SVG storms to career-best speedway finish at Atlanta

In a double-green-white-chequered finish, Tyler Reddick took victory for 23XI Racing in an extended 271-lap race to back up his Daytona 500 win from a week ago.

Reddick becomes just the sixth driver after Marvin Panch (1957), Bob Welborn (1959), David Pearson (1976), Jeff Gordon (1997), and Matt Kenseth (2009) to win the first two races of the season.

It was a surprise win for Reddick, who was involved in an earlier wreck during Stage 3 that tore the right front fender off his #45 Toyota Camry.

“We were back there in 30th after we got collect with the #11 (Denny Hamlin),” said Reddick.

“It was definitely really loose and we made a little bit of an adjustment on it with the air.

“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.

“I tried to stay committed to somebody and I don’t know, I didn’t really have a choice. I had to find out if it was going to go in clean air like that.”

SVG goes around! Here’s what happened: pic.twitter.com/xWiIaVlWYX

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 22, 2026

Van Gisbergen started the race in 28th and finished Stage 1 in 34th as he battled the balance of his #97 Chevrolet Camaro.

He surged late in Stage 2 to find himself in contention for a top five finish on the last lap, only to be forced through the grass by Kyle Larson. Thankfully, van Gisbergen’s car escaped any damage.

That was one of two incidents for SVG, who spun on his own during Stage 3 on Lap 199. He dropped to the back of the lead lap, but the chop-and-change nature of the race allowed him to work his way through the field.

Van Gisbergen was ninth on the penultimate green-white-chequered restart and narrowly missed Christopher Bell, who crashed after Carson Hocevar in the #77 Spire Motorsports Camaro got into the back of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry.

With Bell out of the contest, van Gisbergen began the final restart from eighth and immediately behind the #19 JGR Camry of Chase Briscoe.

SVG went to the middle at Turn 3 to find his Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain in the #1 Camaro and pushed him clear on the front straight coming to the white flag.

As Hocevar slid up the road into 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace in the #23 Camry, that gave Chastain third and van Gisbergen fourth.

However, entering Turn 3, van Gisbergen slid up the road and lost out to Hocevar and Suarez to drop back to sixth at the chequered flag.

“I still need to be better myself with positions, but that’s awesome,” said van Gisbergen to his team over the radio after the chequered flag.

TWO WEEKENDS IN A ROW FOR TYLER REDDICK, MICHAEL JORDAN AND 23XI RACING! pic.twitter.com/873TX7LKfQ

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 23, 2026

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Circuit of the Americas on March 2 (AEDT) for the first road course race of the season.

Van Gisbergen sits equal 15th in the standings with 45 points to his name.

Results: NASCAR Cup Series AutoTrader 400, Atlanta Motor Speedway

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