We hear it every time the NASCAR Cup Series visits a superspeedway: it's just a superspeedway. It's just a drafting race. It's just a plate track. We supposedly can't take the results seriously, we can't draw conclusions about the rest of the season, and we certainly can't give credit where it's due – unless it's our favorite driver who won, of course.
As Kyle Busch infamously implied in 2017, superspeedways supposedly aren't "real race tracks". Yet two races into the 2026 season, two superspeedway races into the season to be exact, the point standings paint an interesting picture ahead of the series' first road course race of the year this weekend at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick became the first driver since Matt Kenseth in 2009 to open up a Cup Series season with back-to-back victories, and the fact that he did it in the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and then in this past Sunday's Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) has been viewed as both extremely impressive and extremely fluky.
'Just a superspeedway'? Not so fast...
There is perhaps no track more unlike Daytona or Atlanta on the schedule than COTA, even after NASCAR moved away from the full 20-turn, 3.41-mile (5.488-kilometer) Austin, Texas road course that Formula 1 uses for its annual United States Grand Prix and opted for the 17-turn, 2.4-mile (3.862-kilometer) abbreviated layout, starting in 2025.
Yet take a look at the top four in the current point standings, and take a look at the top four qualifiers for the 2025 COTA race.
Reddick leads the standings over teammate Bubba Wallace in second, Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott in third, and Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar in fourth.
Reddick, the 2023 COTA winner, took pole for the 2025 COTA race, and he shared the front row with Wallace, with Elliott and Hocevar behind them in third and fourth, respectively.
As much as we hear about how superspeedway results don't matter, the top four aligning here is clearly not a coincidence.
The drivers who have consistently run up at the front to start the 2026 season are the drivers who are absolutely capable of being fast at a variety of race tracks.
Sure, maybe if the standings were based on just one superspeedway race, the story would be different. But aside from Reddick, Elliott, and Hocevar, the only other drivers with a top four finish this season have also recorded a finish of 18th or worse, with an average finish of 27.5 in those starts. Only one of them is even in the top 10 in the standings.
Perhaps consistency really does matter again.
Qualifying for Sunday's 95-lap DuraMAX Grand Prix is scheduled to take place at 11:10 a.m. ET on Saturday morning, with live coverage set to be provided by Amazon Prime Video. The race itself is set to be shown live on Fox from COTA starting at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season's first road course race!