Shane van Gisbergen arrived at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) pursuing a sixth consecutive road course victory. One day after winning the Xfinity Series race at the track, he entered Sunday seeking to extend that run. Instead, Tyler Reddick pulled away over the closing laps and won by 3.944 seconds, bagging his third win of 2026 in a row.
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Van Gisbergen qualified 13th and advanced to second by the finish, after ending P2 in Stage 1 and P10 in Stage 2. For a driver who has won road course events with margins as wide as almost 17 seconds (his Mexico win last season), the result carried a lot of baggage on his shoulders. He had noted that COTA demands precision through each section of the layout.
But somehow, everyone, including SVG himself, was hoping to get through everything and bag his first Cup win of the season there. Still, despite the race not ending the way he would have wanted, the Trackhouse Racing Driver maintained his grace.
He addressed the outcome without deflecting blame. “Yeah, it’s weird to be disappointed with second. But, yeah, this series is just at a high level. And I felt okay. We got our safety culture Chevy a lot better than yesterday.”
“But just following Tyler, his driving was immaculate. And his car was very good, too. So I tried, but didn’t quite have enough. But still a great points day for the 97,” the New Zealander continued.
“Just following Tyler, his driving was immaculate. His car was very good too.”- SVG talks with @ReganSmith after a P.2 at COTA pic.twitter.com/Oxrd5YSVfL
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 2, 2026
Van Gisbergen restarted in pursuit of Reddick with 16 laps remaining, seeking to match Jeff Gordon’s mark of six consecutive road course wins. But Reddick maintained track position and extended the gap.
On Saturday, SVG had moved through traffic in the final laps of the Xfinity race, passing five cars with five laps to go and entering shallow into Turn 1 as the other leaders pushed wide to take the win. Sunday’s runner-up finish marked his second consecutive top-10 result, following a sixth-place finish at EchoPark Speedway, his strongest oval showing in the Cup Series.
After a 30th-place finish at Daytona, SVG has posted two reliable results, helping him surge in the points standings. The Trackhouse Racing driver moved to fifth overall. Meanwhile, Reddick leads the standings with a 70-point advantage over Bubba Wallace.
