What Drivers Said after record third straight Cup win by Tyler Reddick for Michael Jordan team
Tyler Reddick — winner: “It means the world. Yeah, it’s so fitting. We get going at the end there, and I’m leading and there’s (Shane Van Gisbergen), 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 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. Just trying to remember everything that I knew was going to be important there at the end and just tried to minimize the mistakes. Shane, this is what he’s so good at. He does not make mistakes. I certainly made a couple and just doing everything I could to just manage the gap and just stay away from him, if you know what I mean. If I let him get close enough, it was going to be probably hard to hold him off.”
Three tracks. Three wins. Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing have made NASCAR history.@JamieLittleTV talks with Michael Jordan after an incredible moment for the team. See you in Phoenix, MJ. 😎🏁 pic.twitter.com/1GhqkrKnUQ
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 2, 2026
Michael Jordan — winning team owner: “It’s time for change. Time for change, and the guys feel the same thing. Tyler came in with the most pressure, I guess. Everybody expected him or he had a chance to win three in a row, and that’s the hardest one to win. 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. I’m proud of the team that we’ve put together. Denny, I’m pretty sure is the same way. He feels the same way I do. I think a lot of credit goes to him because I think he’s the mastermind behind finding Tyler and putting together Billy Scott. Look, I just put up the money. I’m just a competitor. But I think Denny has done an unbelievable job in terms of helping build this team, and I think the team has done a good job of taking on leadership and going out and winning. That’s what it’s about, winning.”
Shane van Gisbergen — second: “It’s weird to be disappointed with second, but this series is just at a high level. We got our Chevy at lot better than yesterday, but just following Tyler, his driving was immaculate, and his car was very good, too. (We just needed) little bit of everything. We lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive. Tyler (Reddick, race winner) 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 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.”
Christopher Bell — third: “We got really fortunate with the strategy. They dropped the green flag, and they had a great start, and I’m like ok, we are going to have something and it just went away. It got tight, and it got loose, and I’m sliding around and the next thing I know, I’m in 12th. We were just super aggressive on strategy jumping the stages keeping out track position the best that we could. We gambled making an extra pit stop there in the third stage and it got us a good finish out of it, but clearly I wasn’t going to run with the top guys in our Camry. I got that great restart on new tires, and I’m like, I’m in position here, baby, we’re going to do this. Just sold out. All race long whenever I was on equal tires with guys I was falling backwards. So strategy worked out. Super thankful that Adam Stevens called a really good race, got us on offense, got me a tire advantage over the field, and then I was able to salvage a good finish out of it. Yeah, it was an off road-course race for us. Normally, we’re stronger than that and got saved by some newer tires.”
Tyler Reddick became the first driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to win the first three races of the season with a victory Sunday at the Circuit of Americas.
Ty Gibbs — fourth: “It was really great. I had a great Toyota Camry. They helped me out so much today. Had a lot of fun, and we passed a lot of cars, obviously. Tyler (Allen, crew chief) and the boys did a great job on the strategy. I didn’t really know what was going on because we pitted and I was in last, and then we went back up to the front, and it just was so much fun. It gets kind of hectic. It kind of feels like Richmond with the pit cycles and everything at the end. Just stayed at it, and I was up at the front at the end and just kept digging just didn’t have enough time. But felt really good. Thank you to everybody that helps me out with my career, and thank you to the man above, and we’ll keep going and keep racing.
Michael McDowell — fifth: “Overall, the No. 71 Chevrolet was good. We didn’t need that last caution. We were running long there. I don’t know how the math would have worked out, but I think we would have had a good shot of having better tires over everyone else at the end, so that caution really hurt us. I think we restarted 12th or 13th, so to get back up into the top five is a solid day for this team. But we’re not looking for solid days, we’re looking for wins. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
Kyle Larson — sixth: “Thankfully, I had enough fluids in me. I started feeling progressively better as the race went on, with just dumping water on me, putting ice on my chest and drinking a lot of fluids. I felt good there at the end, but I was hot early in the race. I was getting nervous. But I think it kind of cooled down outside too, which helped. All-in-all, it was a great day for this No. 5 Chevrolet team. It was good to get our first top-10 finish of the season, and hopefully we can just build off of it.”
