Tyler Reddick eyes a historic three-peat while 23XI Racing seeks continued dominance at the thrilling DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix
Race Information
Next Race: DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne
The Place: Circuit of The Americas
Track Length: 2.4 Mile Asphalt Road Course
The Date: Sunday, March 1
The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: FOX, 3:30 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 228.0 miles (95 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 20),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 45), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 95)
Tyler Reddick's Three-Peat Attempt
Tyler Reddick became the sixth driver to win the first two races in a Cup season last week at Atlanta
No driver has ever won the first three races
Finished top-10 in all five COTA races including a win in 2023
Finished top-10 in five of the last six road course races
23XI Racing's Breakthrough Season
Won consecutive races for the first time in team history (Daytona and Atlanta)
Won more through two races in 2026 than all of 2025, Bubba Wallace won the 2025 Brickyard 400
Became the ninth team to win the first two races of a season, and first since 2009 (RFK Racing), the last team to win the first
three races in a season was Petty Enterprises in 1963
Led 31% of the laps in 2026 so far (148 of 471), most of any team
Leads all teams with five top 10s in 2026, RFK Racing has the next most (3)
Two of the three drivers to finish Top-10 in both races in 2026 drive for 23XI (Reddick won both, Wallace finished 10th, 8th)
Historical Season Milestones
2026 marks the first season since 1988 Ford or Chevrolet failed to win either of the first two races of a season
This is the first time Toyota has ever won the first two races of a Cup Series season
This is the first season since 2020 that Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing each had only one top 10 through the first two races
The Cup Series has seen 122 lead changes through the first two races of 2026, a new record. The previous record was 105 lead changes, set in 2025
Kyle Busch made his 1,300th career NASCAR start at Atlanta, surpassing Kevin Harvick (1,299) for the most in NASCAR history
Points Battle Update
Due to the added points for a winner in 2026, Tyler Reddick currently has a 40 point lead over 2nd place in the points standings (Wallace), without the added points, his lead would be 10 points
The gap from 1st to 2nd is equal to the gap from 2nd to 16th in points
Currently, seven drivers who made the 2025 Playoffs are more than 80 points behind the points leader Tyler Reddick (Larson, Berry, Cindric, Hamlin, Bell, Bowman, Dillon)
Shane van Gisbergen's Road Course Dominance
Won the last five road course races, only Jeff Gordon won six straight (1997-2000)
Can become the first driver to get their first seven Cup wins on road courses
Scored his oval-best finish of 6th at Atlanta
COTA Race Trends
Only once has a stage winner gone on to win at COTA (Tyler Reddick – stage 2 in 2023)
The driver who led the most laps went on to win three of the four COTA races in the NextGen car, only Kyle Busch last year did not win
Three of the last four COTA races were caution free in each of the first two stages
The five COTA races had nine different stage winners, only Denny Hamlin has multiple stage wins (two)
Christopher Bell's COTA Mastery
Christopher Bell's five races at COTA: three Top 3s (including his 2025 win) and two finishes in the 30s
Christopher Bell finished in the top-five in six of the last seven road course races including three runner-ups and a win at COTA in 2025
Won this race last year, his third top-three finish in the last four COTA races
Three-time road course winner