Tyler Reddick etched a new milestone by becoming the first competitor to win the first three events in a NASCAR Cup Series schedule. He accomplished this feat by winning the DuraMax Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, March 1.
The 2026 Daytona 500 champion from Corning, California, led three times for a race-high 58 of 95 scheduled laps at COTA. He lost the lead on the opening lap and through the first turn despite starting on pole position. However, he remained within striking distance of the lead group.
Reddick led his first 18 laps during the second stage period and executed his pit strategies to perfection. He chose to pit before the conclusion of the event’s first two stage periods and cycled to the front for the event’s third and final stage period at COTA.
Then, through a late cycle of green flag pit stops and a restart with 17 laps remaining, Reddick, who had dominated the final stage period, managed to retain the top spot during the latest restart. But he had road course ace Shane van Gisbergen reeling him in. Amid van Gisbergen’s late challenges, Reddick maintained his ground and did not miss his beat for the remainder of the event. This enabled Reddick to achieve the victory and keep both himself and 23XI Racing perfect to start the 2026 Cup Series season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, February 28, Tyler Reddick secured his first pole position of the 2026 Cup Series season with a pole-winning lap at 88.380 mph in 97.760 seconds. Joining Reddick on the front row was Ross Chastain, the latter of whom qualified at 88.256 mph in 97.897 seconds. Before the event, Erik Jones dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota Camry XSE entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Tyler Reddick was pinned in the middle of an early three-wide battle for the lead as Ross Chastain and Chase Briscoe challenged the pole-sitter through an uphill climb that led to the first left-hand turn to Turn 1. As the field fanned out through the first turn, Briscoe managed to move in front of Reddick and lead through the Esses, a series of right- and left-hand turns from Turns 2 to 6A. The field continued to bump, fan out and jostle for early spots from Turns 6B to 20 as Reddick tried to regain the lead from Briscoe. With the clean air to his advantage, Briscoe managed to cycle back to the frontstretch and lead the first lap while Chastain challenged Reddick for the runner-up spot.
Over the next four laps, Briscoe retained his advantage and even stretched it to as high as nine-tenths of a second by the fifth lap mark. Behind, Ryan Blaney navigated his way into the runner-up spot over Chastain and Reddick. Christopher Bell trailed in fifth place by two seconds. Another lap later, Reddick dropped out of the top-five category as he was overtaken by both Bell and Michael McDowell while Blaney started to reel in on Briscoe for the lead.
On the eighth lap, Blaney, who first made his move and dueled with Briscoe for the lead in Turn 12, gained the upper advantage and seized the top spot in Turn 15. Blaney proceeded to lead his first lap on the ninth lap and extend his lead to a second over Briscoe by the 10th lap. Behind, Chastain trailed in third place by two seconds while Bell and Shane van Gisbergen, the latter of whom was posting fast lap times, were in the top five. McDowell, Chase Elliott, Reddick, William Byron and AJ Allmendinger followed suit in the top 10 while Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith, Denny Hamlin, Todd Gilliland, Connor Zilisch and Joey Logano were racing in the top 20, respectively.
Through the Lap 15 mark, Blaney extended his advantage to more than five seconds over Chastain while van Gisbergen was up into third place. Meanwhile, Briscoe fell back to sixth place as he was overtaken by McDowell and Reddick while Byron, Larson, Bell and Buescher followed suit in the top 10, respectively, along with Allmendinger, Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Bowman and Zilisch.
Another lap later, mixed strategies within the field occurred as Bell, Larson and Byron pitted their respective entries under green. Reddick, Briscoe, Zilisch, Joey Logano, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suarez, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, Noah Gragson and Erik Jones all pitted on Lap 17 before the leader, Blaney, pitted on Lap 18. By then, pit road became inaccessible as the first stage period was nearing its conclusion. Meanwhile, Chastain, who was among several who elected not to pit but to pursue stage points, cycled to the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Chastain cruised to his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Teammate van Gisbergen followed suit in second place by two-and-a-half seconds while McDowell, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Carson Hocevar, and Denny Hamlin were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, Blaney, Reddick, Briscoe and Bell were mired in 14th, 17th, 26th, and 28th, respectively.
