Month: February 2026

Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Fla.) — A lot can change on one eventful Sunday. Tyler Reddick, a 30-year-old Californian, is now a Daytona 500 winner following a roller-coaster few years — on and off the track. Entering his seventh year of Cup racing, Reddick won back-to-back titles in what is now the O’Reilly Series — and did it for two different teams (JR Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing). Reddick is married to Alexa DeLeon — daughter of Jose DeLeon, who spent 13 years as a pitcher in the major leagues — and they have two children: Beau (6) and Rookie (15 months). Last fall, Rookie needed surgery to remove a kidney, where a tumor was pressing up against an artery, causing signs of heart failure. Reddick, driver of the No. 45 car for Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing, won the regular-season Cup title in 2024 and then went winless in 2025. Now coming off the biggest win of his career, he sat down with me Monday morning before flying to New York City to embark on the Daytona 500 winner media tour: Who is Tyler Reddick? Tyler Reddick is a Northern California kid born and raised, grew up dirt racing on the short tracks and outlaw carts, and he was a dirt racer that ran dirt for well over 10 years before he ever got his first opportunity racing asphalt. And of course, it was very fitting that I got my opportunity from a fellow dirt racer himself in his roots in Ken Schrader and getting to drive asphalt for the first time with him [and his ARCA team]. A dirt kid that got an opportunity from one of the greats in our sport and led to me paving my way, if you will, up the NASCAR ranks. How would your wife describe you? Father. Impatient sometimes. I’m a bit all over the place, meaning if I don’t have something to do or something going on during the day, I can be a lot to deal with sometimes. But thankfully, I have a good schedule that kind of keeps me regimented. I’m definitely the type that it’s hard for me to sit still, I think my wife would say, I’m a great father, great husband, and we work really hard to be able to share these moments together as a family. It’s important to us. [INSIDE THE WIN: How 23XI Hopes to Build on Historic Daytona 500 Win] Well, if you don’t like to sit still, and you have two young kids who probably don’t sit still, you’re fine, right? Perfect. So do you handle that part of it well? Most of the time. When I’m sleepy, I’m not great at it, but you adjust, you adapt as your family grows as things change. Things are on that side are going well. On the great days, it’s awesome to celebrate with your family. And I’ve learned to on the bad days, it’s also great because when you get to when you get back to the bus or go to the plane or you get home after the race when they stayed home, they’re able to pick you up from your low spot and bring you back to just being dad outside of the car. So in a lot of ways, it’s a positive boost on the good and bad days. Do people ask you often why you named your kid Rookie? A couple of people have. Reason is Alexa’s grandpa. Alexa’s nickname growing up, she was his little Rookie. They watched a lot of baseball growing up together. Her dad obviously played, and her grandfather loves baseball. Her grandfather’s a huge, huge baseball fan. We enjoyed kind of going off the path a little bit with Beau, but it seems like there’s a lot of Beaus running around nowadays. But at the time, it felt like it was a name that was just not common, and think for all the right reasons, of all the names we were kind of throwing around, the one that I liked the most, that she loved, was Rookie. And my son, Beau, loved it too. So it just, it just fits. Right now, when he’s being cute, Rookie’s a little cookie. And when he gets a little bit older and starts running around and being rough on stuff, he’ll be a Rookie in that sense, too. So it’s very funny how when your child is born, you don’t know what they’re going to grow up to be or who they’re going to turn into. They’re obviously yours, but they somehow just live up to their name. Beau is a Beau, and Rookie is just, he’s Rookie, like just the name fits for whatever reason. Were you in a dark place last year? I think so. Any time for me that I go a couple weeks without winning, I feel that I never would have, in my worst nightmare, wrote up that I would go here without winning. But it became reality for me. And once that happens, it’s like man, was Homestead [in 2024] my last win? It’s a possibility I may never win again. It hits you. It really does. Sometimes that’s just how it happens. One day you just don’t win again. And is that it? And thankfully for me, I’ve at least won one more. I don’t think I’m by any means done winning, but when you go on spells like that when it’s just nothing seems to fall into place, nothing goes right. It’s a lot to deal with. You have big expectations for yourself with owners like Denny Hamlin, Michael Jordan and your team. We expect each other to go out and compete for championships, to win races like the Daytona 500 and win races in general. So last year was a tough year for us, but I feel like we came into 2026 in a better place because of the hard times we went through. And then there was probably a time when Rookie had his kidney tumor where you didn’t care whether you were winning or not last year? That is fair. When I was in the car, I still wanted to win. I cared about that. But certainly, it was very different. I was in a place where that priority was being home, was being at the hospital with Rookie, and if things fell in the right place with what he had going on, and he was going to be stable enough for a few days for me to go race, it essentially fell into place every week for me to go to the racetrack. And going into it, it didn’t look like it was going to go that way. It was very realistic that when I got home from Kansas [in the middle of the playoffs], I wasn’t going to get back in the car again. Things just kind of fell where I could be at the hospital all week, and then I could hop on a plane with Coach [Joe Gibbs] or Denny, whoever it was, and get to the track the last minute, then get in the car and go racing, get in the car at the airport when I got home, and go straight back to the hospital. When I was still in the car during those times, I wanted to win really bad for a number of reasons. But, it was weird where I had no desire, nothing to go to [our shop] Airspeed, to work, or put anything into racing. It was when I was home and when my family needed me was where I needed to be. Do you ever second-guess a text or question a text you would send to Michael Jordan? It’s important to be myself. But, yes, I do find myself when I text my bosses to make sure I proofread it once, twice, maybe three times before I send it. Not when I’m texting my mom or my dad or my wife. [INSIDE THE CELEBRATION: Michael Jordan: ‘Feels Like I Won a Championship’] But Michael isn’t intimidating to text? I had a spell where I was really bad about texting anybody back. I realized I was in a bad spot when he texted me, and I thought I responded, and I saw him a week later, and he’s like, “Thanks for the text back.” And everyone just started laughing because I don’t think I was texting anybody back during that time. We do go back and forth [on text]. A lot of times he’s telling me good job or trying to pump me up after a rough race. I would consider you a little bit more of a free spirit than some of the other drivers. Is that the California in you? Or is that the Scott Bloomquist, Ken Schrader training? It’s a little bit of everything where I grew up in Northern California on a lot of farmland where I live, we lived on a lot of acres, and I’d just always go out and explore. So I definitely feel like my roots were a bit more country and off the beaten path where I was born and raised. Just the more I grew up, the more I kind of branched into who I am. I feel like there’s a time and a place to be serious, but I think it’s super important to have fun doing what you’re doing. So I tried to keep it the serious moments, be focused, but keep it as light-hearted as possible. Because you dedicate your whole life to this. It’s important that you have fun, you do it with people that you love and care about as well. Would it be fair to say on the competition side, it took a while to find that balance? It really did. There was a period in time there where I thought, the more crazy I act, the higher my odds of winning go up for whatever reason. Some of that’s balanced out for sure. And when you get married, when you have kids, you kind of have to grow up at some point,too. It’s all helped balance it out. I still have my crazy side. I just show my crazy side when I play with my kids, when we’re having fun, roughhousing, I’m crawling around on the ground with Rookie. What did you learn from Schrader and Bloomquist on the track? I feel like some of the stuff I just talked about with both of them, honestly. They were very passionate about what they did, but they also love what they did and made sure that they had fun doing it. And that was important. I saw a lot out of Scott. I never met someone that worked harder but also played harder too. That’s what it’s about. It’s easy in racing to just let the weight of expectations get you down, and if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing while you’re doing it, if things aren’t going well, it’s really easy to get into a dark place. And so I’ve just always found that working with people that you like and finding ways to have fun while you’re working just helps it all balance out with the length of the season, and when you have a rough stretch, helps you get through it. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

GLENDALE, Ariz. — He has made five All-Star teams, won four MVP Awards and two World Series championships and just followed up Major League Baseball’s first ever 50-homer, 50-steal campaign by becoming the first player ever with 50 homers as a hitter and 50 strikeouts as a pitcher. Now, after back-to-back record-setting seasons to start his 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers, what’s left for Shohei Ohtani to accomplish? “I think it’s fair to say he expects to be in the Cy Young conversation,” said manager Dave Roberts. MLB’s top pitching honor is the only major award that has eluded Ohtani during his unprecedented eight-year career. He claims that winning his first Cy Young in 2026 is not his primary focus, but as he gears up for his first full season on the mound since undergoing his latest elbow surgery in September 2023, opportunity beckons for baseball’s unicorn. “If, at the end, the result is getting a Cy Young, that’s great,” Ohtani said through his interpreter after throwing a bullpen session on Friday. “Getting a Cy Young means being able to throw more innings and being able to pitch throughout the whole season, so if that’s the end result, that’s a good sign for me. What I’m more focused on is just being healthy the whole year.” Ohtani has gotten close to winning the award once before in his career. In 2022, he went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and 219 strikeouts in 166 innings over 28 starts for the Angels and finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting. That was the only time in Ohtani’s MLB career that he has made more than 23 starts or thrown more than 132 innings, primarily due to the two major elbow reconstructions he has undergone since the end of his