Tyler Reddick celebrates with his son, Beau and his 23XI Racing teammates after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Photo credit: Harold Hinson Photography.
23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick becomes the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three Cup Series races in a season.
Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen finishes runner-up to end his five-race winning streak on road/street courses dating to last season.
AUSTIN, Texas (March 1, 2026) – Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing became the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three Cup Series races to start a season after securing Sunday’s victory in the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne at Circuit of The Americas.
Reddick (No. 45 Chumba Casino Toyota) turned in a “Jordanesque” performance, starting from the pole, leading a race-high 58 laps and masterfully fending off road-course master Shane van Gisbergen of Trackhouse Racing in the closing laps for a 3.944-second victory.
Reddick opened the season with back-to-back wins at the season-opening Daytona 500 and last week at EchoPark Speedway for the team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and NASCAR star Denny Hamlin. He punctuated his stellar start to the 2026 campaign by becoming the first two-time NASCAR at COTA winner in the event’s six-year history while cementing his name in the NASCAR record books.
“It means the world,” said Reddick, whose historic victory was the 11th of his Cup Series career. “Yeah, it’s so fitting. We get going at the end there and I’m leading and there’s SVG, the guy I’ve been trying to beat for a while now. Just to be able to outlast him there and hold on for the win is just incredible.”
“…It’s pretty crazy. I’m just trying to soak it all in, honestly.”
“What a dream start for those guys,” said Hamlin, who finished 10th on Sunday. “… They’re locked in right now. Tyler is locked in. He was just so poised from qualifying day. You can’t get poles at this type of race track unless you are just really disciplined and where I’m looking from, where I restarted there, and he is under attack on the first two laps on the restart and he stayed absolutely disciplined and didn’t make any mistakes. That’s what champions are made of, and he is well on his way.”
“Look, I just put up the money. I’m just a competitor,” added Jordan about his ownership role. “But I think Denny has done an unbelievable job in terms of helping build this team, and I think the team has done a good job of taking on leadership and going out and winning. That’s what it’s about, winning.”
Reddick started on the pole of the 95-lap race on the 2.41-mile National Course, but did not lead a lap or finish among the top 10 in the first stage as the strategy prioritized tire conservation. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who started second, won the stage while van Gisbergen, who won Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 250, improved 11 positions from this starting position to move into second.
Reddick finished fifth in the second stage – won by Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing – but flexed his muscle by leading 18 of the 25 laps in the segment. He led early in the final 50-lap stage for 20 laps before the final cycle of pit stops and a caution from Laps 76-78, which set up a potential showdown with van Gisbergen. Reddick maintained his lead on the restart with van Gisbergen, who won five of the six Cup Series road/street races last season, lurking on his tail in second. With 10 laps remaining, van Gisbergen was in striking distance at just 0.367 of a second behind.
The dramatic pass never materialized as Reddick methodically stretched his lead over van Gisbergen. He opened up a one-second lead with seven laps remaining and eliminated any drama by extending it to more than three seconds with three to go.
“We lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive,” van Gisbergen said. “Tyler was amazing. The way he was driving was really good, and his car was good. … It was still an amazing result, but you’re always disappointed with second when the expectations are so high.”
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell, the 2025 NASCAR at COTA winner, finished third and Gibbs and Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell rounded out the top five, respectively.
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Competition is more than entertainment — it is part of identity. Whether it is following NASCAR on a Sunday afternoon or exploring digital tables and spinning reels late at night, the attraction remains the same: uncertainty, pressure, and the chance to come out ahead through smart decisions.
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The Nature of Risk: Managed, Not Avoided
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Calculation: Where Strategy Meets Mathematics
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Volatility and Track Position: A Surprising Parallel
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Neither approach is universally superior. The choice depends on temperament, goals, and tolerance for fluctuation. Professional racers know this. Skilled players learn it.
Composure Under Pressure
Perhaps the strongest bridge between auto racing and probability-driven entertainment is emotional control.
A driver who panics after a bump loses focus. A rushed restart can erase hours of preparation. Champions remain calm even when radios are filled with chaos.
The same psychological discipline matters in environments governed by random outcomes. Short-term variance can create emotional swings. A string of unfavorable results may tempt a player to increase exposure beyond their plan.
Composure prevents reactive decisions.
Greek culture values resilience. The ability to stay grounded during turbulence is deeply familiar to many who built new lives in the United States. That resilience translates directly into smarter entertainment choices.
At VegasHero Casino, where digital tables, sports lines, and reward-driven incentives coexist, composure becomes a strategic advantage. Bonus structures and promotional offers can enhance play when used intentionally, but they require clarity and discipline to serve their purpose effectively.
Bankroll Management: The Crew Chief Within
Every driver has a crew chief guiding decisions. In probability-based play, bankroll management serves that role.
Setting limits. Defining session budgets. Avoiding emotional doubling. These are not restrictions; they are strategic guardrails.
Just as a team would never run an engine beyond safe temperature thresholds, a thoughtful player respects predefined boundaries.
Community, Competition, and Identity
For Greek players living in America, competitive environments often carry cultural meaning. Family discussions about sports. Friendly rivalries. Strategic debates.
Digital gaming spaces extend that competitive instinct into another format. Leaderboards, tournament-style events, and structured promotions create opportunities to test judgment within defined systems.
Access to a secure, structured environment matters. Through the online gaming and bonus-driven platform at vegas-hero.com, players can explore tables, reels, and promotional rewards within a controlled digital framework that mirrors the organized intensity of race weekends.
Risk should be measured.Calculation should guide action.Composure should anchor decisions.
These principles apply equally to environments built on probability. Randomness will always exist. What distinguishes outcomes over time is not emotion or impulse but method.
In racing, preparation meets unpredictability at 180 miles per hour.
In probability-based gaming, preparation meets randomness in milliseconds.
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Those who understand risk without fearing it, who calculate before committing, and who remain composed regardless of short-term swings position themselves differently. Not guaranteed success, but structured engagement.
For members of the Greek-American community who appreciate both the roar of engines and the quiet tension of probability unfolding, the connection is clear.
Competition, when approached intelligently, becomes less about chance and more about character.
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.
Photo by Jake Daugherty for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[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.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - MARCH 1: Alex Palou, driver of the #10 DHL Honda, celebrates victory in the NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 1, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo: Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Alex Palou dominated and won an IndyCar race.
The driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda pulled an overcut to take the lead under the second caution and led 59 of 100 laps on his way to winning on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, for the second year in a row.
“Incredible,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know what to say from this team anymore. It’s been a long offseason. I was sad last year that the season ended. I just wanted to continue going, because I knew it was so magical and so tough to get such a great car, such a great team behind me.
“Yeah, this team has done it again here for this weekend. It’s very early on, but still, I think that shows all the preparation they did, and I had by far the best car today.”
It’s his 20th career victory in his 99th NTT INDYCAR Series start and first of the 2026 season.
Pole sitter Scott McLaughlin overtook Kyle Kirkwood in Turn 10 with seven laps to go to finish runner-up. Christian Lundgaard followed suite in Turns 11 and 12 to round out the podium.
“Obviously you want to be top step,” McLaughlin said. “I think that was a solid day for us. I think we maximized our strategy. I think it was going to go one way or the other with tires.
“I maybe thought the black tire could have probably performed a little bit better in that first stint, but yeah, my car just didn’t probably turn that tire on well enough. Wanted to pull a gap, but I was also trying to save fuel and make it a two-stop in some ways.
“Yeah, it was a difficult first stint, and then I sort of got stuck behind the Andretti guys when they were losing their tires. I thought our car was really good. Just probably was a little bit hidden today just where it was position on track, but that’s okay.
“Like I said, I think we maximized our day. No mistakes. Pit road was great. Yeah, just good start.”
“Yeah, I mean, I didn’t know I led a lap, so that’s a bonus, I guess,” Lundgaard said.
“No, it was a good race. I think we just very clearly just missed it in qualifying yesterday. We made some changes after P2 that just simply didn’t work.
“Got out of the car. Obviously didn’t transfer from Q2 and wasn’t necessarily that upset, because I knew exactly where we had gone wrong. It was just undo that, and I think the car just came alive like we expected it to today.
“Again, you have to do the job out there, and I thought it was a very exciting way to start out the season.”
Kirkwood posted the fastest lap on his way to a fourth-place finish and Pato O’Ward rounded out the top-five.
Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Romain Grosjean, Rinus VeeKay and Dennis Hauger rounded out the top-10.
Alex Palou whoops field at St. Pete
Race summary
McLaughlin led the field to green at 12:28 p.m. ET. Caution flew on the first lap when Sting Ray Robb pulled inside of Santino Ferrucci and locked up in Turn 4. Which put them both into the tire barrier and collected Mick Schumacher, too. Robb received a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty for avoidable contact.
Back to green on Lap 6, the field settled into a green flag run. Green flag pit stops commenced on Lap 22. McLaughlin pitted from the lead on Lap 35 and took Firestone reds. Ericsson pitted from the lead on Lap 36, took Firestone reds and cycled out ahead of McLaughlin. They made contact with each other on the exit of Turn 3 on Lap 38. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 38, took Firestone reds and cycled out ahead of Ericsson. Scott Dixon, who pitted under the pitted from the lead on Lap 39. After exiting the pits, Dixon’s lost his right-rear wheel in Turn 4 and caution flew for the second time on Lap 40. Louis Foster pitted from the lead under the caution and Palou cycled to the lead.
Back to green on Lap 44, the race again settled into a green flag run. By Lap 60, Palou pulled out to a seven-second lead over Ericsson. By Lap 63, the gap grew to nine seconds. On Lap 65, McLaughlin overtook Ericsson into Turn 1 for second. Kirkwood kicked off a round of green flag stops on Lap 66. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 67 and took Firestone blacks. McLaughlin pitted from the lead on Lap 68. Christian Lundgaard pitted from the lead on Lap 69. Josef Newgarden pitted from the lead on Lap 70 and Palou cycled back to the lead.
As he did in the previous run, Palou pulled away from the field on his way to victory for the second year in a row at St. Petersburg, Florida.
Alex Palou whoops field at St. Pete
What else happened
David Malukas, in his first race for Team Penske, locked up into Turn 1 on the Lap 6 restart. On Lap 12, his left-front tire went flat and he limped his way to pit road. He went a lap down in the process.
Will Power, in his first race for Andretti Global, brushed the wall in Turn 10 on Lap 21, in a carbon copy of his wreck in practice, and made an unscheduled stop. He radioed that the “right-rear suspension is bent.” He hopped out of the car, but the team repaired the damage and he returned to the race 30 laps down.
The race lasted one hour, 52 minutes and 21 seconds, at an average speed of 96.118 mph. There were eight lead changes among seven different drivers and two cautions for seven laps.
Palou leaves St. Petersburg, Florida, with a 13-point lead over McLaughlin.
Austin Dillon and the No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE (budesonide, glycopyrrolate, and formoterol fumarate)® Team Show Adversity En Route to Top-20 Finish at Circuit of The Americas
Finish: 19th Start: 33rd Points: 34th
“This No. 3 team just never gives up, man. We had to work hard for that one today. Things kept putting us in the back and we would drive forward. I flat-spotted a tire in the opening laps which affected the balance of our BREZTRI AEROSPHERE (budesonide, glycopyrrolate, and formoterol fumarate)® Chevrolet in Stage 1. We made a good pit call to gain track position and showed the pace that our car had in Stage 2. Unfortunately, a bolt came loose in our shifter handle which put us behind to start the last stage. We kept chipping away at it and then got behind again with contact on pit road. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Proud of the effort.” -Austin Dillon
Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Rebel Root Beer Whiskey Chevrolet Persevere Making Impactful Adjustments to Finish Inside the Top-15 at Circuit of The Americas
Finish: 12th Start: 30th Points: 22nd
“The entire No. 8 Rebel Root Beer Whiskey Chevrolet team battled all day here at Circuit of The Americas. We started deep in the field and were able to make the needed adjustments to drive inside the Top 15. I’m proud of everyone’s efforts today and now we’ll turn our attention West as we head to Phoenix next weekend.”-Kyle Busch
Jesse Love and the No. 33 C4 Energy Chevrolet Show Flashes of Brilliance at Circuit of The Americas, Finishing the Day 27th
Finish: 27th Start: 27th Points: N/A
“We ended up with some tow link damage today that affected our race, but overall the No. 33 C4 Chevrolet was pretty good. We got our handling better throughout the day and even though we made gains at it, we never got it exactly where I wanted it to be. All of the pieces were there today but we never put them together.” – Jesse Love
RICK WARE RACING DuraMax Grand Prix Date: March 1, 2026 Event: DuraMax Grand Prix powered by RelaDyne (Round 3 of 36) Series: NASCAR Cup Series Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas (2.4-mile, 20-turn road course) Format: 95 laps, broken into three stages (20 laps/25 laps/50 laps)
● Cody Ware (Started 37th, Finished 30th / Running, completed 95 of 95 laps)
RWR Points:
● Cody Ware (33rd with 37 points)
Race Notes:
● Tyler Reddick won the DuraMax Grand Prix to score his 11th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season and his second at COTA. His margin over second-place Shane van Gisbergen was 3.944 seconds.
● There were three caution periods for a total of 10 laps.
● All but four of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Reddick remains the championship leader after COTA with a 70-point advantage over second-place Bubba Wallace.
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Straight Talk Wireless 500k on Sunday, March 8 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Event: DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Location: Circuit of The Americas, Austin, Texas Date: Sunday, March 1, 2026 Start: 22nd Finish: 26th
Thanks to a late surge in Sunday’s DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, Josh Berry and the No. 21 DEX team were in contention for a top-25 finish before ultimately coming home 26th.
Berry started the first road-course race of the season from 22nd and finished Stage 1 – a 20-lap green-flag run – in the same position.
Following a pit stop during the Stage break, he restarted 33rd in Stage 2 and advanced to 22nd by the end of the 25-lap segment.
After another trip down pit road for service and adjustments to the DEX Ford Mustang Dark Horse, Berry restarted 37th and steadily worked his way up to 18th before making another stop on Lap 65. He rejoined the race in 34th and climbed back inside the top 30 before a caution flew for an incident involving Ross Chastain.
Berry made his final pit stop on Lap 76 of 95 and quickly returned to the top 30, briefly breaking into the top 25 with eight laps remaining. He slipped back one position in the closing laps to finish 26th, matching his result at the Austin, Texas, road course one year ago.
Berry and the Wood Brothers team now turn their focus to next Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
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.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our nearly 1,500 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 48,000 people in the U.S. who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of more than 35 million cars and trucks at our 11 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Sunday, March 1, 2026) – Alex Palou picked up right where he left off in 2025, opening the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season with a dominant victory in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Palou won his third consecutive and fourth overall series championship last season by a whopping 196 points, an advantage of more than three races, and he and Chip Ganassi Racing showed the same swagger on a sun-splashed Sunday in Florida.
Reigning event winner Palou, from Spain, cruised to his 20th career victory in just his 99th start, driving his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a 12.4948-second victory over the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet of NTT P1 Award winner Scott McLaughlin.
“This team keeps on improving, keeps on making new changes, and they just keep on raising the bar,” Palou said. “It’s pretty impressive. It’s a long season in front of us, but what a great way to start the season.”
Christian Lundgaard, who started 12th, rallied to complete the podium finishers in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Kyle Kirkwood dropped from second late in the 100-lap race to finish fourth in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda fielded by Andretti Global.
Pato O’Ward put two Arrow McLaren cars into the top five after finishing fifth in the team’s No. 5 Chevrolet.
This was the first race in which INDYCAR rules mandated the use of at least two sets of the softer Firestone Firehawk alternate tire with red sidewalls, throwing an additional strategic element into the racing mix. And, as usual, Palou and longtime strategist Barry Wanser made all the right calls.
The decisive moment of the race came on Laps 36 and 37. Team Penske called leader McLaughlin to the pits at the end of Lap 35, with Marcus Ericsson assuming the lead from second in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda. Andretti Global summoned Ericsson to the pits at the end of Lap 36, with Palou taking the top spot.
But instead of calling Palou to the pits on the next lap, Wanser and Palou decided to stay out until the end of Lap 38 on their original set of alternate tires in an “overcut” strategy. It worked.
Palou blended back on the 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit in front of McLaughlin and Ericsson. Once the rest of the leaders cycled through their pit stops, Palou found himself out front by Lap 42. He would only surrender the top spot during pit stop cycles to finish the race, leading 59 of the 100 laps.
There was a bit of suspense when Palou made his final pit stop at the end of Lap 67 with a 14-second lead on McLaughlin. Palou had used the required two sets of Firestone alternate tires in his first two stints and opted for the harder, but slower, Firestone primary tires for his final run to the finish.