Under the event’s first stage break period, a majority of the field led by Chastain, including those who did not pit before the first stage’s conclusion, pitted while the rest led by Blaney, including those who did pit prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. For those who pitted, van Gisbergen exited pit road first and he was followed by Buescher, Allmendinger, Gibbs and McDowell, respectively.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as Blaney and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, the field quickly fanned out to multiple lanes as the front-runners navigated through the uphill climb to the first turn. Prior to the first turn, Connor Zilisch, who restarted in the top 10, was bumped by Daniel Suarez and sent spinning entering the first turn, but he was dodged by the field as the event remained under green. At the front, Reddick retained the lead for a full lap and he also remained on the track despite reporting concerns of a loose wheel.
At the Lap 30 mark, Reddick, who remained on the track and did not report any recurring concerns of a loose wheel to his entry, continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Byron trailed by a second. Behind, Suarez and Larson were racing in the top five ahead of Bell, Briscoe, van Gisbergen, Gilliland and Allmendinger while Ty Gibbs, McDowell, Austin Dillon, Logano, Cole Custer, Buescher, Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Bowman and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 20 ahead of Austin Cindric, Nemechek, Erik Jones, Zane Smith and Ty Dillon. Meanwhile, Noah Gragson, who spun from 16th place in the middle of Turns 6A and 6B just past the Lap 25 mark, was at the tail end of the field in 37th place.
By Lap 35, Reddick stabilized his steady advantage to four-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Byron trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Suarez retained fourth place and he trailed the lead at COTA by nearly six seconds while Larson also trailed by six seconds in fifth place. A lap later, van Gisbergen overtook Larson for fifth place as Briscoe, Bell, Ty Gibbs and McDowell pursued from the top 10.
A lap after the Lap 40 mark, where Reddick was still leading by more than a second over Blaney, a handful of competitors that included Buescher, Bowman, Hamlin, Jesse Love and Cody Ware strategically pitted under green. The leader Reddick along with numerous names that included Briscoe, McDowell, Bell, Logano, Chastain, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, Ryan Preece, Nemechek, Elliott, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Zilisch, Hocevar and Gragson, pitted on Lap 42 before Blaney, who initially inherited the lead, pitted by Lap 43 along with Byron, van Gisbergen and Larson. With pit road becoming inaccessible for the field as the second stage period was nearing its conclusion, Ty Gibbs cycled to the lead.
When the second stage period at COTA concluded on Lap 45, Ty Gibbs captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Allmendinger settled in second ahead of Suarez, Gilliland and Reddick while Bubba Wallace, Blaney, Cole Custer, Byron and van Gisbergen were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, all 37 starters were scored on the lead lap while Briscoe, McDowell, Bell, Larson, Buescher and Chastain were mired within the top-20 mark.
During the event’s second stage break period, some led by Ty Gibbs, including those who did not pit prior to the second stage’s conclusion, pitted while the rest led by Reddick remained on the track.
Final Stage
With 45 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Reddick and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Reddick fended off Blaney and a hard-charging Briscoe to lead through the first turn and the Esses. As the field navigated through the Esses along with the remaining national circuit turns that led back to the frontstretch, Reddick maintained the top spot and led the next lap while numerous jostling, bumping and on-track contact ensued within the field.
As the event reached its final 40-lap mark, Reddick was being pressured by Blaney for the lead. Despite being pressured by Blaney through every straightaway and turn over the previous five laps, Reddick maintained the top spot while third-place Briscoe and fourth-place Byron both trailed by two seconds. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was trailing by nearly four seconds in fifth place while McDowell, Bell, Chastain, Larson and Cindric occupied the top-10 spots ahead of Kyle Busch, Zilisch, Logano, Buescher, Preece, Elliott, Ty Dillon, Ty Gibbs, Love and Hamlin.
Then with 33 laps remaining, Bell, who was racing outside the top-10 mark and was rubbing fenders with Larson a few laps earlier, pitted under green. Another lap later, teammate Briscoe limped to pit road as he reported a transaxle issue. As Briscoe took his entry to the garage, teammate Gibbs, Elliott, Suarez, Zane Smith, Austin Dillon and Hocevar all pitted before more that included Buescher, Kyle Busch, Logano, Wallace and Custer pitted during the following lap. As Reddick continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Blaney with 30 laps remaining, Larson, Preece, Love, Berry, Ware and Keselowski all pitted under green.
