In his quest to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three races of a new season, Tyler Reddick will start from pole position at the Circuit of the Americas. The 23XI Racing star will be joined on the front row by a Trackhouse driver, but not the one we all expected...
Ross Chastain will start second, while his teammate Shane van Gisbergen will start 13th in his effort to win six consecutive road/street course races.
“I maybe should have called my shot earlier, but some pressure comes with that,” said Reddick. “I love going fast and road courses are a lot of fun in qualifying. Just proud of everyone's effort here…I don't know where Shane is starting, but I just need to get as much of a head start on him as I can and try to stay ahead of him all day."
.@TylerReddick called his shot. 👏 pic.twitter.com/IBMwYkdz5D
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 28, 2026
Chastain, who earned his first Cup win at COTA in 2022, was surprised by the result: "I didn't know what was happening. I followed Shane out, and his Safety Culture colors were actually getting closer. It was something I've never experienced on a road course. He's helped me so much, so to go execute for our #1 team with (crew chief) Brandon McSwain, I feel like the car performed how we wanted it to there."
Chase Briscoe will start third, Ryan Blaney fourth, Chase Elliott fifth. Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, and William Byron filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Rookie Connor Zilisch will start 25th, and is another driver everyone will be watching on Sunday.
Group A
Gibbs rocketed to the top of the charts by the halfway point of the 20-minute session with a 1:38.25s, but McDowell (who led practice) soon knocked him down with a fast lap of 1:38.14s. Gibbs' JGR teammate Bell had a strong run at the pole, but he ended up 0.057s shy of McDowell's lap.
Busch ran wide at the end of his first flying lap, taking a trip through the gravel. All eyes were on Zilisch, and the rookie enters COTA last in points among full-time drivers. He made a slight mistake in his first flying lap, which cost him a few tenths, but went out again and improved to tenth out of 19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr also nearly spun out through the esses, but managed to collect his sideways #47 Chevrolet.
Group B
The second group featured all of the big guns, including SVG. Brad Keselowski was the first driver on track, but most of the drivers chose to wait until the second half of the 20-minute session.
Joey Logano was the first to break into the top ten, but it was AJ Allmendinger who first challenged the fastest drivers from Group A. The experienced road racer missed it by just 0.005s, reaching second for the moment.
But suddenly, several drivers jumped to the top of the charts with Elliott taking P1, only for Reddick to best him moments later with a 1:37.76s. He was the first driver to crack the 1:37s, followed by Briscoe, who was still almost two tenths behind the #45 Toyota.
Chastain was challenging Reddick, and likely could have had pole if not for a lock-up near the end of his lap. He ended up second, just over a tenth behind Reddick. Surprisingly, SVG did not have the pace to go for pole, reaching 19th on his first lap and then 13th on his second lap.
COTA Starting Lineup
| cla | # | driver | manufacturer | time | gap | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45 |
 Tyler Reddick |
Toyota | 1'37.760 | 88.380 | |
| 2 | 1 |
Ross Chastain |
Chevrolet | 1'37.897 | 0.137 | 88.256 |
| 3 | 19 |
Chase Briscoe |
Toyota | 1'37.913 | 0.153 | 88.242 |
| 4 | 12 |
Ryan Blaney |
Ford | 1'37.982 | 0.222 | 88.179 |
| 5 | 9 |
Chase Elliott |
Chevrolet | 1'38.002 | 0.242 | 88.161 |
| 6 | 71 |
Michael McDowell |
Chevrolet | 1'38.147 | 0.387 | 88.031 |
| 7 | 16 |
AJ Allmendinger |
Chevrolet | 1'38.152 | 0.392 | 88.027 |
| 8 | 20 |
Christopher Bell |
Toyota | 1'38.204 | 0.444 | 87.980 |
| 9 | 54 |
Ty Gibbs |
Toyota | 1'38.259 | 0.499 | 87.931 |
| 10 | 24 |
William Byron |
Chevrolet | 1'38.381 | 0.621 | 87.822 |
| 11 | 38 |
Zane Smith
|
Ford | 1'38.408 | 0.648 | 87.798 |
| 12 | 77 |
Carson Hocevar
|
Chevrolet | 1'38.463 | 0.703 | 87.749 |
| 13 | 97 |
 Shane van Gisbergen |
Chevrolet | 1'38.464 | 0.704 | 87.748 |
| 14 | 17 |
Chris Buescher
|
Ford | 1'38.497 | 0.737 | 87.718 |
| 15 | 5 |
Kyle Larson
|
Chevrolet | 1'38.514 | 0.754 | 87.703 |
| 16 | 48 |
Alex Bowman
|
Chevrolet | 1'38.542 | 0.782 | 87.678 |
| 17 | 34 |
Todd Gilliland
|
Ford | 1'38.562 | 0.802 | 87.661 |
| 18 | 41 |
Cole Custer
|
Chevrolet | 1'38.602 | 0.842 | 87.625 |
| 19 | 11 |
Denny Hamlin
|
Toyota | 1'38.617 | 0.857 | 87.612 |
| 20 | 22 |
Joey Logano
|
Ford | 1'38.675 | 0.915 | 87.560 |
| 21 | 10 |
Ty Dillon
|
Chevrolet | 1'38.772 | 1.012 | 87.474 |
| 22 | 21 |
Josh Berry
|
Ford | 1'38.807 | 1.047 | 87.443 |
| 23 | 7 |
 Daniel Suarez
|
Chevrolet | 1'38.836 | 1.076 | 87.418 |
| 24 | 23 |
Darrell Wallace Jr |
Toyota | 1'38.838 | 1.078 | 87.416 |
| 25 | 88 |
Connor Zilisch |
Chevrolet | 1'38.895 | 1.135 | 87.365 |
| 26 | 6 |
Brad Keselowski
|
Ford | 1'38.917 | 1.157 | 87.346 |
| 27 | 33 |
Jesse Love |
Chevrolet | 1'38.996 | 1.236 | 87.276 |
| 28 | 2 |
Austin Cindric
|
Ford | 1'39.009 | 1.249 | 87.265 |
| 29 | 60 |
Ryan Preece
|
Ford | 1'39.082 | 1.322 | 87.201 |
| 30 | 8 |
Kyle Busch
|
Chevrolet | 1'39.160 | 1.400 | 87.132 |
| 31 | 42 |
John Hunter Nemechek
|
Toyota | 1'39.274 | 1.514 | 87.032 |
| 32 | 35 |
Riley Herbst
|
Toyota | 1'39.433 | 1.673 | 86.893 |
| 33 | 3 |
Austin Dillon
|
Chevrolet | 1'39.757 | 1.997 | 86.610 |
| 34 | 47 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
|
Chevrolet | 1'39.781 | 2.021 | 86.590 |
| 35 | 4 |
Noah Gragson
|
Ford | 1'39.858 | 2.098 | 86.523 |
| 36 | 43 |
Erik Jones
|
Toyota | 1'39.942 | 2.182 | 86.450 |
| 37 | 51 |
Cody Ware
|
Chevrolet | 1'40.064 | 2.304 | 86.345 |
