HAMPTON, Ga. – Tyler Reddick followed up his DAYTONA 500 victory with a win in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway on Sunday.

Two races into the season and Reddick has been perfect. Last year, he went winless and endured great adversity away from the track, but now it seems he’s playing catchup. On Sunday, Reddick started on the pole due to qualifying being rained out. He finished sixth in Stage 1 and fourth in Stage 2. In double NASCAR Overtime, Reddick made his way around Bubba Wallace and dueled Carson Hovcevar to secure his 10^th career win.

“That’s crazy, ain’t it.” Reddick said. “How about that? EchoPark Speedway! I mean, this place over the years, man, you know, it just puts on some amazing racing. Handling matters here, but man, I don’t know. I guess determination, always handling.”

The road to victory wasn’t easy for Reddick on Sunday, though. Despite the success in Stages 1 and 2, in the final stage, he was caught up in a nine-car accident on Lap 225, where he sustained heavy damage. The crew repaired the car and 44 laps later, he was celebrating a win.

“Man, I really didn’t know,” Reddick said. “We were back there in 30^th after we got collected with the 11 (Denny Hamlin). It was definitely really loose, and we were able to make a little bit of adjustment on it with the air and whatnot. I don’t know, they just kept stacking up in the middle and top lanes, and I just found a way to get back in the top-five.”

23XI Racing is off to its best start ever. Not only is Reddick leading the standings, but he’s 40 points ahead of teammate Bubba Wallace who is in second.

“The guys worked hard all summer,” said owner Michael Jordan. “I know we had our little ordeal, but they never gave up. They kept working hard, and this is the fruit of their labor. You know, they put forth the effort, and for us to come out and win the first two races says a lot about our whole team.”

Chase Briscoe finished second after starting 34^th. He crashed out of the DAYTONA 500, so the runner-up finish was much needed for the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota team. Coming to the white flag, Briscoe pushed Reddick past Hocevar, but then he was unable to chase him down.

“Honestly, I felt like I was doing everything that I could,” Briscoe said. “Even all the situations that happened, like, everything kind of worked out in my favor. I just couldn’t ever get a big enough run down the straightaway to do anything with our Bass Pro Shops TRACKER Toyota.

“Yeah, I was able to obviously push the 45 (Reddick) to the win. Wish I would have been able to have a bigger run to take it three wide and take the lead, but I just couldn’t do it, for whatever reason.”

Ross Chastain, Hocevar and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Shane Van Gisbergen, Zane Smith, Wallace, Ryan Preece and Ryan Blaney.

Austin Cindric won Stage 1, and Wallace won Stage 2.

There were 57 lead changes among 14 drivers. Reddick led a race high of 53 laps.

The caution flew on 10 occasions for 67 laps. Many drivers were caught up in accidents throughout the day. In fact, five cautions were for fairly large accidents.

The NASCAR Cup Series will now visit Circuit of the Americas (COTA) for the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne on Sunday, March 1. Live coverage will broadcast on FOX at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com