NASCAR News: Reddick holds off Van Gisbergen for 3-in-row at COTA

Using the superior horsepower of his 23XI Toyota, Tyler Reddick (pictured) won his third NASCAR Cup race in a row in the Duramax Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. He held off Shane van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Chevy that got blown off down the straights all race long.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

It’s the first time a NASCAR Cup driver has won the first three races of the season since 1949 as he extends his points lead. Reddick won from pole, his Toyota showing its superiority all weekend long. It was his 2nd win at COTA.

Additionally, 23XI Racing becomes the first team to win the opening three races of the season since Petty Enterprises did it in 1963.

Christopher Bell came home third in the #20 Joe Gibbs Toyota, 4.7s behind Reddick

Ty Gibbs also had a superior Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and brought it home 4th, 8.1s behind Reddick.

Michael McDowell rounded out the top-5 in the #71 Chevy, 10.4s behind the #45 Toyota.

Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 10.

Alex Bowman exited his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet due to illness after completing 70 laps. Replacing him was Myatt Snider, a former winner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, making his first Cup Series appearance.

“It was an unexpected situation,” said Jeff Andrews, President and General Manager of Hendrick Motorsports. “Alex wasn’t feeling well enough to continue, so we made the call to get him out of the car. It came on suddenly. He was seen in the care center and received fluids, but we don’t have anything further to share at this time. We’re grateful to Myatt for stepping in on such short notice.”

AJ Allmendinger lost his cooling shirt during the race. The shirt is designed to pump cold water through tubs and drastically cool the body.

The driver stated over the radio that he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to finish the race. But, he did.

After the checkered flag, Allmendinger pulled to the pit lane and climbed from his car. He went right to the ground.

The safety team was on the scene in a hurry. They placed him on a stretcher and wheeled him to the infield care center.

Allmendinger wasn’t the only driver struggling.

Kyle Larson also suffered from a failing cooling suit. However, he appeared to be okay after the finish of the race.

Roughly 30 minutes later, NASCAR provided the following update:

NASCAR stated, “AJ Allmendinger has been evaluated and released from the infield care center.”

Top-3 Quotes

Tyler Reddick – 1st place

Tyler Reddick gets to celebrate making history in NASCAR, celebrating with the family, celebrating with Michael Jordan and his kids. No one has ever won three races to start a year. You make history here today. What does that mean to you?

TYLER REDDICK: It means the world. Yeah, it’s so fitting. We get going at the end there and I’m leading and there’s SVG, the guy I’ve been trying to beat for a while now. Just to be able to out last 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.

Bring me through those final laps. You talked about being able to hold off SVG who’s one of the best to do it on road courses. What were you telling yourself in that moment?

TYLER REDDICK: 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. 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.

Michael Jordan (winning car owner)

Michael Jordan is out of breath. That’s three weeks in a row. 77-year history of NASCAR, this has never been done. What can you say about the domination by your team today?

MICHAEL JORDAN: It’s time for change. Time for change, and the guys feel the same thing. Tyler came in with the most pressure, I guess. Everybody expected him or he had a chance to win three in a row, and that’s the hardest one to win. He kept to his strategy, and man, the guys put together a great car.

I think Billy did an unbelievable job in calling the game, calling the race, and Tyler did a good job. He beat some good competition.

You see SVG coming back there, you get a little nervous, but I think he had him covered pretty much the whole day.

The records, the wins, the trophies, what does this mean to you as a team owner in this sport?

MICHAEL JORDAN: I’m proud of the team that we’ve put together. Denny I’m pretty sure is the same way. He feels the same way I do. I think a lot of credit goes to him because I think he’s the mastermind behind finding Tyler and putting together Billy Scott.

Look, I just put up the money. I’m just a competitor. But I think Denny has done an unbelievable job in terms of helping build this team, and I think the team has done a good job of taking on leadership and going out and winning. That’s what it’s about, winning.

Shane van Gisbergen – 2nd place

Shane van Gisbergen, came up just a little bit short. You caught Tyler at one point there. Looked like you maybe just didn’t have quite enough.

SHANE van GISBERGEN: Yeah, it’s weird to be disappointed with second, but this series is just at a high level. I felt, okay, we got our SafetyCulture Chevy at lot better than yesterday, but just following Tyler, his driving was immaculate and his car was very good, too. I tried, but didn’t quite have enough. Still a great points day for the 97.

Christopher Bell – 3rd Place

Christopher, you guys had that alternate strategy towards the end. Looked like maybe you were trying to reel them in. What more did you need as you got down to the finish?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I got that great restart on new tires, and I’m like, I’m in position here, baby, we’re going to do this. Just sold out. All race long whenever I was on equal tires with guys I was falling backwards. So strategy worked out. Super thankful that Adam Stevens called a really good race, got us on offense, got me a tire advantage over the field, and then I was able to salvage a good finish out of it.

Yeah, it was an off road course race for us. Normally we’re stronger than that and got saved by some newer tires.

2026 Duramax GP at COTA Race Results