The second race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season delivered exactly the kind of chaos fans have come to expect from EchoPark Speedway. Pack racing, constant lead changes, late-race wrecks and two overtime restarts turned Sunday’s Autotrader 400 into another survival test, and when it was over, Tyler Reddick stood in Victory Lane again.
One week after winning the Daytona 500, Reddick backed it up by taking the checkered flag in the Autotrader 400 on Sunday, February 22 at EchoPark Speedway. The 23XI Racing driver overcame significant damage, survived multiple late incidents and made the winning move in double overtime to beat Chase Briscoe by 0.164 seconds. The victory made Reddick the first driver since 2009 to win the first two NASCAR Cup Series races of a season.
Key event recap
From the drop of the green, EchoPark Speedway looked like EchoPark Speedway. The field stayed packed together, the lead changed hands constantly and no one was ever truly safe, no matter where they ran. Austin Cindric charged from deep in the field to win Stage 1, showing early that Team Penske had serious speed in the draft.
Stage 2 was where the tone changed.
A Lap 82 crash swept up Ty Gibbs and Josh Berry and knocked both out of contention. Later, Kyle Busch spun on the backstretch after contact and slammed the inside wall, ending another strong run. Near the end of the stage, Kyle Larson and Shane van Gisbergen got together while battling near the front, creating another major moment and opening the door for Bubba Wallace to edge William Byron for the Stage 2 win.
Wallace looked like one of the strongest cars all afternoon and spent much of the race as a legitimate favorite. He led 46 laps, won a stage and put himself in position to capitalize late. But EchoPark rarely lets a race stay clean for long.
With the laps winding down, a big crash on Lap 224 collected several contenders, including Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher and Reddick. Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota suffered heavy right-front damage and appeared unlikely to contend for the win after repairs. But the car stayed on track, and that changed everything.
Then came the biggest pileup of the night.
On Lap 256, a massive crash in Turn 3 brought out the red flag and wiped out several frontrunners, including William Byron, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Hamlin. That set the stage for overtime, and even then the drama wasn’t done. On the first overtime restart, Carson Hocevar got into Christopher Bell and triggered yet another caution.
That pushed the race to a second overtime attempt.
On the final restart, Wallace got the jump and looked poised to finish what had been a near-perfect day. But when he moved up the track, Reddick saw the opening, drove underneath and powered clear. Despite missing bodywork and carrying visible damage, he held the field off over the final lap to complete a remarkable comeback.
Top 10 finishers
- Tyler Reddick
- Chase Briscoe
- Ross Chastain
- Carson Hocevar
- Daniel Suarez
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Zane Smith
- Bubba Wallace
- Ryan Preece
- Ryan Blaney
Performance highlights
Tyler Reddick:
Reddick started from the pole after qualifying was rained out, led a race-high 53 laps and somehow won with a battered race car. It was the kind of complete superspeedway-style performance that mixes speed, patience and pure toughness.
Bubba Wallace:
Wallace may have gone home disappointed with eighth, but he was one of the storylines of the race. He won Stage 2, led 46 laps and looked capable of delivering 23XI Racing a second straight victory with either of its lead drivers.
Chase Briscoe:
Briscoe’s second-place finish was one of the quietest strong runs of the race until the very end. He came from 34th on the grid and was in perfect position when it counted.
Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen:
Trackhouse had a lot to like. Chastain brought home a solid third-place finish, while van Gisbergen recovered from multiple incidents to finish sixth, his best oval result in the Cup Series to that point.
Carson Hocevar:
Hocevar was again impossible to ignore. He made bold moves late, drove aggressively and put himself in the fight for the win. Fourth place was strong, but his role in the late-race chaos will be part of the conversation all week.
Crashes and near-misses
The race featured 10 cautions for 67 laps and a red flag, so there was no shortage of major incidents.
The first major trouble came on Lap 82 when Ty Gibbs and Josh Berry were collected and both saw their days effectively end. Kyle Busch’s hard impact later in Stage 2 also took a contender out of the picture.
The Larson-van Gisbergen contact at the end of Stage 2 was another huge turning point, especially because it changed the way the segment ended and handed Wallace the stage win in the confusion.
Late in the race, the Lap 224 wreck damaged Reddick but did not eliminate him, which proved to be the defining “survive and advance” moment of the night. Then the Lap 256 crash erased a number of frontrunners and set up the overtime finish that ultimately decided everything.
Hocevar’s contact with Bell on the first overtime restart added one final layer of chaos before Reddick closed the deal.
What it means and what we learned
Tyler Reddick is no longer just carrying momentum. He is carrying the early season.
Winning the Daytona 500 is one thing. Backing it up the next week at EchoPark Speedway, in a totally different kind of pressure-cooker race, is another. Reddick and 23XI Racing suddenly look like the benchmark team in the garage, and the season’s first two points races could not have gone much better for them.
Just as notable, 23XI had both Reddick and Wallace in the mix all day. Even though Wallace faded to eighth in the final scramble, the organization showed serious race-winning depth.
EchoPark also reminded everyone that this style of racing rewards aggression but punishes mistakes instantly. Wallace, Hocevar, Chastain, Briscoe and others all had shots at this one, but Reddick was the driver still standing when the final lane opened.
Two races into 2026, the story is simple: Tyler Reddick has the speed, the confidence and now the results. And the rest of the Cup Series is already chasing.
