Shane van Gisbergen or the field on Sunday?
"Raise your hand if you thought I'd be the highest-qualifying Trackhouse driver?" Few raised their hand to Ross Chastain's question as he put his No. 1 Chevrolet second aside polesitter Tyler Reddick at Circuit of The Americas, the first NASCAR Cup Series road-course race of 2026. Of course, all eyes are on New Zealand's Shane van Gisbergen as he eyes a sixth consecutive road-course win, which would match Jeff Gordon's record set between 1997 and 2000. However, van Gisbergen has yet to grab the checkered flag in two Cup starts at the road course on the outskirts of the Texas capitol. He finished sixth last year, his only shortcoming on the left- and right-turn circuits in 2025. But even amid a ludicrous and dominant win streak, there is still confidence from SVG's fellow competitors that it can end sooner rather than later. "There's no doubt he's the very best on top of his game, but he's beatable," Michael McDowell said Saturday. "We haven't yet, but we will. It will happen. It will not go on forever. I hope I don't eat my words. This is probably the one that he's beatable at, just because he hasn't been as dominant speed-wise as he has at the other ones. "It's amazing what he's done. It really is, there's no doubt about it. It's amazing. It's humbling for all of us drivers, and it makes us all work harder, and that's great. Marcos Ambrose did the same thing. AJ Allmendinger did the same thing, and before him, it was Ron Fellows and Max Papis and those guys that push everyone to be better, too, right? The sport's always evolving, and you're always pushing yourself to be better, and he has made everybody be better." A handful of road-course savants got the upper hand on van Gisbergen in qualifying as the No. 97 Trackhouse driver's effort Saturday morning was only good enough to start 13th. Chase Elliott, NASCAR's most-winning active driver on road courses, will start fifth. Three-time Cup winner Allmendinger starts seventh. Including Elliott (2021), all former Cup winners at COTA will start in front of van Gisbergen as well, with Reddick (2023) and Chastain (2022) on the front row, Christopher Bell (2025) rolling off eighth and William Byron (2024) rounding out the top 10 on the starting grid. MORE: Schedule, TV info: COTAIn the details ...
Tyler Reddick became the sixth driver to win the opening two races of the NASCAR Cup Series season by winning the Daytona 500 and last week's race at EchoPark Speedway. None of the previous five drivers were able to win three in a row to begin the campaign. Will Reddick become the first? Here's how the previous five drivers fared: