SVG gets his first COTA win, but not in the Cup race

Is there anyone who still thinks NASCAR shouldn’t race road courses? There shouldn’t be. After what we saw this weekend — especially in St. Petersburg with the Truck Series — it should be obvious that turning right from time to time has made the entire field better in all three series.

Well, that said, the O’Reilly series still has some work to do. No, Connor Zilisch didn’t win, but he did beat Shane van Gisbergen to pole. That is to say, Shane van Gisbergen was in this race, and yes, he won. At one point, he passed five cars at once and flashed them the deuce as he left.

On Sunday, though, things changed.

Now, Connor was in it. He drove a great race, he just didn’t get anything to show for it because of misfortunes. He is having the rough entry to the Cup Series that everyone should have expected because he is racing with people at a much higher level than the people he humiliated in Xfinity last year.

Shane was also, of course, in it. His road racing skills have clearly benefitted the whole team; Shane is now P5 in points, taking second in stage 1 and in the final result (plus another point for P10 in stage 2), but Ross Chastain won the first stage.

Christopher Bell, last year’s winner, placed third. His teammate, Ty Gibbs, showed a compelling fourth. Their teammate, Denny Hamlin — the guy who hates road courses — finished P10, which he said afterward was “like a win” because of how resistant he is to races with right turns. That feeling, however, may have been colored by something else.

Namely that Denny is the co-owner of the car that won the race. And last week’s race at Atlanta. And the Daytona 500.

Yes, the first driver in the history of NASCAR to win the first three races of the season was the driver of the No. 45 23XI racing Chumba Casino Toyota Camry, Tyler Reddick.

ICON

[image or embed]

— Victoria Beaver (@toribeav42.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 10:51 PM