Ryan Blaney — eighth: “I just lost grip. I don’t know. I just kind of lost grip and lost touch with Shane and Tyler. Yeah, it was weird. I wasn’t really pushing hard like after the green flag pit stop with Tyler, knowing it was going to be a longer run, no caution or not. They [the tire] didn’t really fire off very good, and I stayed in touch with those guys for maybe five laps, and they just kind of started to slowly lose and then really fall off the cliff. Overall good weekend. I hate that we didn’t finish top three like I thought we were, but it’s hard to complain about it. We don’t have a great track record here, so we put a solid weekend together, and hopefully build on something.”
AJ Allmendinger — ninth: “I felt, overall, it was a really good day in terms of execution. We had planned to go for points and run out both stages, and I felt like we got as many points as we could there through the stages. We executed well on pit stops and everything that goes with that, had a good restart, and it was really good to get back into the top-10 (9th-place) for a race result as well. So yeah, overall, I’m really happy with the points day. We fought being a little too loose. I thought the balance was decent, but we were just a bit too loose. Overall, I think there are things we can improve with the car, but it wasn’t too bad for what we had. So overall, I’m happy with it. We know we need to make improvements for the next road course, but I feel like we maximized our plan and did everything we could to get the best result.”
Kyle Busch — 12th: “The entire No. 8 Chevrolet team battled all day here at Circuit of The Americas. We started deep in the field and were able to make the needed adjustments to drive inside the Top 15. I’m proud of everyone’s efforts today and now we’ll turn our attention West as we head to Phoenix next weekend.”
Connor Zilisch — 14th: “Our No. 88 Chevrolet was really fast all day. We were putting ourselves in a spot there at the end at that last caution to have a chance to go win the race and got wrecked again in turn one. I don’t know if I need to do something different, but it was just one of those days. It was good to drive up through the field again. As a racecar driver, I’m not satisfied, but I proved that I could do it.”
Joey Logano — 15th: “We made the most of our day. What we lacked in pace at times we were able to make up for with the strategy calls we made to gain a few spots here and there. We had the opportunity to go on offense at the end by two-stopping it and did what we could on that final run. There’s a lot to look forward to these next few weeks to see where we stack up.”
Ty Dillon — 16th: “It was a great weekend for our No. 10 Chevrolet team. We had no thrills, which is what we need. I think when we execute, we are a great team, and we just keep getting better. We had that kind of a day here today. We had no mistakes on pit road or on-track, and we came home with a 16th-place finish. Just very proud of this team. Our goal was to cash in at least 20 points. That hasn’t been our strong suit, but we did that. We’ll roll onto some track where we have some good finishes.”
Austin Dillon — 19th: “This No. 3 team just never gives up, man. We had to work hard for that one today. Things kept putting us in the back and we would drive forward. I flat-spotted a tire in the opening laps, which affected the balance of our Chevrolet in Stage 1. We made a good pit call to gain track position and showed the pace that our car had in Stage 2. Unfortunately, a bolt came loose in our shifter handle, which put us behind to start the last stage. We kept chipping away at it and then got behind again with contact on pit road. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Proud of the effort.”
Brad Keselowski — 20th: “We weren’t as fast as we wanted to be so it turned into a don’t beat yourself day. Glad it’s over. Glad we were able to get something decent out of it. Not the day we wanted to have in the Ford Mustang, but we have something we can move forward with, and I’m trying to appreciate that.”
Jesse Love — 27th: “We ended up with some tow link damage today that affected our race, but overall the No. 33 Chevrolet was pretty good. We got our handling better throughout the day and even though we made gains at it, we never got it exactly where I wanted it to be. All of the pieces were there today, but we never put them together.”
Carson Hocevar — 31st: “Tough way to end the day. The Camaro looked super good, but we just couldn’t get the balance where I wanted it. We started off the season with speed, and now we get to head to Phoenix, where we were able to show that off last year. The No. 77 boys will build another strong Chevy, and we’ll be back up front.”
Austin Cindric — 32nd: “It was a frustrating day for us. We worked our way into the top 10 in the final stage and felt like we had something to build on, but obviously that didn’t pan out. We learned a lot about this setup, and I’m proud of the No. 2 team for sticking with it all afternoon. We’ll regroup and look ahead to Phoenix, which has been a strong track for our team.”
Chase Briscoe — 37th: “Something in the transaxle I guess broke coming out of the corner. Went to shift and it was like I was in neutral, and it was trying to spin the one side and not the other. It’s really unfortunate, felt like we were good enough to win truthfully, top five car pretty easily. Just frustrating, it will obviously set us back points-wise and next week. But Phoenix has been a really good track for us so we will see what we can do.”
