23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick remains the only race winner during the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, having won Sunday's DuraMAX Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) to become the first driver in the history of the series to win the first three races of a season.
With NASCAR having adjusted the points format to award 15 extra points to race winners this year, Reddick's lead atop the point standings is massive. He owns a 70-point lead over teammate Bubba Wallace, rather than just a 25-point lead. Under the old format, a whopping 13 other drivers would still be within that 70-point threshold.
However, under the old format, the driver of the No. 45 Toyota would also be locked into the playoffs. He is not yet officially locked into this year's 10-race postseason.
Under the "win and in" format, one win technically wasn't enough to lock a driver into the playoffs anyway, since there could be more winners than playoff spots (16) during the 26-race regular season.
But because the playoff spots went to the regular season champion, whether he won any races or not, and the 15 drivers who ranked highest in victories, winning twice always locked a driver in, since there could be no more than 13 multi-race winners before the playoffs.
And for what it's worth, there could be no more than eight three-race winners before the playoffs.
Reddick would have already been locked in after backing up his season-opening Daytona 500 win at Daytona International Speedway with his Autotrader 400 victory at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway), and the COTA win would have simply been icing on top (plus five extra playoff points).
That is not the case this year.
And even if Reddick keeps winning, it still won't mathematically be the case just yet.
Of course, it goes without saying that Reddick is in a good position points-wise relative to the cut line. He is 121 points ahead of the three drivers currently tied for 17th in the standings (Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs, Kaulig Racing's Ty Dillon, and Front Row Motorsports' Noah Gragson).
Even if wins weren't given extra value before the season began, he'd be 76 points ahead of that cutoff, which is an insane number after just three races.
Still, because of how NASCAR's new format is set up, there probably won't be any playoff spots officially secured until late July, possibly even early August. The four races scheduled to take place in August are the final four races on the regular season schedule at Iowa Speedway, Richmond Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Daytona.
The playoffs are scheduled to begin at Darlington Raceway, which is also set to host a regular season race later this month, on Sunday, September 6. Playoff points no longer exist, and NASCAR is set to use predetermined point values for all 16 playoff drivers to start the postseason.
Can Reddick make it four for four to start the 2026 season? Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 8 for the live broadcast of the Straight Talk Wireless 500 from Phoenix Raceway. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!