to help you, you're going to help me, whatever? Did you have that?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, there's been plenty of conversations between Phoenix and the end of last year and now. But it's pretty much understood. If we see one of our cars and it's that situation, if we're in a position to be able to push one of our own cars, we're going to do it, and he did an outstanding job of it.

Again, I love that he did everything he could to help me but he also helped himself in the process of it.

I would have been still happy to win the race if he would have just stuck with me, but I love that he -- just like we've talked about leading up to this race, help your teammate but also help yourself, and he did the right things to put himself in position to potentially win the race, as well, and I respect him a lot for that.

Q. Tyler, I don't know how much of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race and the Truck race you watched this weekend, but it seemed like race control let things play out a little bit more over the course of the weekend, some incidents in the past that may bring out a yellow, whether it was single or multi-car, they let go green. One of the wrecks on the last lap, the first one that allowed you to scoop through to have yourself in a good position could have triggered a yellow, but it didn't. How aware were you of that going into the race, and in the moment I'm sure it's very chaotic --

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, not much in the moment, but across the series, when these things happen, it's typically, yes, you see cars have contact with one another or the wall and then come spinning across the track, but they don't impact the inside SAFER barrier very hard. So, yeah, you've got cars spinning across the track, but they're off the racing surface, they're kind of out of harm's way. We come back around, we're only going to run to the start-finish line.

On one hand, yeah, I guess I was surprised because the way that McDowell and Hocevar got together I was expecting them to hit something harder than they did. But these cars are pretty draggy when they get sideways, they do slow down quite a bit.

Again, once I understood the caution wasn't coming, I moved on to the next thing I needed to do to try and win the race.

Q. You said that no one talked to you on the radio until almost a full cool-down lap?

TYLER REDDICK: I think they were trying to, but everyone was losing their mind most likely.

Q. What were you thinking?

TYLER REDDICK: I didn't know if I'd won the race or not. In the moment, I knew I crossed the start-finish line first, but I don't know if the yellow light was on before I got to the start-finish line and Chase was ahead of me. I didn't know any of that stuff. Yeah, everyone wrecked, but again, I didn't want to get ahead of myself. I didn't want to think I'd won the race and then be told a couple seconds later I hadn't. That would be devastating, especially after last year running second.

I was just trying to keep myself in check until I knew I'd won.

Q. Tyler, you've experienced winning at Daytona before between the Truck race 2015, the O'Reilly race 2018, so obviously you've experienced what it's like to win a race at Daytona and to feel what that's like. I'm trying to figure out the best way I can phrase this and not just have it be a, oh, how does this compare to that. What is it like to, I guess, compare the feeling of the Truck race, the O'Reilly race, and then those compared to the Daytona 500 specifically?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I think across -- there's a few ways to look at this. But I think for me, I'm excited for what this year holds. When I won that Truck race here, I went on to have a really good fight with Erik Jones for the Truck Series title that year. Ultimately came up a little bit short. That was my best shot to win a Truck Series championship on that year.

I look to the year I was with GMR Sports and won that race in dramatic fashion against my teammate, Elliott Sadler. I had a pretty rough year between that point and Homestead at the end of the year, but we learned a lot together. We grew a lot together and then we went on to win a championship.

Yeah, for me, I'm excited to see what this year holds. Typically when I've won at Daytona to start the year off, things have come together by the end of the year for me. Things go well.

I'm excited for what that means.

But yeah, I never knew where the first place I'd win a race across the three series would be. I thought possibly it could be Vegas with how I've ran there in the Cup car in recent years. But for it to happen here, it just seems very fitting.

Q. The photos that I'm seeing on social media, Michael Jordan has got a grin like I haven't seen him have since he became involved in NASCAR. How aware are you of the joy that you have produced for someone that's already a champion in another sport? It's really something to look at.

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I'm very aware. It's very fulfilling. These are the kind of things that I wanted to deliver to Michael, to Denny, to Curtis, to the entire ownership group.

Yeah, we didn't dominate the race today by any means, but in the clutch moments on the final lap, we found a way to deliver. So for me, I'm very thankful to be in this position, to have the trust of people like Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin, to be able to drive the 45, and in these situations deliver.

Q. I actually had the chance to drive a few laps around Daytona this weekend, and I have to say my hats off to you and to all the drivers. It's a lot harder than it looks. I want to go back a bit and ask you about your first time driving around a track like Daytona. Can you explain your feeling, what you were thinking, and then looking back on that, did you ever think a day like today was possible?

TYLER REDDICK: I only dreamed it was possible. I think what year it was, I don't think I'll get right, but I remember I needed to run a test here for Cunningham Motorsports a long, long time ago to be able to -- I had to run the test here in ARCA for Cunningham. I had to run the ARCA race. I think we ran third or fourth that day to be able to run the Truck Series race the next day for BKR in my first part-time year in the Truck Series.

Yeah, I just remember going out there in an ARCA test and thinking this is crazy fast, and it just seems so surreal. I've watched so many races here as a kid growing up and I'm finally on the racetrack. I'm testing by myself, single-car stuff. But nonetheless, I've always dreamed of being able to drive off of Turn 4, through the tri-oval and see the stands. Yes, they were empty when I tested here, but just seeing this place, just stuff I dreamed about.

Never would I know it would lead to me talking to you guys about winning a Daytona 500, but certainly as a young kid growing up, I always dreamed that hopefully this would one day be reality.

Q. There was a real kind of All-American vibe out there among the fans today, very family friendly, hometown kind of feel. What would you say to all the young fans that were out there today about their dreams and never giving up?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I think for me, I remember -- I remember it, but I can't tell you what dang year it was, it was so long ago. I was racing at Volusia Speedway. I think it was the year Kenseth won the rain-shortened race here. But racing Volusia for my first or second time in a late model, and me and my family came out to the racetrack, we parked our toter home I feel like a mile-and-a-half away from the dang racetrack, but we had tickets on the backstretch grandstand, and our whole family, we went up in the backstretch there and we watched the race. And I remember thinking this is the craziest thing I've ever seen. I had a chance to go to Bristol and Nashville in years past.

But for me, being at Daytona and seeing the Cup cars on the racetrack was just so unreal. I've gotten to watch it on TV, but being here and watching that was just a really cool moment. It was a shame the race did get rain shortened and everything, but every time the cars came down the backstretch, they're moving. They're going so fast.

It was just a really fun moment to be able to spend with my family. Yeah, it was a shame it got shortened by rain, but we still had a bunch of fun.

I think for me, you never know what the future holds if you keep your dreams big, if you work really, really hard. Obviously you've got to make sacrifices along the way, as well, whether it's yourself or your family. Everyone in my family put a lot into this. I put a lot into this, my parents, my grandfather, my grandparents, and it just took everyone's teamwork like we had today to make moments like this reality.

Q. Tyler, are you someone who pays attention to your legacy in the sport at all --

TYLER REDDICK: The only part of it that I kind of have is the amount of second-place finishes I've had (laughing). It drives me nuts, the amount of second-place finishes I have. I'm on par to be all-time of the current drivers the way I've gone so far. Just that part.

Q. To finally have a crown jewel win on your resume now, what do you feel like this does to -- I don't know that you needed to have anything like that to validate --

TYLER REDDICK: I needed crown jewels. I really thought -- you never know how things are going to go. But I really thought the place it would happen first would possibly be the Coca-Cola 600. Then being -- I was always okay there at RCR, too, but since being at 23XI, we go to Darlington for the Southern 500. I thought, okay, well, maybe it'll happen there, too.

But yeah, to be able to get this one before the others -- I know I wanted Indy, but it was the road course, so I don't know if it falls under the umbrella, but this one really stands apart on its own, obviously. Like you're a champion.

Q. You mentioned all the seconds, but you're just the fourth driver in the modern era to win their first nine races at different tracks. What makes you such a --

TYLER REDDICK: Say that again?

Q. You're the fourth driver in the modern era to win your first nine races at different racetracks.

TYLER REDDICK: Oh, wow.

Q. What makes you so versatile?

TYLER REDDICK: I think it's my dirt racing background. I really do. When I grew up racing Ala-Karts in California, we raced at like three or four different racetracks, but man, you could go to those places and every night they're a little bit different.

Volusia down the road, I remember some years we'd come here and it would be hooked up fast all night long, and some years we'd come here and it would just be slick and slow and hard to get a hold of.

I think just as a dirt racer growing up, you just always have to be prepared for things to go in a direction you're not expecting. That can happen in asphalt racing and stock car racing. But just -- I feel like Paducah, Kentucky, is a great example of this. You go there sometimes and it would be slicked off in hot laps, and then other times you'd go there and it's wide open all night long.

I-55 speedway, Ken Schrader's speedway over in St. Louis, same thing. I think being versatile is the name of the game of a good dirt racer.

I did everything I could to kind of emulate what I would see from those guys growing up. When I was a young kid, I'd go to Silver Dollar Speedway and watch Steve Kinser dice it up. And as I got older, I got to work with guys like Scott Bloomquist and work with -- be around guys like Steve Richards with Rocket Chassis. There's just so many really smart people I got to be around and I got to learn a lot of things from.

I think just having that versatile background from the dirt racing side of things kind of set me up to be able to adapt to the different tracks that we go to. I felt like I found a way to screw it up just about every time we went there, but going to Chicago and that being as different as it was, being able to adapt quick. That's why I'm excited to go to San Diego here soon.

I think just the adaptability of a dirt racer really comes in handy a lot of places we go.

Q. Going off those last few questions, you're the first one to win all three February races here -- Trucks, Xfinity and Cup. What is your reaction to that?

TYLER REDDICK: I wondered that. Yeah, since I won the Xfinity race here, I was telling myself I need to pick it up and win a dang Cup race here. Obviously the 500. That is interesting.

I wondered if that was a thing or not, so I'm glad you told me. Something about February in Daytona works okay with me. I like racing here a lot in the summer, too, obviously. It's a lot more slick and handling is a factor. But whether it was the Truck race or that Xfinity race -- sorry, the O'Reilly Auto Parts race a couple years ago or today, all three days when I rolled into the racetrack, obviously three totally different phases of my life, on those three days something just felt right, and it came to be reality.

Q. What did Michael Jordan say to you? What did you guys do when you shared that moment?

TYLER REDDICK: He was very proud of me. He's always wanted to win this race. It kind of just kept going back to, this is why he wanted me to be here, and Denny, same thing. They talked about my instincts as a driver and just the way that last lap played out, there was no premeditated thoughts, it was just all going off instincts and gut.

Yeah, they were just obviously really happy. But again, the way that race played out is why they wanted me to drive the 45 in situations like that, delivering, and it was nice to be able to do that.

Q. What's your memory of him as a player, and what's it mean to be able to celebrate that moment? To get a bear hug from the greatest athlete maybe ever --

TYLER REDDICK: It's incredible to be able to have him as an owner on a number of levels. But to have somebody like that believe in you as a driver, believe in the team, and then support myself and the team the way that he does means the world to us.

Again, when it came about me possibly going to 23XI to race there, to have someone like Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin saying, You're our first pick, you're the guy that we want most, it's like, oh, geez. I didn't think even I'd won a race yet at RCR, so it's just crazy. But they believe in what I bring to the table.

It's just nice to be able to deliver on those things for people like that.