By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
AUSTIN, Texas — Four in a row? Why not?
Tyler Reddick already has defied the odds in winning three straight races to open the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. So, what’s to say he can’t keep the streak going?
Reddick won the season-opening DAYTONA 500 with a last-lap surge past Chase Elliott. He made a second straight trip to Victory Lane at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta minus the right-front fender on his No. 45 Toyota.
Winning the two drafting-track races was difficult enough, given the random, chaotic nature of those events.
“That’s why I’m confident in it not happening again in my lifetime, because of the randomness factor of those races,” said Denny Hamlin, who co-owns Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry with former NBA superstar Michael Jordan. “Defying odds, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t know if you parlayed all your winnings from the first week, second week, third week what you’d have. I’m sure someone has figured that out, but it would be a big number.”
Reddick completed his unprecedented trifecta on Sunday with a statement win on the 2.4-mile circuit at Circuit of The Americas, beating road-course ace Shane van Gisbergen in the process.
With two poles, a win and an average finish of 4.2 at COTA, Reddick expected to be strong at the technical road course, but he hadn’t been able to beat three-time Australian Supercars champion Van Gisbergen, who entered Sunday’s race on a streak of five straight road-course victories.
Reddick closed the deal decisively, keeping SVG behind him during an 18-lap run to the finish and pulling away to win by 3.944 seconds.
After the race, 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace greeted Reddick with a hug and the tongue-in-cheek “I’m ‘bout tired of you freaking winning.”
From a handicapping standpoint, the streak should end with next Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reddick’s average finish at the one-mile track is 17.8. His last two results there were 20th and 26th last year.
On the other hand, Reddick spent the offseason studying and improving his weaknesses as a driver. One of his goals was to beat Van Gisbergen on a road course. Check that box.
“The one area that we continue to work on with him is on the short tracks,” Hamlin acknowledged. “I think that’s where he can still improve a little bit. But we’re working pretty hard on improving him at those types of tracks…
“What I’ve seen out of him over the last few years is just where he had some weaknesses, our team has helped him shore those up. It’s amazing to see how well he’s doing.”
So don’t discount Reddick’s chances at Phoenix, despite the lackluster stats. The 30-year-old Californian managed this season’s increase of 75 horsepower at COTA better than any other driver, running conservatively in the first stage and finding the sweet spot between aggression and tire conservation as the race progressed.
The extra horsepower will come into play at Phoenix. So will the inspiration Reddick drew from the Class of 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductions in January.
“I was able to go to this year’s Hall of Fame inductions,” Reddick said. “I got to see (former 23XI driver) Kurt Busch inducted, Harry Gant, a number of other guys—Ray Hendrick. Seeing Harry Gant up there talking about his stretch… Mr. September.
“I don’t know if it had anything to do with it (his current streak), but just seeing him talk about that run he had there, it’s just so cool.”
In September of 1991, Gant won consecutive races at Darlington, Richmond, Dover and Martinsville.
For Reddick, matching Gant’s four straight wins with a victory at Phoenix would be an uphill climb—but not impossible. After that comes Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Reddick has a pole and six top 10s in 12 starts.
“We’ve worked hard to kind of rethink how we get around Phoenix, and we’ve just kind of doubled down on the things that we’ve been improving at Vegas,” Reddick said. “Honestly, I’m very excited to see what kind of pace we have at Phoenix and Vegas as it comes up.”
And who knows? When the Cup tour visits Sin City, we might be talking about Reddick’s chances to win for a fifth straight time.
