Who… should you be talking about after the checkered flag?
For the first time since NASCAR Hall of Famer Matt Kenseth in 2009, there is just one name in the win column two weeks into the Cup Series season. Missing his entire right front fender after a multicar crash, Tyler Reddick not only raced his way back into contention, but he endured a pair of late restarts to take the No. 45 Toyota to victory lane for the second time this year.
Reddick started on the pole after a rainout for Saturday’s qualifying session, and on a day where the lead changed hands 57 times, Reddick accounted for 12 of them, leading a total of 53 laps. Reddick’s teammate Bubba Wallace had a car that was just as good, if not better, than Reddick’s, but the decision to go to the high side on an overtime restart left Reddick to battle Chase Briscoe for the win, and Reddick was able to hold Briscoe off despite the damage to his car, winning by .164 seconds. It’s Reddick’s 10th career Cup win and second of 2026.
The keys to Reddick’s victory this week were the work of his crew to quickly repair the damage from his lap 224 dustup while minimizing the aerodynamic disadvantage, and the overtime restart that saw him avoid the chaos that took place around him.
The race marks the first time 23XI Racing has won back-to-back races for owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan.
On the other hand…
Defending Cup champion Kyle Larson has struggled at Atlanta since the track was reconfigured to a drafting track following the 2021 season. In eight previous starts on the new surface, Larson has just one top-10 finish … and five finishes of 31st or worse. He has only been running at the finish in two of those races.
This week was no different for Larson. He started 16th but moved forward quickly and led a total of 48 laps, second-most of the race, but a lap 160 incident ended his day. To make matters worse, the tangle with Shane van Gisbergen was entirely of Larson’s making as he moved down the track to block the middle, but van Gisbergen had a run on the inside and Larson drifted into his path before his spotter could inform him of the run. Larson was unhurt, but his day was over.
What… is the big question everyone should be asking after the race?
After two drafting races with the same result, is 23XI Racing the team to beat on the big ovals? There are four more opportunities to beat them, and of course there is a huge roulette wheel factor at the drafting tracks, but in addition to Reddick’s race wins, either he or Wallace has led the most laps in each of the first two races.
RFK Racing and Spire Motorsports are two other organizations looking especially stout top to bottom to kick off the year. Both organizations have seen some strong finishes, but they have also had some better runs than the results suggest. The results will come if they are able to keep having the speed to run near the front. Are these two teams poised for big improvements over 2025 as a whole?
Where… did he come from?
We need to talk about Daniel Suarez. After losing his seat at Trackhouse Racing, he has settled in at Spire Motorsports and is off to a strong start, finishing 13th in the Daytona 500 and following it up with a top five in Atlanta.
This week, Suarez didn’t make a lot of noise. He started a solid 12th but did not lead a lap or score any stage points. What he did do was show up when it counted, and by the time the last couple of cautions set up the scramble to the finish, Suarez was firmly in the mix inside the top 10. He didn’t take the bait for the overtime mayhem, leading to his fifth-place result just behind teammate Carson Hocevar. Spire is showing some chops early in 2026.
Other drivers deserving mentions are Zane Smith and van Gisbergen. Smith has finished sixth and seventh in two races in 2026, and qualified sixth this week. Van Gisbergen qualified just 28th this week and was involved in a pair of early incidents, both of which featured the No. 97 sliding through the infield grass at a high rate of speed. But van Gisbergen kept his cool and took the checkers in sixth. Consistency on ovals has to be near the top of his to-do list this year.
When… are we going to talk about the points?
Two races into the season, it’s 23XI’s world. Reddick now holds a 40-point gap over teammate Wallace. 2020 champion Chase Elliott is just four back of Wallace in third, with Hocevar another seven back in fourth and Smith holding down fifth after two top 10s to open the season.
Joey Logano sits sixth, 57 behind Reddick, with Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher rounding out the top 10 after two weeks.
So far, it’s been a rough start to 2026 for some of last year’s best drivers. Of the drivers who competed for the title in the finale, not a single one is in the top 10 two races into the season. William Byron is 13th and Briscoe 15th, but thanks to running into trouble in each of the first two races, Larson is 21st and Denny Hamlin is 27th, 93 points in arrears to his employee.
Two things here. One is that we are two weeks into the season and it is far too early to worry about anyone, even if they need binoculars to see the top five at this point in the season. Yes, Reddick has a significant advantage (as he should in a system that rewards winning more than in past years), but he’s going to have his ups and downs, and there is so much time to make up ground.
Secondly, the two races were on drafting tracks, where the field is much more equalized than it will be at most tracks, and the next one is on a road course, which also often features different faces at the front.
Stage points will play a role this year, so expect to see the action ramp up accordingly when the points are up for grabs. But as the series hits the intermediate and short tracks, teams will be able to look for consistency, and the ones who find it will make big gains in the next few weeks.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
After two superspeedway races (or one superspeedway and one speedway lite) to kick things off, fans will get their first taste of the right-handers at Circuit of the Americas as the Cup and O’Reilly Series ship out to Austin, Texas for the first of four road-course events of the year.
In years past, that has meant seeing a few extra entries as a few teams put a road-course specialist in as an additional entry, which can give them extra data from an experience driver. It’s also a chance to see some regulars flex their muscles at their best tracks.
That means that all eyes will be on Shane van Gisbergen, who won five of the six road races in 2025…but SVG did not win at COTA. In five Cup races, COTA has crowned five different winners, most recently Christopher Bell a year ago.
If van Gisbergen loses his bid for a road course sweep again this year, others to watch include AJ Allmendinger, who has a pair of COTA wins in the O’Reilly Series, and Zane Smith, who has two Craftsman Truck Series wins there and is off to a hot start in the Cup Series this year.
How… did this race stack up?
EchoPark Speedway in its current configuration is an exercise in frustration when it comes to the racing. When things are going well, they go really well—the racing is tight and drivers can make passes and avoid trouble in ways they can’t at Daytona or Talladega.
The track has showcased some fantastic finishes, and this week’s race had plenty of action throughout the day, with drivers not really content to ride for laps on end the way they were the previous week.
But it can also be “Tallatona Lite,” devolving into a crash-filled demolition derby.
Sunday’s race was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some really great stretches of racing, with drivers making moves. Had Byron’s late issue not reared its head and the race stayed under green, it had the potential for a classic finish. Hocevar’s moves before the restart were as exciting as it gets, Ross Chastain was hungry, and the 23XI drivers and Christopher Bell were working together to shut out the other contenders.
On the other hand, more drivers failed to finish due to crashes than last week at Daytona, where the big crashes are expected. Overall, it was a pretty good race where the top contenders made terrible choices when it counted the most, thanks to a late caution. It wasn’t the best race since the reconfiguration, but it was still entertaining.
Putting the race directly after the Daytona 500 was not a great scheduling choice. It was chilly, and a lot of teams have had cars torn up two weeks in a row at no fault of their own. It would be better slotted in after the three-race Southwest tour, when the weather is a little nicer and the Daytona Big Ones are a bit smaller in the rearview.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
At least they didn’t start parading around like Daytona – that was frustrating as a viewer. ATL had lots of good racing throughout the field. It is nice that drivers who end up in back can race back to the lead in there is an incident, like the 45.