Tyler Reddick gave his boss, Michael Jordan, an early birthday gift by winning the Daytona 500. He led just one lap, but it took a push from teammate Riley Herbst to seal the deal. Herbst lined up behind Reddick on the final lap, pushing him forward while trying to hold the pack at bay. The move opened the door for chaos, dragging Herbst and Brad Keselowski into the storm.
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On Lap 193, after a caution involving Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell set up a late restart, Carson Hocevar led the field to the last lap but got spun after contact from Erik Jones. That handed the lead to Chase Elliott, with Reddick and Herbst carrying momentum off the final corner. Reddick darted left of Elliott, while Keselowski took the high line, trying to go for a three-wide, angling to the right of the No. 9.
Trying to shut that door, Herbst swung toward Keselowski near the wall. However, the timing betrayed him. The RFK Racing co-owner was already there, and there was almost no space for another car ahead of Keselowski. The two made contact, setting off a chain reaction near the stripe. Reddick slipped through the wreckage and beat the pack to the line while the field stacked up behind him.
Keselowski didn’t mince words after climbing out. “Oh, the 35 just wrecked me out of nowhere for no reason. That was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. He had no chance of blocking my run. I had a huge run. I don’t know if I could have gotten the 45 or 47, but I would like to have found out because my run was coming fast. And the 35 just wrecked us and himself. Pretty stupid.”
“I thought, well, you know, one lane block kind of makes sense, but the block from the very bottom all the way to the top and wreck yourself and everybody else is just stupid. Very, very stupid,” he continued.
Brad Keselowski on Riley Herbst: “That was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. He had no chance of blocking my run …. Very, very stupid.” @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/4czJiCkoBU
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) February 15, 2026
Herbst, for his part, didn’t walk it back. He said he was confused when no caution flew after the Hocevar-Jones crash. Heading into Turn 1, the mirror showed smoke and cars scattering, but the race stayed green.
So, the field fanned out down the backstretch, and Herbst locked onto Reddick’s bumper, gave him a push, and watched him pull alongside the No. 9. When he tried to make it three-wide for a photo at the line by going at the top lane, he said the outcome came down to inches.
Asked about Keselowski’s comments and how mad the RFK Racing owner was at Herbst, the 26-year-old shrugged it off. “Yeah, I wasn’t trying to make a move to go to second. Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s fractions of a second and we’re trying to win the Daytona 500. Brad’s been trying to win for, you probably know how many years it’s been. 17. So, yeah, he’ll tell you that it’s a matter of inches and we’re on the wrong side of inches.”
