NASCAR CUP SERIES: DURAMAX GRAND PRIX OF TEXAS POWERED BY RELADYNE

March 1, 2026

Tyler Reddick

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to continue our media availabilities for tonight. We're joined by tonight's race winner, Tyler Reddick. Congratulations. You're off to a historic start to the season. That's three in a row and that's the first time it's been done in the NASCAR Cup Series. What does that mean to you? How are you going about this?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, that's pretty crazy. Yeah, just trying to soak it all in, honestly. 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, some of those guys, even 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.

Yeah, 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.

Q. Tyler, are you aware of the accomplishment when you're in the heat of competition? Because it's not only like, all right, there's three win in a row, but also here's SVG behind you in the closing gaps, and as he gets smaller and smaller in your mirror, is that something you start thinking is some personal pride, or are you just waiting to take the checkered flag to make sure it's set in stone and it's over and the you've won?

TYLER REDDICK: I think for me in the heat of the battle it's like, all right, I've got to find a way to hold off Shane. But as I started to pull away, certainly, it's like, all right, there's a lot on the line here, hit your marks, don't be a hero; you don't have to win by eight seconds.

It's so important to just not make mistakes because who know, Shane could have been playing games, right? Like back off a bit, see if I burn myself up, and I back up to him at the end of the race.

There's so much going on there. He's just so good on the road courses. Even when I was pulling away, right, it's like, all right, I just didn't let myself think it was over until it was truly over.

Certainly used the pressure of what's on the line to motivate myself to hit marks and close it out.

Q. You started on the pole and then went backwards. I was thinking it was something with your short run speed, but then it wasn't. Like in Stage 2 you stayed out front. Billy said that he hadn't talked to you yet, but his impression was you were trying to conserve your tires in Stage 1 and you went harder once you realized what you had. What happened there?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, I think in practice and in the first run of the race, I didn't quite have it right. Everyone was pushing pretty hard -- well, I thought they were. I just had to make adjustments. It was unfortunate I lost all that track position that we worked hard to get.

But it kind of played out to where I was able to -- I think once you kind of have that momentum go the wrong way at any point in the race, you know, guys are just being aggressive and putting you in bad spots, just trying to keep the car clean.

I remember it was Chase and then Byron was behind him, and that's finally when I was able to stop the bleeding at the beginning of the race, and then I was able to kind of march back forward.

I think for me, yeah, I just didn't want to -- I'm typically -- whether it was at the Roval or a number of these other races, I kind of just burn up a little too quick and I ended up on the other side of it at the start of the race today.

I think to a degree I could have probably -- it just took some adjustment as the race went on.

Q. I know you said you thought Shane may have been playing games a little bit. When I talked to him after the race he said it seemed like you were holding stuff in reserve because he could tell by the way you were going straight in certain points where he had to arc more. Was that the case? Were you actually holding something back for the end?

TYLER REDDICK: I think it's a tricky balance at these road courses. You want to run your best laps possible, but when you make a mistake and just slide the car, the penalty outweighs the reward.

So just as a driver, you try to be mindful of -- you want to run as hard as you can every single lap, but you just try to keep all those things in mind.

Q. Tyler, your numbers at Phoenix aren't the best, but you've always run well at Vegas. How long realistically do you feel like this could go, the winning streak?

TYLER REDDICK: Well, I know the numbers don't necessarily -- well, my experience is in spring in Phoenix. A number of years, I think dating back to even the start of this car, we've been able to go there and be knocking on the door.

Last year we had the power steering failure that kind of knocked us out of it.

Two years ago I remember me and Denny got together, the caution came out in the middle of the cycle.

In my opinion, we go to the spring Phoenix race, we're typically, like, right there.

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.

Q. There were multiple drivers affected by the heat today. I wanted to know just kind of how you coped with the heat. I saw when you went up on stage, you kind of winced. What was that all about?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, over the years, I'd say like the one that was the worst was Fontana in 2022, like my leg went to sleep when I was leading that race when I was at RCR, and unfortunately we had a flat that day.

Yeah, over the years I've occasionally had issues with my sciatic nerve kind of acting up. I didn't really feel it in the car, which was nice today, but as soon as I got out and got moving, it was just really fired up. But it's getting better.

I don't think it was heat, no, not for me. I'm just getting old. (Laughing).

Q. Obviously, to win the race, you had to hold off SVG, which is no easy thing to do. Did you also think it was an important moment when you kept Blaney behind you when he made the move to the inside I think in --

TYLER REDDICK: A number of times, yeah.

Q. -- in 6A, and actually got pretty close to actually making a pass?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah. I think it worked in my favor today. As we've worked towards this tire that wears more, it kind of has been a bit more old school and traditional how the rubber builds up and the racing lane narrows up.

I think that certainly played in my favor in the moments where I was not at my best and I made some mistakes. I was able to do a bit of defensive driving and kind of -- I don't know, you never want to be in that spot where you're having to try to force the car that's going to pass you where to go, but I kind of was able to keep myself in a spot where when we get to the carousel when he would really contend the spot, it was hard for him to make that outside in the carousel work.

Q. Does it mean more that it is just so freaking hard to dominate in this car as opposed to past generations?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, I don't know. I could be wrong -- if you asked Shane, at the road courses he did a really good job last year of just tearing it up. I don't know, in my opinion, all the data that's out there, the resources that the teams have, the ability to just kind of dive into every detail of the corner, of each person's race. It's just so open book with all the information that's out there. It's just hard to week in and week out just dominate.

Yeah, I don't know. In my opinion, I've kind of seen it change from the time I came in how much data and simulation and all these things just continue to change our sport.

It's hard, man. We'll go to Richmond and Martinsville and Bristol, and a tenth is sometimes 15 spots. It's pretty crazy.

Yeah, just in my opinion what I see out of our competitors, it's really hard to, week in and week out, be in contention to win, so to be able to put it together like we have these first three is just pretty unreal.

Q. I know you said you're excited to see what kind of speed you guys have coming forward the next few weeks, but how do you approach the next couple weeks with a 70-point lead already?

TYLER REDDICK: We'll just manage it lap after lap, corner after corner. 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.

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.

Q. After the race, this is your third consecutive race; Michael has been there for all of them. Did he have any different words? What is it like every time having Michael in Victory Lane with you?

TYLER REDDICK: Yeah, he reminded me early this week, he does things in threes. 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.