Surprise Pole? Nah. Full Cup Series Starting Lineup for COTA

Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing team are on a roll! Two wins in a row and now two Pole Awards in a row as Reddick beats out Ross Chastain by just over a tenth of a second to secure the pole for the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. The only real shock in the starting lineup is NASCAR’s Road Course king, Shane van Gisbergen, who will start P. 13. van Gisbergen ran a 98.464 vs the pole winner’s 97.760.

Should we be surprised by Reddick here at COTA? Absolutely not! Reddick has the best average finish of any driver at COTA, including a win in 2022. Since joining 23XI Racing, he’s never finished outside the Top 5. Qualifying? Yeah, he’s great at that too. This is his third Pole at COTA; he’s won the pole now in 2021, 2025, and 2026. He has NEVER qualified outside the Top 5.

Here is the full starting grid for COTA.

Image Credit: James Gilbert/Getty Images

1Tyler Reddick
2Ross Chastain
3Chase Briscoe
4Ryan Blaney
5Chase Elliott
6Michael McDowell
7AJ Allmendinger
8Christopher Bell
9Ty Gibbs
10William Byron
11Zane Smith
12Carson Hocevar
13Shane van Gisbergen
14Chris Buescher
15Kyle Larson
16Alex Bowman
17Todd Gilliland
18Cole Custer
19Denny Hamlin
20Joey Logano
21Ty Dillon
22Josh Berry
23Daniel Suarez
24Bubba Wallace
25Connor Zilisch
26Brad Keselowski
27Jesse Love jr.
28Austin Cindric
29Ryan Preece
30Kyle Busch
31John Hunter Nemechek
32Riley Herbst
33Austin Dillon
34Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
35Noah Gragson
36Erik Jones
37Cody Ware

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