Tyler Reddick Makes History with COTA Victory

Tyler Reddick has been unrivaled after winning Sunday’s DuraMax Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas (COTA). (Photo: Nigel Kinrade | Nigel Kinrade Photography)

DEL VALLE, Texas — NASCAR Cup Series history was created at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, as Tyler Reddick became the first driver to reign victorious in the opening three races of the season by winning the DuraMax Texas Grand Prix Powered by Reladyne.

Reddick led a race-high 58 laps en route to his 11th career victory to go along with matching a career-high in total wins in a season with three.

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

For the majority of the race, Reddick was being chased down by Ryan Blaney, who was never able to get past him for the lead. The final restart saw a change in the challenger behind Reddick, as van Gisbergen was able to move up to second place quickly after the final restart of the race on Lap 79.

From then on, it was a sprint to the finish, and even though van Gisbergen got close, Reddick held him off every time, ending SVG’s dominating winning streak on road courses.

“We worked really hard,” he said. “We did not like getting beaten 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.”

The historic start to the season has given Reddick a huge lead in the point standings, currently holding a 70-point advantage over second place, which is his 23XI Racing teammate, Bubba Wallace.

With a second-place finish, van Gisbergen’s road course win streak comes to a halt at five. After passing Blaney for second on the final restart, it was looking like van Gisbergen was going to find his way back to Victory Lane, but he came up just short.

Tyler Reddick’s hot start and road course prowess was enough to hold off a an adept Shane van Gisbergen at COTA. (Photo: Matthew T. Thacker | Nigel Kinrade Photography)

“We lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive,” said van Gisbergen. “Tyler (Reddick) 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 team, which is what we need for getting into The Chase.”

The runner-up finish and earning 10 stage points moved SVG up to fifth place in the point standings as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to a string of more “traditional-styled” tracks.

Even with the great points day, van Gisbergen was still a little disappointed to not be able to extend his road course winning streak to six in a row.

“It was still an amazing result, but you’re always disappointed with second when the expectations are so high,” van Gisbergen said. “But overall, it was a really good day.”

Christopher Bell finished in third, Ty Gibbs scored a fourth-place finish and Michael McDowell rounded out the top five.

Scoring top 10 finishes were Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Blaney, AJ Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin.

Following his ninth-place finish, Allmendinger needed medical attention on pit road and was treated in the infield care center following a cool shirt failure during the race.

Alex Bowman was also unable to finish the race because of an illness and was replaced by part-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver and pit road spotter Myatt Snider, leading to a 36th-place finish.

Next weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix Raceway for the Straight Talk Wireless 500 on Sunday, March 8, at 3:30 p.m. EST on FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio adn HBO Max.

Stage 1 Top 10 Results

1. Ross Chastain
2. Shane van Gisbergen
3. Michael McDowell
4. Chris Buescher
5. AJ Allmendinger
6. Ty Gibbs
7. Alex Bowman
8. Chase Elliott
9. Carson Hocevar
10. Denny Hamlin

Stage 2 Top 10 Results

1. Ty Gibbs
2. AJ Allmendinger
3. Daniel Suarez
4. Todd Gilliland
5. Tyler Reddick
6. Bubba Wallace
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Cole Custer
9. William Byron
10. Shane van Gisbergen

Tyler Reddick burns it down after winning Sunday’s DuraMax Texas Grand Prix at COTA. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade | Nigel Kinrade Photography)

DuraMax Texas Grand Prix Powered by Reladyne at Circuit of the Americas Finishing Results