DuraMax Texas Grand Prix: Tyler Reddick scores historic COTA win

AUSTIN, Texas — 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick made history on Sunday at Circuit of The Americas, becoming the first driver to win the first three races of a single NASCAR Cup Series season.

After winning the Daytona 500 and Autotrader 400, Reddick came out and not only started on pole, but led the most laps (58 laps led) and went to Victory Lane in the DuraMax Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne.

With his third consecutive victory in the bag, Reddick now sits 70 points ahead of 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace in the Cup Series standings.

“It means the world,” Reddick said. “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 outlast 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.”

“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,” Reddick added. 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.”

COTA is the site of Reddick’s first Cup Series win with 23XI. Now with 11 wins in his Cup career, the 2.4-mile Texas road course is the only track where Reddick has won more than once.

23XI co-owner and Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan was at the track for the third straight week to see Reddick win and make history.

According to statistician Daniel Céspedes, Reddick is the first driver in the Next Gen era to win back-to-back races from pole position, while also becoming the first driver since Kyle Larson in 2021 to accomplish this feat.

Shane van Gisbergen was the favorite to win at COTA, as the 36-year-old Trackhouse Racing driver was looking to win his sixth straight Cup Series road-course race. Although van Gisbergen did not get to tie Jeff Gordon’s record or get that Cup Series victory at COTA that has been alluding him, he was still happy to finish in the runner-up spot.

“Just a little bit of everything,” van Gisbergen said when asked what more he needed. “We lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive. Tyler (Reddick, race winner) was just amazing. The way he was driving was really good and his car was good. We just didn’t quite have enough, but it was a great points day for this No. 97 Safety Culture Chevrolet team, which is what we need for getting into the Chase. It was still an amazing result, but you’re always disappointed with second when the expectations are so high. But overall, it was a really good day.”

Results from the 2026 DuraMax Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne at Circuit of The Americas are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell (third) and Ty Gibbs (fourth) both put together impressive runs after starting the season with back-to-back finishes worse than 20th.

“We got really fortunate with the strategy,” Bell said. “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.”

Gibbs won Stage 2 (first career stage win on a road course) and scored 48 points, which was the second most among all drivers.

“It was really great,” Gibbs said about his top-five finish. “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.”

Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell ran up toward the front for most of the race and finished fifth. With the top five, McDowell, who is known as one of the top road-course racers in the sport, earned his first top 10 at COTA in the Next Gen era and his best overall finish at the Texas track.

“Overall, the No. 71 Katz Coffee Chevrolet was good,” McDowell said. “We didn’t need that last caution. We were running long there. I don’t know how the math would have worked out, but I think we would have had a good shot of having better tires over everyone else at the end, so that caution really hurt us. I think we restarted 12th or 13th, so to get back up into the top five is a solid day for this team. But we’re not looking for solid days, we’re looking for wins. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

Chris Buescher has now finished on the lead lap in 41 straight road-course races, dating back to Sonoma in 2017. This extends his Cup Series record.

Multiple drivers, including AJ Allmendinger and Alex Bowman, were experiencing sickness in their cars. Bowman was replaced in the final stage by part-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Myatt Snider.

Allmendinger, who finished inside the top five in Stage 1 and Stage 2, ninth in the race and scored the fourth most points of any driver (43 points), needed to be placed on a stretcher and carted to the infield care center after he got out of the car. Both drivers were checked and released from the infield care center.

The track temperature was over 100°F at the start of the race, with the heat likely playing a factor in the driver’s illnesses.

GRID RANKING

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system and will be released on Sunday, April 5, 2026.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

Tyler Reddick currently leads the NASCAR GRID Rating after three consecutive victories and is the projected leader of the GRID Ranking.