History tends to creep into NASCAR seasons quietly. On Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas, it arrived with authority.
The storyline entering the weekend was clear. Tyler Reddick was chasing a third consecutive victory to open the season — a feat never accomplished in NASCAR Cup Series history. Shane van Gisbergen, meanwhile, came to Texas pursuing a sixth straight road course win, furthering his growing reputation as one of NASCAR’s premier road course specialists.
The tension ratcheted up Saturday. Reddick grabbed the pole. Hours later, van Gisbergen swatted the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race like it was a warm-up act. By Sunday morning, this felt less like a race and more like a prizefight.
America’s best versus the imported specialist. Popcorn optional.
But by the end of 95 laps Sunday, it was Reddick who added his name to the record book. In fact, he didn’t just answer the call — he yelled back from the mountaintop.
“Yeah, that’s pretty crazy,” Reddick said. “…just trying to soak it all in, honestly. I think it’s so fitting that it had to happen coming into here, a place where I got my first pole years ago, a place that, road course wise, is a great fit for me.”
And he did it with van Gisbergen looming in the mirrors like a horror movie villain who refuses to stay down.
“I think for me in the heat of the battle it’s like, all right, I’ve got to find a way to hold off Shane,” Reddick said. “But as I started to pull away, certainly, it’s like, all right, there’s a lot on the line here, hit your marks, don’t be a hero; you don’t have to win by eight seconds.
It’s so important to just not make mistakes because who know, Shane could have been playing games, right? Like back off a bit, see if I burn myself up, and I back up to him at the end of the race.
There’s so much going on there. He’s just so good on the road courses. Even when I was pulling away, right, it’s like, all right, I just didn’t let myself think it was over until it was truly over. Certainly used the pressure of what’s on the line to motivate myself to hit marks and close it out. “
Reddick led the most laps, controlled multiple restarts, and executed the decisive strategy during the final cycle of green-flag pit stops to earn his second career Cup Series victory at COTA — and his third straight win to begin the year. In a championship engineered to produce weekly chaos, three straight wins to open the season isn’t just impressive — it’s borderline rebellious, the sort of thing that forces NASCAR’s record keepers to add a new page to the record book: one with Tyler Reddick’s name at the top.
The pivotal sequence came during the final round of stops. With a slim gap over Ryan Blaney, Reddick was told to extend his lead before pitting. He did exactly that, creating enough margin to maintain control once the field cycled through. A late caution tightened the pack, but on the final restart with 17 laps remaining, Reddick cleared Turn 1 with the lead intact.
Van Gisbergen advanced to second with an aggressive move and gave chase, but Reddick steadily rebuilt the gap. Over the closing laps, the margin grew to 3.9 seconds — a definitive statement against one of the strongest road course competitors in recent memory.
Van Gisbergen finished second, followed by Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs and Michael McDowell in the top five.
The race unfolded as a strategic contest from the opening stage. Chase Briscoe grabbed the early lead, pacing the first eight laps before Blaney took control. Reddick briefly slipped from the pole position in traffic, while van Gisbergen charged from 13th to inside the top five by Lap 14, slicing through traffic like he had the cheat codes and sending a shot across the bow of Reddick’s Toyota.
Pit strategy shaped Stage 1’s ending. With several front-runners pitting before the stage break, Ross Chastain stayed out to claim the stage victory and valuable points, as 21 cars remained on track to maximize track position.
Stage 2 was where Reddick flexed. He grabbed the lead from Blaney and then radioed in that his Toyota felt like it might have a loose rear wheel. Most drivers would panic. Reddick simply drove faster. Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, carved forward again after a mid-pack restart, back inside the top 10 within two laps and into fifth by Lap 36.
Further back, rookie Connor Zilisch had a day that felt like a washing machine — spun early after contact with Daniel Suarez, buried deep, then improbably resurfacing inside the top five later as if he’d taken a shortcut through a parallel universe.
Green-flag stops flipped Stage 2 on its head. Gibbs inherited the lead and claimed the stage, while Reddick’s earlier stop left him fourth at the break. Van Gisbergen clawed back to the edge of the top 10. The duel was simmering.
The final stage — 46 laps with no scheduled stops — promised chaos. It delivered. Briscoe’s day detonated on Lap 63 with a failed transaxle that sent him to the garage. Bell short-pitted early for track position. The leaders — Reddick, Blaney and van Gisbergen — played a high-speed waiting game before diving in around Lap 68. For a heartbeat, van Gisbergen led. Then he blinked.
A caution on Lap 76, courtesy of Chastain losing a tire, reset everything with 17 laps to go. On the restart, Reddick launched cleanly. Van Gisbergen divebombed into second. Zilisch spun again in Turn 1 because COTA’s first corner demands a sacrifice apparently.
The closing act was exactly what everyone wanted: Reddick leading, van Gisbergen stalking. Bell, armed with fresher tires, hovered as a late threat. With five laps remaining, the order stabilized. The only gasp came when Carson Hocevar looped it on the front stretch on the final lap, threatening to turn a symphony into a demolition derby. He kept it rolling. Order restored.
Reddick crossed the line and made history — three straight to open the year. In an era built on parity, he’s rewriting the script in permanent marker.
Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Blaney, AJ Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin filled out the top 10.
Next stop: Phoenix Raceway, where the NASCAR Cup Series shares the billing in the sport’s first Cup–IndyCar doubleheader weekend. If COTA was a duel, Phoenix might be a bar fight. And at this rate, Reddick will arrive carrying the biggest chair.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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