Tyler Reddick made history Sunday that was 78 seasons in the making, having to beat NASCAR’s best road racer to do it.
The California native stormed away from Shane van Gisbergen in a 17-lap dash for his third straight win, taking the checkers at the DuraMax Texas Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas.
The 30-year-old Reddick became the first driver in the 78-year history of the NASCAR Cup Series to be victorious in the first three races of a season.
A winner of five straight road-course races, van Gisbergen pressured Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota on the final restart, got close in his No. 97 Chevrolet but watched the Camry XSE get smaller in front of him and win by 3.944 seconds.
“It means the world,” said Reddick, who led a race-high 58 laps in his second COTA victory. “It’s so fitting. We get going at the end there, I’m leading and there’s SVG. 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 is just incredible.”
van Gisbergen, who won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race Saturday, earned victories five times on road courses in 2025, but his only miss was one year ago in Texas.
“Just following Tyler, his driving was immaculate,” said the New Zealand native, who recorded his first top-five in the state capital. “His car was very good, too. I tried but just didn’t have enough.”
Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs and Michael McDowell completed the top five.
To open the first of four road races in 2026, Reddick of 23XI Racing paced the group around the 2.4-mile, 20-turn layout, but Chase Briscoe took the point right away with Ryan Blaney hounding the No. 19 Toyota and passing it on Lap 9.
Ross Chastain earned top points for the Stage 1 win, with van Gisbergen, McDowell, Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger completing the top five spots.
Running seventh on the restart, 19-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch was clipped by Daniel Suarez and spun entering Turn 1, sliding all the way to 37th.
Reddick repositioned his Toyota as soon as the green flag flew in the 25-lap Stage 2, and he led Blaney and William Byron for the top three spots as van Gisbergen moved up to fourth past Suarez.
Pitting began three laps early for a second time, and Reddick headed in for service while Gibbs, Allmendinger and Suarez took the first three spots at Stage 2’s completion.
On Lap 60, the best battle was a physical one between Bell, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch for ninth thru 11th, but Reddick’s Toyota continued to hold off Blaney by less than a second.
Bell became the first of the lead group to come to pit road for a final stop with 33 laps left, but Briscoe took his Toyota behind the wall for a rear-end problem.
On Lap 75, Chastain lost a wheel to bring out the third caution overall but the first for cause with McDowell, who stayed out while the entire field pitted, leading the race.
–Field Level Media