With 27 laps remaining, the leaders at COTA, Reddick and Blaney, pitted under green along with Riley Herbst while van Gisbergen cycled to the lead. By the time both Reddick and Blaney exited pit road, the former barely fended off the latter to muscle ahead when both blended back on the racing groove. Van Gisbergen would then surrender the lead to pit during the next lap, along with teammate Connor Zilisch, the latter of whom was up to third place. Allmendinger, Ty Dillon, Hamlin, Nemechek and Gilliland also pitted with 25 laps remaining, while Byron, who led the previous lap, pitted along with Chastain, Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. This left the leader, Michael McDowell, as the lone competitor who had yet to pit.
Then with 21 laps remaining, the caution flew when Chastain went off course at COTA and lost his right-rear wheel between Turns 19 and 20. At the time of caution, McDowell, who has yet to pit, was leading by six seconds over both Reddick and Blaney while Bell, van Gisbergen, Larson, Zilisch, Gibbs, Kyle Buch and Buescher were scored in the top 10. During the caution period, Myatt Snider, who was pit spotting for Jamie Little, took over driving responsibilities of Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry due to Bowman parking in the garage and battling illness.
Back on the track at COTA, some led by McDowell and including Bell, Larson, Gibbs, Busch, Buescher, Preece, Logano, Ty Dillon, Wallace and Allmendinger pitted while the rest led by Reddick, Blaney, van Gisbergen, Zilisch and Byron remained on the track.
As the field restarted with 17 laps remaining, the field fanned out through the uphill climb to the first turn as Reddick retained the lead. Behind, a multitude of on-track bumps ensued as both Cindric and Byron collided into Zane Smith, which sent both Smith and Zilisch spinning. With the event remaining under green, Reddick led through the first turn and the Esses while van Gisbergen overtook Blaney to assume the runner-up spot. Despite being pressured by van Gisbergen from Turns 6A and 6B through Turn 20, Reddick maintained the lead by six-tenths of a second during the next lap.
With less than 15 laps remaining, Reddick extended his advantage to a second over van Gisbergen while Blaney, Byron and Bell pursued in the top five ahead of Elliott, Hamlin, Gibbs, Mcdowell and Larson. Riley Herbst, Allmendinger, Nemechek, Wallace, Gilliland, Buescher, Preece, Custer, Logano and Love all trailed in the top 20, respectively, while Zilisch, Cindric and Zane Smith were mired in 29th, 32nd and 33rd following their late restart contact. Not long after, Buescher was sent for a spin in Turn 20 after Kyle Busch bumped teammate Jesse Love into Buescher, but the event remained under green.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event at COTA, Reddick continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging van Gisbergen, with the latter regaining his momentum and reeling in Reddick. Behind, Bell, who was charging his way towards the front on fresh tires after he pitted during the previous caution, bumped and overtook Blaney for third place while Byron continued to occupy fifth place. Over the next five laps, Bell, who retained third place, trailed the top-two leaders by three-and-a-half seconds while Gibbs and McDowell moved up to fourth and fifth, respectively, in front of Larson, Blaney, Elliott, Hamlin and Allmendinger as Byron dropped to 11th place. Meanwhile, Reddick stretched his lead at COTA up to more than a second over van Gisbergen.
Victory
When the white flag waved at COTA and the final lap started, Reddick remained in the lead by four seconds over van Gisbergen. With van Gisbergen unable to reel in from his deficit and Reddick not missing his mark while navigating around COTA for a final time, the latter cycled the No. 45 Chumba Casino/23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry back through the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by nearly four seconds over van Gisbergen.
By becoming the first ever competitor to win the first three events in a NASCAR Cup Series schedule, Reddick also achieved his 11th Cup career victory, his second at COTA and his eighth driving the No. 45 Toyota entry for 23XI Racing. The victory was also the 12th overall for 23XI Racing and the 10th for crew chief Billy Scott as Reddick, who extended his series’ points lead, also became the first repeat Cup winner at COTA.
