Tyler Reddick and his team were NASCAR's real Daytona winners after finishing with this mangled car

Welcome to FTW’s NASCAR Feud of the Week, where we provide a detailed breakdown of the latest absurd, funny and sometimes legitimate controversies and issues within the racing world.

Our last NASCAR Feud of the Week of the 2021 regular season is an incredible and goofy one with a really clear winner.

The regular season ended Saturday night with Ryan Blaney winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, and the 16-driver playoff field was set. Now, after a typically chaotic and unpredictable Daytona race, we could talk about how Kurt Busch made contact with Daniel Suárez and triggered a massive wreck, or Bubba Wallace’s annoyance with his Toyota teammates, or how several of the Rick Ware Racing drivers wrecked with each other.

Instead, however, let’s talk about the absolute beating one car took at Daytona in a feud of Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 team versus Daytona International Speedway.

By the time the race ended, Reddick’s car was a mess, especially after being involved in a wreck with about 15 laps to go in the race’s scheduled distance. The wreck left Reddick and the No. 8 car smoking and without a functioning oil cooler, per NBC Sports.

BIG CRASH. Tyler Reddick involved!

Huge implications for the #NASCARPlayoffs with less than 15 laps remaining!

TV: NBC
Stream: https://t.co/wKDI0aNMYn
NBC Sports App pic.twitter.com/P39PGsZ04w

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 29, 2021

Take another look at what happened to Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick, and more.#NASCAR x #CokeZeroSugar400 x NBC pic.twitter.com/W38tCq2zSk

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 29, 2021

But the team pushed on and made some miraculous repairs to get the car back on track and up to speed, as Reddick raced for the lone playoff spot remaining at that point.

After another late wreck — which didn’t involve Reddick toward the back of the field after the repairs — sent the race into overtime, the No. 8 driver pulled off some magic moves. On the last lap of overtime with Blaney out front, the field behind him started wrecking in a massive way, but somehow Reddick missed most of it before getting dinged by Justin Haley in the No. 77 Chevrolet.

Ryan @Blaney WINS at @Daytona as the field wrecks behind him!

Also, @TylerReddick has made the #NASCARPlayoffs for the first time in his Cup Series career. pic.twitter.com/SfoshRiqUG

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 29, 2021

Not only did Reddick manage to avoid getting taken out in the last-lap wreck, but he also finished fifth and earned his first playoff berth. Amazingly, this is the car he did it with.

LOOK AT THIS DISASTER:

Wild one once again in Daytona https://t.co/3YjS04ALxF

— Tyler Reddick (@TylerReddick) August 29, 2021

Both ends of the car are destroyed, there’s grass in the grille, the nose is dented and this thing was a mess. But Reddick made the most of it and qualified for the playoffs, which begin Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

“It feels incredible,” Reddick told NBC Sports after the finish. “But I’m not going to lie to you, my emotions were shot as soon as we took the green on the last green-white-checkered. I couldn’t believe we finished seventh. The getting through that last crash coming to the line, it was a lot, I’m not going to lie. …

“What a roller coaster it is to be on the [playoff] bubble going into Daytona and running into the back of somebody and have all the issues we did at the end there. Almost felt helpless there, but we didn’t give up, and we fought through it.”

For the first time in his @NASCAR Cup Series career, @TylerReddick is headed to the #NASCARPlayoffs. pic.twitter.com/7BrNsBeDw6

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 29, 2021

We don’t often have a winner of the NASCAR Feud of the Week, but when it comes to Reddick and the No. 8 team versus Daytona, the Richard Childress Racing team clearly won big.