Who … should you be talking about after the checkered flag?
What do race car drivers have nightmares about? How about a late restart on a road course with Shane van Gisbergen starting right behind you with the last five road course wins in his bag of tricks?
That nightmare scenario became all too real for Tyler Reddick on Sunday at Circuit of the Americas. Reddick, who had already won the first two races of 2026, started from the pole at COTA in his bid to open the season with three straight wins, something no driver had ever been able to pull off. He faded a bit in the first stage, but he and his team were far from through, making the adjustments Reddick needed to challenge for the top spot all day long, leading a race-high 58 laps.
On the final restart, van Gisbergen made quick work of Ryan Blaney, who had been dogging Reddick for much of the final stage, and set his sights on Reddick. But if Reddick felt any additional pressure from having NASCAR’s top road warrior breathing down his neck, he didn’t show it. Reddick hit every mark in the closing laps, pulling away from van Gisbergen to win the DuraMax Texas Grand Prix by 3.94 seconds over the No. 97, denying van Gisbergen a historic moment of his own as a sixth straight road course victory would have tied him with Jeff Gordon for the most consecutive road course wins of all time.
History made.
On the other hand …
Just one car didn’t make it to the finish line on Sunday: the No. 19 of Chase Briscoe suffered a transaxle failure in the final stage, relegating Briscoe to a 37th and last-place finish.
It’s Briscoe’s second finish of 36th or worse to open the year; however, his second-place result last weekend is probably more indicative of what he and his team are capable of. Briscoe had a strong finish to 2025, and with Joe Gibbs Racing as a whole stumbling a bit out of the starting gate, it’s likely the ship will right in plenty of time for Briscoe to be a Chase contender.
Tyler Reddick Wins 3rd Straight, Holds On at COTA
What … is the big question everyone should be asking after the race?
If the offseason lawsuit between team ownership and NASCAR was a distraction for 23XI Racing, it certainly hasn’t shown in the first three weeks of 2026 as the team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan has come out swinging. Where did the team’s season-opening hot streak come from and how long will it last?
Whatever the reason, 23XI is looking very strong. Outside of Reddick’s win streak, Bubba Wallace had his worst finish of 2026 on Sunday … and finished 11th. The No. 35 car is still a weak link, and whether that’s car or driver, it’s worth keeping an eye on, but it so far hasn’t been a concern in terms of affecting the other two teams. Riley Herbst’s performance at some point needs to be addressed — he brings sponsorship but has underperformed.
For Reddick, 2025 did have some distractions, from how the lawsuit and uncertainty surrounding the team’s charter affected his contract to health concerns for his youngest child, but those seem to be things of the past. Wallace is finding consistency and is displaying a level-headedness he has sometimes lacked in the past.
No, they won’t win every race, but certainly the organization is firing on all cylinders to open the season. It’s a long year, and a great start certainly doesn’t guarantee a great finish. But Reddick looks to be realizing the immense potential he has shown since winning back-to-back O’Reilly Series titles, and the team is rising to the occasion.
Where … did he come from?
His finish didn’t paint an accurate picture of Connor Zilisch’s day. Zilisch qualified 25th, which, for many rookies would just be a day of logging laps and learning, but for Zilisch, it was just a minor speedbump.
Sure, he took his lumps — most of them in turn 1 — but all in all, he showed everyone what the hype was about.
After starting deep in the field, Zilisch worked his way steadily forward. He climbed into the top 10, only to see his early success derailed by a spin in the first turn. Undeterred, Zilisch hit the reset button and did it all again, working his way up to fourth on what would be the final restart, next to teammate van Gisbergen and just behind the leaders.
Zilisch was careful entering the hairpin first turn, but a chain reaction that started three cars to his left ended with the No. 88 going around again. And again he rebounded, working his way back to 14th before time ran out.
All in all, Zilisch showed a great deal of patience and determination. He races with a maturity beyond his 19 years, and, while he’s going to make mistakes, he’s already showing that he can also overcome them.
When … are we going to talk about the points?
Wins aren’t a guaranteed entry into the championship race any more, but winning certainly goes a long way in maximizing a driver’s chances. Reddick holds a 70-point lead over teammate Wallace, more than a full race’s worth of points in just three weeks. That’s a nice cushion, but there are also a lot of weeks left in the season.
What Reddick hasn’t done is win race stages, but Wallace has, with a series-leading two stage wins. Those points give Wallace a two-point advantage over third-place Chase Elliott after the first three weeks. Blaney is 14 behind Elliott in fourth, and van Gisbergen rounds out the top five after his strong showing at EchoPark Speedway last week. If he can hover in the top 15 on ovals this year, he could make the Chase cut, but that’s still a question mark.
Joey Logano is tied with van Gisbergen at 96 points behind Reddick (SVG has the tiebreaker for now with his runner-up at COTA). Daniel Suarez holds down seventh, 99 points behind Reddick and three ahead of AJ Allmendinger in eighth. Allmendinger gutted out a top 10 at COTA despite a cool suit failure and was taken to the infield care center after the race.
Spire Motorsports teammates Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar round out the top 10, 103 and 104 points back, respectively.
Why … should you be paying attention this week?
The next few races will give the best look at what most teams really have for 2026. With the first three races on two drafting tracks and a road course, the picture of who will be a real threat isn’t quite in focus. However, the Cup series has three ovals of a mile or larger before seeing a pair of short tracks and another intermediate on the calendar for the next six weeks.
The series heads to the flat mile at Phoenix Raceway next week, and that will also be the first look at the higher horsepower package on an oval outside of the non-points Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. That should give an idea of whether the power alone makes a difference in the racing, or if aerodynamic changes are still the bigger issue with the Next Gen car.
Christopher Bell won the spring race in Phoenix last year, and he’s been solid there in general. Kyle Larson leads the Cup Series at Phoenix with a 10.3 average, just ahead of Hamlin (10.5) who has two wins there to Larson’s one. Logano has the most wins among active drivers with four.
The other thing that may make a difference in the racing at Phoenix in particular are the changes in both the schedule and championship format. Not only is the finale moving to Homestead-Miami Speedway this year, but the Chase 2.0 format makes racing for points more important than a test run for the title race, so that could contribute to a racier show in the spring.
How… did this race stack up?
While it didn’t feature the type of nail-biting finish that drafting races often do, the first road course race of the year was solid. Yes, Reddick ran away with it, but sometimes that’s just part of racing: a team shows up with a dominant car and a confident driver and steals the show.
If you’re a fan of rampant chaos, it might not have delivered, because the drivers have figured out COTA’s tight turns, but that also means they are learning how to use those corners to their advantage.
Drivers could make passes when they had the car to make it work and positioned themselves right. Drivers could dog the car in front of them and capitalize on mistakes. Reddick’s dominance looked more like a combination of an outstanding driver and a great car than an instance of not enough horsepower to pass or of the aerodynamics of clean air.
All in all, COTA has been a positive addition to the Cup Series schedule, and Sunday’s race was a fun race to watch with plenty of storylines throughout the race. It’s also in a good spot on the schedule as south central Texas is certainly warmer than much of the country, and spreading out the races on different types of tracks makes a lot of sense.
Why does Jimmie Johnson keep appearing on TV? He looks more than ten years older than he is and he never went up against Dale Earnhardt!
TV, been wondering myself. I was a jj fan but realized that in all honesty, he was only good driving that one type of car. That car and jj came together perfectly for jj. And everything since then, well we’ve all seen the results.
Remember the car switched in 2008 in the middle of his dynasty.
But you’re right it is strange that he won the 2016 championship and then fell off the cliff afterwards.