“[The win] means the world,” Reddick said on FOX. “It’s so fitting. We get going at the end there. I’m leading and there’s [van Gisbergen], the guy I’ve been trying to beat for a while now. To be able to outlast him there and hold on for the win, it’s incredible. [I’m] Just really proud of the Chumba Casino Toyota Camry, everyone at 23XI [Racing]. We worked really hard. We did not like getting beat like that at road courses and it’s one race, but it was so important. So fitting that we were able to get three in a row and make history.”
“[I was] Just trying to remember everything that I knew was going to be important there at the end and just tried to minimize the mistakes,” Reddick, when describing his late battle with van Gisbergen, added. “Shane, that’s what he’s so good at, man. He does not make mistakes and 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.”
Like Reddick, co-owner Michael Jordan was left elated for a third consecutive week in having his organization going three-for-three to commence the 2026 season.
“It’s time for change and the [23XI Racing] guys feel the same thing,” Jordan said. “Tyler came here with the most pressure, I guess. Everybody expected him on he had the chance to win three in a row. That’s the hardest one to win. He kept to his strategy. Man, the [23XI Racing] guys put together a great car. I think [crew chief] Billy [Scott] did an unbelievable job in calling the game, calling the race and Tyler did a good job. He beat some good competition. You see [van Gisbergen] coming back there, you get a little nervous, but I think he had them covered pretty much the whole day.”
“I’m proud of the team that we put together,” Jordan added. “Denny [Hamlin], I’m sure, [feels] the same way. He feels the same way as I do. I think a lot of credit goes to him because I think he’s the mastermind behind finding Tyler, putting together Billy Scott and all that. I just put up the money. I’m just a competitor, but I think Denny’s done an unbelievable job in terms of helping build this team. I think the team has done a good job in just taking our leadership and going out and winning. That’s what it’s about. Winning. I’ll be at Phoenix [next weekend]!”
Van Gisbergen, who was attempting to win a road course event in the Cup Series for a historic sixth consecutive time, settled in the runner-up spot as he also fell short of sweeping the weekend at COTA following his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory on Saturday. Despite ending up one position short, van Gisbergen achieved his first top-five result of the 2026 season.
“It’s weird to be disappointed with second,” van Gisbergen. “This area’s just at a high level. I felt OK. We got our Safety Culture Chevy a lot better than yesterday, but just following Tyler, his driving was immaculate. His car was very good too. I tried, but didn’t quite have enough. Still a great points day for the No. 97 [team].”
Christopher Bell rallied from a two-race slump to start the 2026 season by finishing third while teammate Ty Gibbs and Michael McDowell finished in the top five. Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin completed the top 10, respectively.
There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The event featured three cautions for 10 laps. In addition, 33 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season at COTA, Tyler Reddick continues to lead the standings by 70 points over teammate Bubba Wallace, 72 over Chase Elliott, 86 over Ryan Blaney and 96 over both Shane van Gisbergen and Joey Logano.
Circuit of the Americas (COTA) Results:
1. Tyler Reddick, 58 laps led
2. Shane van Gisbergen, two laps led
3. Christopher Bell
4. Ty Gibbs, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
5. Michael McDowell, five laps led
6. Kyle Larson
7. Chase Elliott
8. Ryan Blaney, 11 laps led
9. AJ Allmendinger, one lap led
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Bubba Wallace
12. Kyle Busch
13. William Byron, one lap led
14. Connor Zilisch
15. Joey Logano
16. Ty Dillon
17. John Hunter Nemechek
18. Ryan Preece
19. Austin Dillon
20. Brad Keselowski
21. Todd Gilliland
22. Noah Gragson
23. Riley Herbst
24. Chris Buescher
25. Daniel Suarez
26. Josh Berry
27. Jesse Love
28. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
29. Cole Custer
30. Cody Ware
31. Carson Hocevar
32. Austin Cindric
33. Zane Smith
34. Erik Jones, two laps down
35. Ross Chastain, two laps down, four laps led, Stage 1 winner
36. Alex Bowman, six laps down
37. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Transaxle, eight laps led
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, for the Straight Talk Wireless 500. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 8, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