rookie year in 2018. Ohtani was named the National League MVP in his first year as a Dodger in 2024 despite serving only as a designated hitter. After the season, he needed surgery on his non-throwing shoulder and did not record his first start on the mound as a Dodger until June 2025 — 22 months after his last big-league pitching appearance with the Angels. The Dodgers handled him carefully and built him up slowly. He made two one-inning appearances, then two two-inning appearances, then three three-inning appearances, eventually working his way up to a five-inning outing at the end of August. He ultimately threw just 47 innings over 14 regular-season starts, but he finished the year with a 2.87 ERA and a 33.2% strikeout rate, which tied a career high. Ohtani entered the 2025 postseason coming off three scoreless September outings, the last of which was his first six-inning appearance in over two years. “I think the thing that was most surprising from last year was his command,” Roberts said. “I’ll say that he still feels his command wasn’t up to par, but given the Tommy John and what typically command looks like the year after, it was above that.” In the playoffs, Ohtani recorded one of the greatest all-around performances in MLB history in Game 4 of the NLCS when he hit three home runs and struck out 10 batters in six scoreless innings to send the Dodgers to the World Series. The Fall Classic was more of a struggle on the mound for Ohtani, who allowed seven runs in 8.1 innings over two starts. He admitted Friday that he “did feel the effect” of playing deep into October as a two-way player for the first time. “I think playing the postseason as a DH only, which I did two years ago versus what I did last year, did feel different,” Ohtani said. “In that sense, it’s an experience that I plan to hold onto.” This year, Ohtani is expected to be ready for a full pitching workload and be handled more normally after his first fully healthy offseason in years. He reported to camp at the beginning of the month and has already thrown three bullpen sessions, though it’s unclear at this point how the World Baseball Classic might impact his throwing progression. Ohtani will hit but won’t pitch for Team Japan, which begins pool play on March 6. “I’m sure [pitching coach] Mark [Prior] will be talking to the pitching coach over there and kind of stick to our plan, and we’ll be in lockstep,” Roberts told me. “I’m not too concerned about it. Shohei’s very well aware of what he needs to do.” It has yet to be determined when Ohtani will depart for the WBC or whether he’ll start in a Cactus League game before he goes. He said he is planning to ramp up as much as he can now to be ready to face hitters sometime next week. The Dodgers will likely operate with a six-man rotation once the season begins. They’re not going to rush Ohtani or put a date on his 2026 pitching debut yet, but if all goes to plan, he could be ready to take the mound on Opening Day or shortly thereafter as he prepares to write the latest chapter of an unparalleled career. “We just want him to be healthy and make starts,” Roberts said. “All the numbers and statistics will take care of themselves.” Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Here’s what’s happening this week Inside The Garage: Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Fla.) — Winning the Daytona 500 automatically makes it a historical moment no matter the year, no matter the number of times a driver or team has won it. But the first time? That’s next level. The 2026 Daytona 500 will go down as a seminal moment in not just the career of driver Tyler Reddick but also in 23XI Racing. There have been others: the first race win by Bubba Wallace at Talladega in 2021, Reddick winning the 2024 regular-season title, Wallace winning the 2025 Brickyard 400. And now a victory in the team’s sixth season at the Daytona 500. “We’re only starting our sixth season, so I feel like getting that done, especially coming off a Brickyard 400 win — two crown jewels in a row, so to speak,” 23XI Racing President Steve Lauletta told me. “A lot of people on the team, it’s their first Daytona 500 win. That makes a big, big difference in terms of how they’re going to pay attention and focus for the rest of the season.” Even veterans of the sport were still emotional Monday morning as they took photos by the car before it went to the track museum for a year. “I’ve lost track how many years I’ve been in the sport. It’s 27 [or] 28 and this is the first time I’ve been in Daytona on a Monday pushing a car into the museum,” 23XI Racing Senior Director of Competition Dave Rogers told me. Lauletta fielded calls from sponsors Sunday night who were ecstatic. Reddick said when he looked last night, he had 900 texts and had not started to go through them to start responding. For an organization with 10 victories, they can use the Daytona 500 victory to show they can execute on the biggest stage, giving them something to build momentum on for the entire season. The team is co-owned by driver Denny Hamlin (although Hamlin races for Joe Gibbs Racing) and basketball legend Michael Jordan. “This is where the most eyes are on our sport,” three-time Daytona 500 winner Hamlin said in his post-race news conference. “This is good for our partners. It’s good for everyone on our race team. Winning races certainly helps a lot of things. But when you can win the Daytona 500, I’ll tell you, just early in the season — because I’ve done it — it really helps with momentum to start the year because now you’re not chasing anything. “You’re in a good spot. You can race a lot freer.” They could race a little bit differently. With the change in NASCAR’s championship format, the win doesn’t guarantee Reddick a spot in the