By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

AUSTIN, TX (March 1, 2026) —Ever since the Chicago Bulls reign of the 1990s, the “three-peat” has been the sole province of NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

Now “His Airness” has to share the distinction with one of his drivers.

Tyler Reddick made history on Sunday at Circuit of the Americas, powering the No. 45 Toyota co-owned by Jordan and Denny Hamlin to victory in the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by Reladyne.

A week earlier at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, Reddick became the sixth driver to win the first two races of a NASCAR Cup Series season. At COTA on Sunay, he became the only driver in NASCAR history to win the first three.

There was nothing easy about Reddick’s 11th career victory and his second at the 2.4-mile road course. In order to claim the trophy, he had to hold off New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, who was seeking his sixth straight road course victory.

“It means the world,” said Reddick, who led a race-high 58 of 95 laps. “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.

“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.”

After the three victories, Reddick holds a commanding 70-point lead over 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace, who finished 11th on Sunday. Chase Elliott is third in the standings, 72 points back.
Jordan was elated with the NASCAR “three-peat.”

“He had a chance to win three in a row, and that’s the hardest one to win,” said Jordan, who led the Bulls to three straight NBA titles on two separate occasions. “He kept to his strategy, and, man, the guys put together a great car.

“I think (crew chief) Billy (Scott) 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.”

Reddick maintained the lead after a restart on Lap 79, after the Chevrolet of Stage 1 winner Ross Chastain jettisoned a wheel to cause the third caution of the afternoon and the only one for an on-track incident.

Restarting third, Van Gisbergen charged past Ryan Blaney and secured the second position downhill through the esses. For the first eight laps of the final 18-lap green-flag run, SVG harried the race winner, but Reddick gradually pulled away, using his Camry’s horsepower and forward drive to gap Van Gisbergen’s No. 97 Chevrolet up the hill toward Turn 1.

Reddick’s winning margin over the Trackhouse Racing driver was a deceptively large 3.944 seconds.

“We lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive,” Van Gisbergen said. “Tyler 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 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.”

Defending race winner Christopher Bell finished third, followed by Stage 2 winner Ty Gibbs and Michael McDowell. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Elliott ran sixth and seventh, respectively.

Eighth was Blaney, who pressured Reddick early in the final stage, pulling beside the 23XI Camry in Turn 6A. Just as he did later with Van Gisbergen, however, Reddick fended off the attack and pulled away before he and Blaney came to pit road for fuel and tires on Lap 69.

AJ Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin completed the top10, though Allmendinger 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.

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

AUSTIN, TX (February 28 2026) — With a bold, brilliant move moment after the final restart of Saturday’s Focused Health 250 at Circuit of the Americas, Shane van Gisbergen once again exhibited his road course supremacy.

Taking the inside line into Turn 1 after the restart with five laps left, van Gisbergen made a four-wide pass for the lead from the sixth position and pulled away to win the fifth NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts race of his career, this time by 0.780 seconds over runner-up Austin Hill.

In a rough-and-tumble event with more than its share of contact, van Gisbergen led five times for 31 laps, including the last five after the decisive move, as then-leader and Stage 2 winner Sam Mayer ran wide in the first corner, clearing the inside lane for the winning pass.

“I was a bit unsure there, starting sixth on the outside,” van Gisbergen said. “I kind of got to the inside, which was good, and nosed in on the 41 (Mayer), and he reacted. When he reacted, I thought no way he’s stopping that, and he kind of pushed everyone wide, which was awesome, and it worked out for us.”

The win was SVG’s first at COTA in his second O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at the track. He is winless in two NASCAR Cup Series starts at the Texas road course.

“I’ve always been fast here but never managed to win,” van Gisbergen said. “So I’m pretty stoked to finally get it done—pretty flawless day.”

van Gisbergen’s victory was the 10th straight on road courses for JR Motorsports and the 106th for the organization overall.

Austin Hill’s runner-up finish was his third in five starts at the 2.4-mile track.

“I made a lot of mistakes out there today, but that’s going to happen on these road courses,” said Hill, the series points leader through three races. “Stage 2, I was struggling a little bit, just trying to figure out what I needed to be better.

“That (last) restart, I did a really good job getting left. As soon as they went off into the corner, I knew that they were going to slide up, and I was able to file in there in second, and then I had to go to work on SVG.

“He’s just so good at the first three laps of a run. He can really get away. I was struggling a little bit with front turn for the first two or three laps, and he kind of got that gap and was able to manage from there. Hats off to those guys. A better guy beat us today.”

In a race billed as a matchup between van Gisbergen and pole winner Connor Zilisch, Sammy Smith finished third, followed by Jesse Love and Corey Day, as Zilisch suffered a litany of issues that dropped him to 21st at the end.

After Zilisch led 12 laps during the first stage, the left-rear brake rotor on his No. 1 Chevrolet sheared, and the 19-year-old prodigy quickly dropped through the field. After stopping for repairs to the rear brakes, Zilisch started the final stage in 29th but just as rapidly worked his way forward.

With fewer than three laps left, he had just cleared Day’s No. 17 Chevrolet for fourth, when contact from Day’s car sent Zilisch spinning and damaged his Camaro.

“He got right in front of me there, and as soon as did and he crossed over my nose, I lost a little bit of what I had left (of front turn),” Day said. “It wasn’t intentional. I didn’t want to wreck him.”

The accident ruined Zilisch’s impressive charge from the back of the field.

“Really unfortunate,” Zilisch said. “Hopefully, he can figure it out… All I want is an apology, but he just stands over there and stares at me and makes it worse. But he’ll figure it out.”

Seventeen-year-old Brent Crews finished sixth in his series debut after taking the lead on
the Stage 2 restart. Crews is the first driver under 18 to lead laps in the series since Casey Atwood accomplished the feat in 1998.

William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain and Brennan Poole completed the top 10.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL (February 28, 2026) – Kris Wright is thinking about what could have been following Saturday’s inaugural Only Bulls Green Flag 150 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series first-ever street race at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Wright started 20th in the No. 81 First National Bank of PA Chevy Silverado for McAnally Hilgemann Racing and flirted with the Top 10 in the first and second stages of the race.

“We were just kind of clicking off laps there in the beginning,” explained Wright. “People were getting wrecked, getting damage, slowing up in front of us and we were just kind of sitting there with a really good car all day.  The First National Bank 81 Silverado was unreal.”

Wright continued battling with the Top 10 as the race’s third and final stage got underway.

“Just kind of sitting back waiting for stuff to erupt in front of us there in the third stage.”

Unfortunately for Wright with 30-laps to go he got a big run down the huge airport runway frontstretch but spun trying to make turn one, a tricky spot on the track because of the combination of asphalt and runway marking paint.

“I got behind a car, bad angle, couldn’t see the references and went a little too deep into turn one and that was kind of it,” said Wright, a Wexford native.  “I got a lot of flat spots and the brakes were kind of cooked at that point, but we had a lot of speed and I think we were tracking fourth of fifth throughout the day.”

Wright finished 20th but is encouraged by the early season performance and says he and his team have all of the ingredients to be successful.

“Every single race this year we’ve either had speed or been exactly where we wanted to be before the race started,” explained Wright.  “We’re there, we’ve just got to get something to fall together. “These guys are so good.  I can’t tell you enough how big of a breath of fresh air it is coming to an organization like this.  Bill (McAnally) does an amazing job.  My crew chief Darren put an amazing car together all three weeks and all the guys have been working their tail ends off.  It’s just so good right now.”

Wright is appreciative of all the support from Western Pennsylvania, especially primary sponsor First National Bank of Pennsylvania.

“First National Bank has been there for me, they are unreal,” said Wright.  “FNB’s been super supportive my whole NASCAR career and I’m really happy to get a Pittsburgh company on the car.”

Layne Riggs picked up the victory for Front Row Motorsports.

The next NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race is the March 20 Buckle Up South Carolina at the historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (7:30 p.m. FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).