Tyler Reddick has won four of the first eight NASCAR Cup Series races in 2026. He has a 62-point lead over Ryan Blaney. He became the first driver in the sport's history to sweep the opening three races of a season — Daytona, Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas — and then went to Darlington and won again for good measure.
On Thursday, the money showed up.
Rockstar Energy announced a partnership with Reddick and 23XI Racing — the Charlotte-based team owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin — making the No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE the first Cup car in Rockstar's history to carry the yellow star. The deal puts Reddick in Rockstar livery starting April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway, with Rockstar branding across the hauler, equipment, fire suit, and helmet for select races throughout the season.
This isn't a toe in the water. Rockstar has never sponsored a Cup Series team. They skipped the test run, skipped the one-off, and went straight to the driver nobody can beat right now.
That's not nothing.
The Brand Goes All In
Rockstar framed the deal as "the first of many new brand investments in elite sports performance" — part of a broader push into both motorsports and music under the brand's LIVE LOUD identity. Translation: Reddick is the entry point, not the whole play. More money is coming into the sport — Darius Rucker just bought into a Cup team — and it's coming through the teams that are winning.
Steve Mateus, Rockstar's Senior Director of Sports and Music, called Reddick "fearless, high-energy, and thrives in high-stakes moments." He's not wrong. This is a driver who won the Daytona 500 on a last-lap pass and then didn't stop winning for three more weeks.
Reddick kept it simple: "From day one, it was clear we share that winner-take-all attitude. I'm fired up to rep the yellow star with the No. 45 team and bring Rockstar to victory lane this season."
23XI president Steve Lauletta added that the partnership "speaks volumes to where the brand is headed in this new chapter." Coming from a team that just fought NASCAR in federal court, won its charters back, and watched its lead driver open 2026 like no driver in Cup history ever has — yeah, the chapter looks pretty good from here.
This Is What Happens When You Win
Let me tell you something about 23XI Racing. Two weeks ago I called them Charlotte's team, and nothing since has changed my mind. The operation running out of the Airspeed facility off I-77 has three chartered cars, a development driver in Corey Heim who won at Darlington in double overtime on scuffed tires, and Bubba Wallace sitting eighth in Cup points. Now add a major energy drink brand that chose them over every other team in the garage.
The press release says Reddick is "only the third driver in Cup history to win four of the first six races." I haven't been able to independently nail down that list, but the company he's keeping — if accurate — likely includes names you'd find on the wall at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown Charlotte. His fourth win at Darlington was the kind of performance that stops being surprising and starts being expected.
Sponsors don't arrive at your door because of what you did last year. They show up because of what you're doing right now. Four wins. 62-point lead. The first Cup car Rockstar has ever put its name on. Crew chief Billy Scott calling the shots. A team president who just went toe-to-toe with the sanctioning body and came out the other side stronger.
The yellow star lands on the No. 45 at Talladega in ten days. If Reddick's first eight races are any indication, Rockstar picked the right car — and the right city.