NASCAR CUP SERIES: AUTOTRADER 400

February 22, 2026

Tyler Reddick

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: A big congratulations on another victory. We had Billy Scott in here a little bit ago, and he touched on just the fact that you guys obviously didn't win last year. It was something you navigated as a team. You worked hard in the offseason. You're now two for two. Just talk a little bit about what it means to be two wins in, but also just kind of a little bit about how hard you guys worked together to get back to this point.

TYLER REDDICK: A lot of hard work in the offseason. It's awesome. It's paid off two weeks in a row at two very hard-to-win races. It's funny. This time around it was not looking great about 40 or 50 laps to go. Yeah, we just found a way to fix the damage and, yeah, just kind of push through it.

I don't know. We kind of talked about what our goals were going to be after having that damage. Let's try and get back to the top 15. A couple of laps in, I think we were running, like, fifth or sixth.

Just crazy how we found our way back to the front. Just, again, I thought today was going to end in a way where it was one of those days where we rely on our strengths to fight through the damage and get a really good finish out of it. I never would have dreamed, kind of like last week, you know, like, we would be sitting here talking about winning the race.

Yeah, just kind of unbelievable, honestly. Yeah, we were running towards -- we were at the back of the pack with, I don't know, 16 laps to go, or whatever it was. We just found our way towards the front, and I thought it was going to play out in a way where I was going to be able to push Bubba and hopefully get him the victory.

But just unfortunately, the way it panned out when he went to cover the 77, the 77 split him, and that left me in front, open air where I kind of didn't want to be with the damage I had.

Again, just got an awesome push from a Toyota teammate, just like last week, in Chase Briscoe this time, and that was able to secure the victory for us.

THE MODERATOR: I saw a photo posted on social media right before you walked in of a Victory Lane photo of your family, and Beau's smile is so big. What has it been like this week with him, just the opportunity to win the 500, to come here and win again, and him be present for both of them?

TYLER REDDICK: We got home late Tuesday night. I think on Wednesday after I got done at Airspeed, we kind of got to sit around and watch the race back as a family together and listen to him chime in on everything happening in the closing laps. So that race was fun.

Yeah, he was feeling exactly how I did after it was all said and done. He walked up to the car, and he was like, How did you win that race? I thought you were done. You were wrecked. That was crazy. I'm like, That was crazy. I don't know. It just happened.

Yeah, it's been fun. For me it's fulfilling to win these races as a driver. For me it's fulfilling to be able to have these moments with my family in Victory Lane. There's some pressure with knowing that at times my child's happiness rides on how I do on Sundays. I'll do my best to live up to his standards.

THE MODERATOR: A great lesson in perseverance for Beau there today. We're going to open it up to questions.

Q. Can you just put into words a little bit -- I mean, I know how happy you were last week to win the Daytona 500, but to answer it with this after all you went through last season, I mean, it's not just, well, winning the Daytona 500 is a great way to start things off, now you've added a second one. You can't be beaten. You're 40 points ahead in the standings. Talk about the up you're on right now.

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, truly crazy. You know, for many years -- I talked a little bit about it last week. For a number of years we would leave Daytona, the first couple of races, and kind of be in the hole in points, you know, in the 30s. We were able to claw out of it, whether it's win races or whatever the deal was, and get back where we needed to be.

But to be able to get through two races that, you know, things can just happen -- I mean, look what happened to Kyle towards the end of stage two getting in that crash. Someone that scores a lot of points in the season. I mean, those are the kind of things that just sometimes are out of your control.

For us to get through two chaotic races with a lot of points is a great start. I feel like where I would typically catch up or have the opportunity to kind of catch up and get back where we need to be is the West Coast swing. Now to have, like you said, 40 points up going into COTA where we've been really good, going into Phoenix and Vegas, a place that in the spring especially we contend.

Yeah, just to start it off that way, knowing how good we've been at these other places we have coming up, just really helps the confidence. Keeps me extra motivated, especially, too, during the week to work hard, knowing what great opportunity we have in front of us to start.

I mean, yeah, at some point we could get caught up in a wreck, we could have had DNF. But to start off like this, I think everyone is extremely hungry to just keep pressing onward, whether that's winning races, winning stages, or just scoring points. We have a great opportunity in front of us to get off to a really good start.

Q. Both today and last week, it seems like a lot of the success that you have stems from being able to trust yourself and trust your car to make the moves necessary to carve through the field. What faith did you have to have in the car today and your team's repairs to be able to make the moves that you did to get back to where you are sitting now?

TYLER REDDICK: Well, to some degree, after we got in that damage, Billy, as we kind of talked about in the offseason, let's just aim for a top 15 here. In some ways I kind of didn't listen. I kind of drove it into turn one and turn three on the first lap after crashing at about a 10 out of 10.

And I'm glad I did because I guess on one hand I could have crashed all by myself, but I was able to really understand what we needed if we had another caution to further repair the car to help the now loose handling that we had in our car from the right front being gone.

You know, it's funny how that just kind of works. I always have kind of driven past the limit to find the limit. In a situation like that, it kind of helped us get our car more where it needed to be at the very end.

Yeah, to just have all that play out like it did was great. Did I answer your question? I got lost. Sorry.

Q. (Off microphone.)

TYLER REDDICK: Oh, a lot. I mean, a measurable amount in the beginning of the race. I felt really good about where it ended in stage one. I think it came right where it needed to be for stage two. When we had that damage, I was concerned, obviously.

