‘Three-Peat’ For Tyler Reddick

AUSTIN, Texas — 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.

A.J. 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.

The finish:

1. (1)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 95.
2. (13)  Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 95.
3. (8)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, 95.
4. (9)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 95.
5. (6)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 95.
6. (15)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 95.
7. (5)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 95.
8. (4)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 95.
9. (7)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 95.
10. (19)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 95.
11. (24)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 95.
12. (30)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 95.
13. (10)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 95.
14. (25)  Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 95.
15. (20)  Joey Logano, Ford, 95.
16. (21)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 95.
17. (31)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 95.
18. (29)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 95.
19. (33)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 95.
20. (26)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 95.
21. (17)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 95.
22. (35)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 95.
23. (32)  Riley Herbst, Toyota, 95.
24. (14)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 95.
25. (23)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 95.
26. (22)  Josh Berry, Ford, 95.
27. (27)  Jesse Love(i), Chevrolet, 95.
28. (34)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 95.
29. (18)  Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 95.
30. (37)  Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 95.
31. (12)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 95.
32. (28)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 95.
33. (11)  Zane Smith, Ford, 95.
34. (36)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 93.
35. (2)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 93.
36. (16)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 89.
37. (3)  Chase Briscoe, Toyota, Transaxle, 62.