2026 Autotrader 400 Recap: Reddick Makes It Two in a Row at Atlanta

Tyler Reddick won from the pole at Atlanta to make it back-to-back wins to open the season, surviving overtime and a race that took out half the field along the way.

The Short Version

Tyler Reddick started from the front and finished there, holding off Chase Briscoe by 0.164 seconds after two overtime restarts at Atlanta. The race chewed through contenders all afternoon — Kyle Larson, Josh Berry, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Ty Gibbs all went home well before the checkered flag. Reddick stayed clean when it mattered and converted.

What Happened

Reddick led early from the pole before Austin Cindric took over and eventually grabbed the Stage 1 win. The opening run was relatively calm by Atlanta standards, but that didn’t last.

Lap 82 set the tone for the second half. Ty Gibbs got turned in turn 3, bounced off Christopher Bell’s No. 20, and hit the wall head-on. Josh Berry’s No. 21 got clipped too, then caught the infield grass on fire. Eight cars took damage in that one. Among them was Josh Berry, whose afternoon was over.

Lap 103 brought another wave of carnage — a multi-car pileup in turn 2 collected seven cars including Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who had been one of the fastest cars earlier. Stenhouse’s afternoon ended there.

Lap 125 was Kyle Busch’s moment of misfortune. He got bumped by Noah Gragson on the backstretch and hit the inside wall hard. He limped home to 34th.

The big one everyone feared finally came on lap 160. Kyle Larson, who had led the field multiple times and was right in contention for the win, got tangled up in a battle for the lead with Shane Van Gisbergen. Contact sent Larson into the outside wall. His No. 5 Chevrolet was done on lap 160 of 271. That was the race, for him.

Bubba Wallace had been one of the stronger cars all day and took Stage 2. He stayed in contention through the final run before multiple late cautions scrambled the field. Lap 257 brought the last big wreck — 11 cars involved through turns 3 and 4 — which set up overtime with Reddick and the surviving lead-lap cars.

Two overtime restarts. Reddick controlled both. Briscoe got a strong push on the final one but couldn’t close the gap.

The Defining Moment

The lap 160 wreck changed the race. Larson had been one of the best cars on the track, and losing him opened the door for Reddick to take control without the toughest competition. Once the field thinned out, Reddick made his car count.

The One That Got Away

Kyle Larson. He ran up front, led laps, and was in position to win. The lap 160 contact ended all of it on a track where he had genuine speed. Getting collected in someone else’s battle for the lead is a hard way to lose a race you were fast enough to win.

Numbers That Matter

• Winner: Tyler Reddick (No. 45, 23XI Racing, Toyota)
• Margin of Victory: 0.164 seconds (overtime)
• Starting Position: 1st (pole)
• Laps Led: 54
• Cautions: 10 for 67 laps
• Lead Changes: 57 among 14 leaders
• Notable DNFs: Kyle Larson (lap 160), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (lap 103), Josh Berry (lap 81), Ty Gibbs (lap 81)

Take

Two wins in two races. Reddick is doing something special to open this season and it’s worth saying out loud. He’s not winning ugly — he’s starting from the front, running at the front, and converting when others can’t. Back-to-back wins at two of the most chaotic tracks on the schedule takes real execution.

Atlanta is a place where the race has a way of sorting itself out. Ten cautions and 67 laps under yellow tells you how brutal the day was. The drivers who made it to overtime earned the right to be there, and Reddick handled both restarts with the same composure he showed all day.

Bubba Wallace had another strong run. He’s been consistently competitive through the opening races and it keeps showing up in the results, even when the wins haven’t come yet. That matters.

Chase Briscoe starting 34th and finishing second is a story in itself. He worked his way through the field all day and was right there at the end. That’s a team that came to race.

Notes

• Austin Cindric won Stage 1 and ran competitively before getting caught up in the lap 257 wreck. He finished 26th.
• The infield grass fire after Gibbs’s lap 82 crash briefly added some chaos to an already chaotic afternoon.
• Ross Chastain finished 3rd — a quiet, clean run that didn’t get much attention but was right there all day.
• Carson Hocevar brushed the wall three separate times across different runs but held on to finish 4th. That’s a tough track to stay clean on for 271 laps.