We were able to make that little bit of adjustment on it. I don't know if it was air or just putting right side tires on, or whatever we did there, it just made it what I was -- my limiting factor was, it made it that much better, and that allowed us to get back to the front.

Q. With this victory, this makes you the 67th driver to have ten or more victories in the NASCAR Cup Series. What does that mean to be in such elite company?

TYLER REDDICK: Say that again.

Q. You're the 67th driver to have ten or more victories in the NASCAR Cup Series. What does that mean ultimately just to be in that elite of company?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, it's cool, but 6-7 is a lot. It is cool, though. Yeah, over the last couple of years I've definitely hated seeing how many second-place finishes I've had in my short time here in the Cup Series. So to be able to even that out a little bit more with some victories has been nice.

But, yeah, I don't know, I try not to think about that stuff, I guess, too much. But certainly it's good to know we're going in the right direction, if that makes sense.

Q. I asked Denny this as well, but obviously racking up these back-to-back wins and the momentum that 23XI has had this year, do you really feel like this is an inflection point for 23XI Racing as an organization to not only go out and compete for wins every week, but to possibly go out and compete for a championship?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I mean, for us, 2025 was not really the year we were supposed to have, you look at what we did in 2024, in my opinion, how we should have continued to improve from 2024. You know, with how this year started and with where our cars have been running these last two weeks is more on par with what 2026 should look like.

We show up to the racetrack every weekend with the efforts of breaking up the three big teams, the Joe Gibbs of the world, the Penskes of the world, and Hendrick. We want to jump in and be a part of the conversation with those three. We want to take the competition to them.

To be able to pull that off the last two weeks, to have our cars running up towards the front the last two weeks and majority parts of the race is a great start.

Yes, they're speedway races. They're challenging to control, though. And I'm excited to see some of the work we put in this offseason show up over the course of the next three weeks at COTA, Phoenix, and Vegas.

Q. You had a pretty unique celebration out there on the front stretch. Where did you get the idea for the reverse straight burnout?

TYLER REDDICK: I wish I would have done it a little longer. I know everyone was ready to get me out of the car.

Yeah, I didn't know if the transax would hold up to it, but I'm glad it did. Maybe I'll do more of that in the future. Did it look cool? Okay, good (laughing).

Q. You said that last year was a disappointing year because you didn't have a win and all of that, and now you've had a couple of wins. What's the mindset between last year and this year with you having such a fast start? What's the mindset now when you are going now further now as you go into the next few weeks? How is your mindset probably a little different than probably what it was last year maybe around this time of the year too?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I think the mindset shift took place in the offseason. It may seem like -- I don't know if that's kind of what you mean, but for us, that shift, the work, the conversations all happen in the offseason.

Yeah, they're two speedway races, for sure, but you know, I feel like just the adjustments we make in the race, communication-wise or mentally that I'm making, have been positive throughout the day.

We've won two races, right, but I feel like the things that we worked on this offseason kind of really set us up to be able to take advantage of the days that have been put in front of us.

Q. I want to go back on the white flag. You're side-by-side with Carson, and then Briscoe gives you a push. Did you expect him to come back with a run, or were you surprised it never came back there?

TYLER REDDICK: Me and Ross were talking about that in victory lane. He was just, like, I -- he didn't know how the run didn't get there. Believe me, I felt the exact same way. With my damage and everything, I thought surely -- yeah, I've gotten the push out front. That's good, but you do expect the 19 or the 1 to be able to give some kind of a run for something.

Yeah, that was something that me and Ross talked about. I was just blown away that they didn't come with a bigger run, especially with the damage that we had.

So I don't know, sometimes things are just meant to be. For some reason there, you know, we got the push down into one, and no one was able to ever get back to us. I don't know how, but I'll take it.

Q. And you've kind of prefaced already just how huge it is to get through the chaotic races the way you have, earning the points, but both you, Bubba, one-two in points. How special is that? I think the gap is 40 points between you to Bubba. How huge is that as well?

TYLER REDDICK: Well, I know Bubba is not going to be thrilled at the 40-point gap. For us at 23XI, we take great pride in running good at everywhere that we go, and we work hard to set ourselves up for success everywhere, but of course, the speedways. How can we work together? How can we kind of keep ourselves towards the front?

Again, I hate it for him. He had a more clean race than I did tonight, and it just kind of, you know -- the 77 had an opportunity to hang him out, and he did.

It's a bummer for him because I think he had all in all a better, cleaner, smoother day. Yeah, for us to be one, two is a great way to start it. For him, the road course stuff has been getting better. It's been fun working on that with him.

We're going to do what we can to kind of stay there. There's going to be some races that maybe we don't have the speed that we want, but as long as we continue to fight really hard all race long, we're going to take advantage of this great start that we've had.

Q. You are one of -- I think the number was you are the sixth person to win back-to-back races to open up the season. Someone can yell at me if I'm wrong about that. Is it an important goal for you to try and become the first person to do three in a row to open up the season next week?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, am I going to throw away a second place to do that? Probably not. But certainly if at any point during this week I'm running out of reasons to be motivated to go win, I'll keep that in my back pocket, for sure.

You know, it's cool to be able -- or have the opportunity to potentially do things like that, but for me, with where this season started and what I need to do as a driver, it's all about just doing everything I can and showing up every week being as prepared as I can.

So, yeah, I'll try and make that a reality.