Kirkwood and McLaughlin made their final stops at the end of Laps 65 and 68, respectively, both taking the softer but faster Firestone Firehawk alternate tires. That tire choice offered a glimpse of hope that Palou could be reeled in after he took the lead on Lap 70, but Kirkwood never got closer than 5.5 seconds in his pursuit despite the more grippy tires.
Palou, who started fourth, then pulled away at an astonishing rate over the closing laps to win by the largest margin in the 23 editions of this event.
“Those Firestones were like everlasting,” Palou said. “They would just keep going. I had an amazing car today.”
There was drama in the final 10 laps as McLaughlin and Lundgaard both took advantage of fresher tires to pass Kirkwood for the second and third positions on Lap 94.
“Our Chevy was fast, but it’s just a mixed bag on what tire you start on,” McLaughlin said. “Maybe we come back here again, and maybe you start on reds (alternate) and just get them out of the way. Overall, made the passes we needed to make at the right times, and I thought we maximized our day.”
Dennis Hauger, who qualified an impressive third, was the top finisher among the three rookies in the race, 10th in the No. 19 Ault Block Chain Honda of Dale Coyne Racing.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the Good Ranchers 250 on Saturday, March 7 at Phoenix Raceway, part of the “Desert Double” weekend at the 1-mile oval that also features a NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Sunday, March 1, 2026) – Nikita Johnson earned his first INDY NXT by Firestone victory Sunday, winning his hometown Grand Prix of St. Petersburg after prevailing in a duel of talented teenagers.
Johnson, from St. Petersburg, delivered his first victory in just his fourth career start in the INDYCAR development series. It also was the first INDY NXT victory for Cape Motorsports, which Johnson joined this offseason after a part-time foray last season in the series with HMD Motorsports.
“I can’t thank the boys from Cape Motorsports enough and everyone from ECR who has been helping us,” Johnson said. “It’s a pretty amazing feeling to get my first win in INDY NXT and Cape’s first win in INDY NXT. I can’t wait to see all my friends and family.”
Series rookie Johnson, 17, drove his No. 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR entry to victory by .6990 of a second over pole sitter Max Taylor, 18, in the No. 28 Susan G. Komen car of Andretti Global. Rookie Tymek Kucharczyk rounded out the podium finishers in his first INDY NXT start by placing third in the No. 71 HMD Motorsports entry, 5.055 seconds behind Johnson.
Andretti Global took three of the top five spots. Seb Murray placed fourth in the No. 27 Prosperity machine, while Lochie Hughes rounded out the top five in the No. 26 car.
Johnson wasted no time asserting his command of this race, scheduled for 45 laps but halted on time after 55 minutes. He started second and used a bold, sweeping move to the outside of Taylor in Turn 1 at the start to grab a lead he would never relinquish.
“It was pretty straight up,” Johnson said. “I reviewed some video from previous years on YouTube, the INDY NXT channel. I knew I wanted to get up front quickly, and I did just that. I went into Turn 1 and knew what he (Taylor) was going to do before he did it and just went around the outside. After that, I kept it pretty simple, tried to keep a nice gap.”
Caution periods ended up being Johnson’s biggest foe besides Taylor. The race was slowed by four full-course yellows, but Johnson held off Taylor on each of the restarts.
Perhaps Taylor’s best chance came on a restart on Lap 20. He tried the same move Johnson used to gain the lead on Lap 1, but his attempt at a sweeping, outside pass was unsuccessful.
“All the restarts were pretty difficult,” Johnson said. “He (Taylor) caught on at one point, and I had throw in a little curve ball and change it up.”
Taylor maintained pressure on Johnson for the entire race, never trailing by more than a second and keeping his car usually within six- or seven-tenths of the leader. But Taylor also never got close enough after restarts to mount a serious challenge to the race lead.
The two teens traded blows over the closing laps. Johnson turned his quickest lap of the race on Lap 38, but Taylor countered with the speediest lap overall on Lap 39.
“Good race overall, good points,” Taylor said. “Showed a lot of pace but just messed up on the start.
“The restarts were very difficult to get right. Just kept trying to apply the pressure, trying different things. Probably could have had an opportunity to pass him there, but you live and you learn.”
The next INDY NXT by Firestone race is the Grand Prix of Arlington on Sunday, March 15 on the streets of Arlington, Texas.
