REDDICK MAKES HISTORY WITH THIRD STRAIGHT VICTORY TO START CUP SERIES SEASON
Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin Round out strong day for Toyota Camry XSE’S at Circuit of America’s
AUSTIN (March 1, 2026) – Tyler Reddick won his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on Sunday. Reddick, who started on the pole, battled for the win in his No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE with road course ace Shane Van Gisbergen coming down the stretch en route to victory lane. Reddick is the first driver in Cup Series history to win the first three races of the season after notching victories at the season-opening Daytona 500 and last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Christopher Bell (third) and Ty Gibbs (fourth) brought Toyota three out of the top four finishers Sunday afternoon with Gibbs winning the second stage and leading x overall laps. Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) also posted three cars inside the top-10 with Denny Hamlin coming home with 10th-place finish.
With the strong start to the season Reddick and 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace remain 1-2 in the Cup Series point standings.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Circuit of the Americas
Race 3 of 36 – 228 miles, 95 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, TYLER REDDICK
2nd, Shane Van Gisbergen*
3rd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
4th, TY GIBBS
5th, Michael McDowell*
10th, DENNY HAMLIN
11th, BUBBA WALLACE
17th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
23rd, RILEY HERBST
34th, ERIK JONES
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Chumba Casino Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What does it mean to you to make history winning three races in-a-row to start the season?
“It means the world. Yeah, it’s so fitting. We get going at the end there and I’m leading and there’s SVG (Shane Van Gisbergen), the guy I’ve been trying to beat for a while now. Just to be able to out last him there and hold on for the win is just incredible. Just really proud of this Chumba Casino Toyota Camry, everyone at 23XI. We worked really hard. We did not like getting beat like that at road courses. It’s one race, but it was so important, so fitting that we were able to get three in-a-row and make history.”
What did it take to hold off SVG in the closing laps?
“Yeah, just trying to remember everything that I knew was going to be important there at the end and just tried to minimize the mistakes. Shane is — this is what he’s so good at. He does not make mistakes. I certainly made a couple and just doing everything I could to just manage the gap and just stay away from him, if you know what I mean. If I let him get close enough, it was going to be probably hard to hold him off.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How did you end up with a top-five finish?
“We got really fortunate with the strategy. They dropped the green flag and they had a great start and I’m like ok, we are going to have something and it just went away. It got tight and it got loose and I’m sliding around and the next thing I know I’m in 12th. We were just super aggressive on strategy jumping the stages keeping out track position the best that we could. We gambled making an extra pit stop there in the third stage and it got us a good finish out of it, but clearly I wasn’t going to run with the top guys in our DEWALT Camry.”
You were on an alternate strategy, what else did you need there at the end of the race?
I got that great restart on new tires, and I’m like, I’m in position here, baby, we’re going to do this. Just sold out. All race long whenever I was on equal tires with guys I was falling backwards. So strategy worked out. Super thankful that Adam Stevens called a really good race, got us on offense, got me a tire advantage over the field, and then I was able to salvage a good finish out of it. Yeah, it was an off road course race for us. Normally we’re stronger than that and got saved by some newer tires.”
TY GIBBS, No. 20 SAIA Freight & Logistics Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How does it feel to bring home a top-five finish today?
“It was really great. I had a great Toyota Camry. They helped me out so much today. Had a lot of fun, and we passed a lot of cars, obviously. My guys Tyler (Allen, crew chief) and the boys did a great job on the strategy. I didn’t really know what was going on because we pitted and I was in last, and then we went back up to the front, and it just was so much fun. It gets kind of hectic. It kind of feels like Richmond with the pit cycles and everything at the end. Just stayed at it, and I was up at the front at the end and just kept digging just didn’t have enough time. But felt really good. Thank you to Monster Energy and everybody that helps me out with my career, and thank you to the man above and we’ll keep going and keep racing.
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Columbia Bank Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 37th
What did you feel and what put you out of the race?
“Something in the transaxle I guess broke coming out of the corner. Went to shift and it was like I was in neutral and it was trying to spin the one side and not the other. It’s really unfortunate, felt like we were good enough to win truthfully, top five car pretty easily. Just frustrating, it will obviously set us back points wise and next week. But Phoenix has been a really good track for us so we will see what we can do. Thanks to Columbia Bank and Toyota for all the support this weekend.”
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