Tyler Reddick Achieves Historic Three-Peat, Echoing Michael Jordan's Dominance

Tyler Reddick has etched his name in the NASCAR Cup Series record books, securing an unprecedented three consecutive victories to open the 2026 season. This remarkable achievement, which began with wins at Daytona and Atlanta, culminated in a triumph at the Circuit of the Americas, drawing parallels to the legendary dominance of basketball icon Michael Jordan. Jordan, a co-owner of Reddick’s 23XI Racing team, had famously guided the Chicago Bulls to two separate three-peat championships in the 1990s.

"Yeah, he reminded me early this week that he does things in threes," Reddick said following his latest victory, referencing a conversation with Jordan. "He expected no less today. I was really glad to be able to live up to the standards that he has for us and be able to deliver three in a row. That was really cool to share that moment with him."

Reddick’s streak is particularly noteworthy for its diversity, spanning three distinct track types: a superspeedway (Daytona), a super-intermediate track (Atlanta), and now a road course (Circuit of the Americas). This versatility has left fellow 23XI Racing owner and driver Denny Hamlin in awe.

"It’s unbelievable," Hamlin stated. "I’m not going to see it again in my lifetime, someone to go out there and win three races in a row to start the season. Yeah, what a dream start for those guys. It’s just different tracks. It’s not necessarily one type. Atlanta is quite a bit different than Daytona in how you drive there, so it’s just getting it done in all kinds of different ways."

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The victory at Circuit of the Americas was a hard-fought battle, with Reddick facing a formidable challenge from Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, who was aiming for his sixth consecutive road course win. The duel between Reddick and van Gisbergen represented an irresistible force meeting an immovable object, as both drivers pushed the boundaries of their respective streaks.

"This is pretty crazy," Reddick reflected. "I think it’s so fitting that it had to happen coming into here, a place where I got my first pole years ago, a place that, road course wise, is a great fit for me. But I just had a feeling no matter where Shane was going to start, Connor [Daly], some of those guys, even [Ryan] Blaney was starting towards the front, I just had a feeling at the end there I was going to see Shane at some point. Obviously, he blew my doors off at the beginning of the race but that restart played out perfectly for him to slot into second. I’m like, ‘Of course, there he is; I’m going to have to find a way to hold him off.’"

Reddick acknowledged the difficulty of securing wins in the current NASCAR Cup Series era, especially the prestigious Daytona 500 and the challenging races at Atlanta. "In this day and age of Cup racing, the Daytona 500 is so hard to win. It’s so hard to survive at EchoPark Speedway, and we were able to do that. And to be able to hold off Shane at the end of that race to make it three in a row, yeah, it seems just very fitting that we had to go through the hurdles we did, especially these last two weeks, to pull this off."

Hamlin praised Reddick’s completeness as a driver, noting that while short tracks remain an area for continued development, Reddick is already a well-rounded competitor. "He’s complete," Hamlin said. "The one area that we continue to work on with him is on the short tracks. 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. But he’s complete. Certainly, more complete than I am at this stage, where I’ve got a handful of races where it’s like, it would be tough for us to go out there and compete for a win. There’s less of those for him."

Hamlin further elaborated on Reddick’s commitment to improvement: "He’s got a lot of really good things going on. I think it’s just—we’re steadily seeing him continue to get better. What I love to see is the work that he puts in and the things that we provide him for information. He’s soaking it all in and he’s using it and executing it."

The team’s performance will be tested at upcoming short track events, beginning with Phoenix. Reddick acknowledged the team’s past struggles at the fall Phoenix race, but expressed optimism about recent improvements. "In my opinion, we go to the spring Phoenix race, we’re typically, like, right there," Reddick stated, referencing the need to overcome past misfortunes. "For whatever reason, when we go in the fall, we’re a little bit off. But I feel like we’ve, again, kind of like we’ve done here—I’m really excited to see what we have for speed and pace over the next two weekends because we’ve worked really hard to improve things here. 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. Honestly, I’m very excited to see what kind of pace we have at Phoenix and Vegas as it comes up."

The success of Reddick and his teammate Bubba Wallace, who is currently second in the standings, is a testament to the partnership between Jordan and Hamlin. Jordan, who admits his role is primarily financial, expressed pride in the team’s accomplishments. "I’m proud of the team that we’ve put together," Jordan said on the FOX broadcast. "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."

Hamlin described the partnership as a "perfect partnership," highlighting the autonomy Jordan has granted him to manage the team. Despite early challenges, including Hamlin considering a buyout, the partnership has flourished, building an organization from the ground up. "When I started kicking around trying to find a race team that would let me buy in, none of them were going to give me the control that I wanted," Hamlin explained. "I don’t know what the word is for that, but I wanted to make sure if it failed, it was because of something I did, not someone else. When the stars aligned and we were able to start this and I was able to get him as a partner, he was—I was just so appreciative of the fact that he says, okay, here’s my percent, here’s your percent, but you’re going to have to build it. You’re going to have to do the work. You’re the boots on the ground. That was what I wanted. Where I get the gratification is from building something from scratch. Again, this team had, like, three employees working out of Mike Wheeler’s garage. There was nothing. We had zero. We didn’t buy a team, didn’t do anything. Just built it. This is what we’re doing. It’s pretty amazing."

With his three consecutive wins, Reddick has established a commanding 70-point lead over Wallace and a 72-point lead over Chase Elliott in the driver standings. While the championship points reset for the playoffs, the regular-season champion earns a crucial 25-point advantage, underscoring the importance of continued strong performances.

"We’ll just manage it lap after lap, corner after corner," Reddick said when asked about maintaining his points lead. "Certainly, yeah, like as we race, I’ll just have to be mindful, understand what I’m racing for in those moments, is it worth the risk or is it not. But certainly, I think to an extent, if we just continue to bring really fast race cars, we won’t have to put ourselves in tricky spots in the race. We’re able to kind of race a little bit smarter."

Reddick expressed his enjoyment of strategic racing, referencing a previous battle for the regular-season championship: "For me, I really enjoyed racing for points in 2024 when we had that battle come down to the end at Darlington with Larson to win the regular season championship then. For me, I enjoy this. I know it’s ironic I’m saying that with a 70-point lead, but just to be able to execute in the first two races that are just hard to have clean days, to get the points that we did there, and then come in here and be able to grab stage points in Stage 2 and then obviously win the race is real special."