postseason, but he was already considered a likely participant, as finishing 16th in the standings would be a considerable drop from where he has run the last couple of years. “For us in particular, I think we always had the goal of multiple wins even before the playoffs start,” Reddick crew chief Billy Scott told me. “This is a nice start in the points, a nice momentum builder. But I think we’ll treat the rest of the season as we always have. We’re here every week to win.” The team celebrated at a Daytona Beach bar last night and there will be another celebration at the shop in the coming weeks. “[Our sponsors] will put more plans behind promoting the win, which is good for the sport and good for us,” Lauletta said. “I’m excited to get back to the halls of [our shop] Airspeed and see how everybody is there. “I know they’re excited. It’s just a massive push forward in the momentum you need to start the season.” Reddick, in his post-race news conference, indicated that would happen. “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,” Reddick said. Kyle Larson extends through 2031 Two-time Cup champion Kyle Larson signed a contract extension through 2031, and team owner Rick Hendrick had hoped it would be for longer. Larson (or at least his agent) knows things can change even if he can’t see it. So five years is long enough. He turns 40 in 2032. “I don’t get too wrapped up in the duration or all of that,” Larson said in the news conference about his new contract. “It’s nice to know that I will be here for at least five years and hopefully more. And that is kind of it. I just get to work on trying to win more races and win more championships in the time that I am there. “I’m grateful and I feel like it’s a very long-term contract compared to what you see these days. I am very happy with all of that. That gets me close to 40 and then we will see after that.” Anthony Alfredo’s Long Week Anthony Alfredo has to be wondering who he made angry last week. He thought he had raced his way into the Daytona 500, only to get disqualified for a couple hoses not sealed following his qualifying race. He then failed to qualify for the O’Reilly Series race after a parts issue on his qualifying lap. The Viking Motorsports team was able to get Alfredo into the Alpha Prime Racing car driven by Cesar Bacarella. On the first lap of the O’Reilly race, he was involved in an accident. But he rallied to finish 11th. “I think that’s just part of the test of my resilience,” Alfredo told me and other reporters after that 11th-place finish. “I’m never going to give up. I want this so bad, and until these opportunities don’t continue to come together, I’m never going to give up.” Why The Call? It was a pretty clear-cut decision to disallow the qualifying result for Alfredo, according to NASCAR Cup Series Director Brad Moran. A transaxle hose was completely loose and a driver cooling hose was not tightly sealed. “We have many rules that no parts can fall off the car for obvious reasons,” Moran said during a news conference. “We don’t say what the intent is, but these parts have to be fastened properly. “Unfortunately, this one piece wasn’t on the right side. There was also another hose disconnected for driving cooling, which affects airflow. Superspeedways, we all know the importance of that [aerodynamically].” Alfredo said he did talk to NASCAR about it, although he wondered whether, since the qualifying races pay points to the top 10, there should have been an opportunity for an appeal. NASCAR treats it like a qualifying call, where there is no appeal. “It came loose from either getting bump drafted or turbulent air,” Alfredo told me and other reporters. “And rules are rules. The rule is they cannot come loose. It did. … It had no effect on our race or our performance. “But it’s the rule. I can live with that because if they’re going to be consistent moving forward, that’s what this sport’s all about. So I appreciate that and I respect that. Just wasn’t meant to be. I’ll accept my fate on that side of things.” News Of The Week — Dale Coyne Racing solidified its 2026 INDYCAR lineup with the hiring of former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean, who competed in INDYCAR from 2021-24 and served as a reserve driver for Prema Racing last year. Grosjean will be in the No. 18, while Dennis Hauger will drive the No. 19. — The future of Prema Racing remains in flux as the team tries to find an investor or funding for the 2026 INDYCAR season. INDYCAR President Doug Boles: “I don’t think we believe that they’re going to be able to answer the bell, at least at the beginning portion of the season.” Prema fielded cars for Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott last year. — Arrow McLaren Racing announced that former Penske executive and strategist Kyle Moyer will be the strategist for Christian Lundgaard this season. Long-time INDYCAR team executive and strategist Tim Keene will work with the young Nolan Siegel. — The Daytona 500 was the last race for the retiring Stu Grant, Goodyear’s GM for global race tires and a fixture in the sport. Justin Fantozzi will assume that role. — The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame announced its 2026 class: Scott Dixon and Giampaolo Dallara They Said It “We still have a lot of growing and maturing to do as a company, but I’m confident it will be noticed this year as we get into the schedule and get racing.” — Legacy Motor Club co-owner Jimmie Johnson Stat of Note Tyler Reddick led only the last lap, the fourth time a driver won the Daytona 500 after leading only one lap. Social Spotlight In Inside The Garage, Bob Pockrass takes us behind the scenes of the motorsports world the way only he can.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports