Superspeedway races in NASCAR often produce a lot of lucky winners. Their nature to induce multiple crashes and unforeseen accidents tends to remove even the best drivers from competition. Tyler Reddick’s victories in the opening two races of the 2026 Cup Series season, however, wasn’t by luck and that spells trouble for the rest of the field.
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In Daytona two weeks ago, Reddick created history by winning his first Daytona 500 and lifting the Harley J. Earl trophy. He then came to Atlanta last weekend with the hopes of creating a victory streak. He ended up doing just that. He overcame the likes of Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar in overtime restarts and ended up reaching Victory Lane.
As things stand, Reddick leads the table with 125 points. His teammate, Bubba Wallace, sits next to him with 85 points.
Denny Hamlin spoke about this advantage Reddick has gained right at the beginning of the season on Actions Detrimental. He said, “It’s not like we’re 100 points behind someone that’s going to run 25th every week. You know what I mean?”
“You’re behind a car that’s every year in the top six or seven in the regular season. So, it’ll be tougher for the field to make a comeback on Reddick versus, you know, someone that would just happen to get into two superspeedway wins.”
With the Chase format now active, Reddick’s lead could make all the difference at the end of the regular season.
Can Reddick extend the gap at COTA?
While road courses like COTA are the home ground of drivers like Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch, Reddick is no slouch on them either. He has been a consistent performer at the track and has never qualified or finished outside the top-5 there.
It is also where he got his first win with 23XI Racing, and he is completely excited to race. He told Kelly Crandall, “It’s a great place. It’s where I got my first win with 23XI a couple of years ago, and we’ve been probably just as motivated this offseason as we were when we first got together going into there.”
Reddick on COTA being the perfect place to attempt 3-0: “It’s a great place. It’s where I got my first win with 23XI a couple of years ago, and we’ve been probably just as motivated this offseason as we were when we first got together going into there. So, I’m very excited for…
— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) February 23, 2026
Reddick is also intrigued to see how much he has closed the gap between himself and Shane van Gisbergen. If he can make it 3-0, it will be a humongous feat in the very first year of the Chase format’s reintroduction.
