The racing gods are just being ridiculous now, having Tyler Reddick, from 23XI Racing, which sued the crap out of NASCAR and won, winning his third straight race to start the 2026 Cup Series season.
“It means the world,” said Reddick, who led a race-high 58 of 95 laps, and beat runner-up Shane van Gisbergen by 3.944 seconds in the DuraMax Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas in Austin on Sunday. “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 outlast him there and hold on for the win is just incredible.”
Reddick made history with the win; he’s the only driver to ever win the first three races of a Cup Series season.
Teammate Bubba Wallace, who finished 11th on Sunday, is second in the series standings through three races, which, again, this is just silly, all this success for 23XI, on the heels of pantsing NASCAR in court in December, forcing the circuit to settle to save face.
“He had a chance to win three in a row, and that’s the hardest one to win,” said team co-owner Michael Jordan, who led the Chicago Bulls to three straight NBA titles on two separate occasions.
“He kept to his strategy, and, man, the guys put together a great car,” Jordan said.
Van Gisbergen, who had won the past five NASCAR Cup Series road-course races, said Reddick was “just amazing.”
“The way he was driving was really good, and his car was good,” van Gisbergen said. “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,” van Gisbergen said.
Defending race winner Christopher Bell finished third, followed by Stage 2 winner Ty Gibbs and Michael McDowell.
AJ Allmendinger finished ninth, and needed medical attention after the race, thanks to a failure of his cool shirt in the Texas heat, with track temperatures measured at 109 degrees at the start of the race.
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Chris Graham
