AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Shane van Gisbergen was so dominant on road courses last season than many had looked at NASCAR's first road race of 2026 like it was already settled: SVG in a runaway.
Hold on. Tyler Reddick's pursuit of racing history may yet have a say in that.
Reddick earned pole position for Sunday's race at the Circuit of the Americas as the winner of the Daytona 500 and again last week at Atlanta looks to become the first driver to win the first three races of the season.
Van Gisbergen won five of six road races last season, and Sunday’s race has been teed up as a fight between New Zealand's road wizard and his 19-year-old Trackhouse rookie teammate, Connor Zilisch.
But Reddick has history at COTA — he won a triple-overtime crash-fest here in 2023 — and has the confidence of a driver who has no plans to surrender races to anyone for now. His win here in 2023 was his first with Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing.
“It helps the chances certainly," Reddick said of Sunday's pole position. “Starting up front is huge.”
But that was earned with speed over one lap. Beating van Gisbergen's road course mastery over the 95 laps of a full race is something else indeed.
“I just need to get as much of a head start on him as I can and try to stay ahead of him all day,” Reddick said.
Van Gisbergen will start from 13th and he's chasing his own history. A sixth consecutive road course win would tie Jeff Gordon's record set from 1997 to 2000 and leave him two shy of Gordon’s career record of nine.
As dominant as he was on road courses last season, van Gisbergen didn't win at COTA, a racetrack originally built for Formula 1. He'd been expected to fight for pole but was well off the pace Saturday.
Zilisch will start 25th and still figures to contend for the victory despite a difficult qualifying session. He made an impressive and fiery Cup Series debut at COTA last year when he charged through the field in the second stage before a late wreck knocked him out.
“With Connor, it’s exciting. (He’s) a pretty cool talent coming into this level now, in the same equipment,” van Gisbergen said. “It’s going to be good.”
Zilisch said he learned a lot from racing last year against SVG in the second-tier O'Reilly series, where he won four road course races last season. Zilisch won pole position for Saturday's undercard race with van Gisbergen right next to him.
Van Gisbergen won a head-to-head battle between the drivers in the O’Reilly series in Chicago last year when he pushed Zilisch into the wall on the final restart. A week later, Zilisch got the best of SVG in another tussle to win at Sonoma.
“I feel like I’ve been able to run with him in those,” Zilisch said. “I feel like personally I can do it. But putting an entire race together, being consistent and not making mistakes ... I feel like I have the speed to do, it but I feel like I have to run a perfect race to be able to beat him. I think everybody’s realized how difficult that is.”
Brad Keselowski plans to race Sunday as he continues recovery from a broken right leg. He raced in Daytona and Atlanta, but the road course in Austin is a different physical strain. He’ll have sports-car ace Joey Hand available to step in if needed.
“It's going to take a lot for that to happen,” Keselowski said. “I'll have to be either really slow, or really in pain ... I'm a race car driver, that's what I do.”
Van Gisbergen is the betting favorite (+100) to win the race, according to BetMGM Sportsbook ... Sunday will be the debut of the new horsepower boost for road courses this season, a bump from 670 to 750, a change several drivers said should create more passing.
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Tyler Reddick reacts after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Hampton, Ga. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
FILE - Connor Zilisch prepares to compete in a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman, File)
FILE - Shane van Gisbergen celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)
The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday in what President Donald Trump said was a massive operation to destroy the country’s military capabilities and eliminate the threat of it creating a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it would defend its homeland and its Revolutionary Guard said it launched counterattacks, firing drones and missiles at Israel and strikes aimed at U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. The exchanges of fire continued into the night, and Iranian state media, citing the Red Crescent, said on Saturday evening that at least 201 people had been killed and more than 700 injured.
The strikes came after Trump has pressured Tehran for a deal to constrain its nuclear program, building up a fleet of American warships in the region as the country struggles with growing dissent following nationwide protests.
More than 80 people were reported killed and dozens wounded at a girls’ school in southern Iran in the Israeli-U.S. strikes, the local governor told Iranian state TV. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile attack on the capital of the United Arab Emirates killed one person, state media said.
Israel announced it had launched an attack on Iran shortly after explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday morning. One of the first strikes hit near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It wasn't immediately clear where Khamenei was at the time; he hadn't been seen for days.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian are alive “as far as I know.”
In a video statement, Netanyahu said Israel was striking targets connected to the “oppressive regime” and military sites, including missile installations. “The objective of the operation is to put an end to the threat from the Ayatollah regime in Iran,” he said, adding that it would continue “as long as necessary.”
Bahrain said a missile attack targeted the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in the island kingdom. Witnesses heard sirens and explosions in Kuwait, home to U.S. Army Central. Explosions could also be heard in Qatar, where Al Udeid Air Base hosts thousands of service members.
Saudi Arabia said on state-run media that it had repelled attacks by Iran on its capital and eastern region, and sirens sounded in Jordan.
An apartment building in northern Israel was damaged and shrapnel fell in multiple sites, according to media and police. But Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said there had been no significant hits in Israel and rescue services said there were no serious injuries reported from missile barrages across the country.
Kuwait’s health ministry said a dozen people were injured in strikes.
Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, meanwhile, have vowed to resume attacks on Red Sea shipping routes and on Israel, according to two senior Houthi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no official announcement from leadership.
It took over an hour for Trump to make an official announcement on the U.S. involvement in what he termed “major combat operations.”
In an 8-minute video on social media, Trump indicated the U.S. was striking for reasons far beyond the nuclear program, listing grievances stretching back to the beginning of the Islamic Republic following a revolution in 1979 that turned Iran from one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East into a fierce foe.
Trump told Iranians to take cover but urged them to later rise up and topple the Islamic leadership.
“When we are finished, take over your government,” Trump said. “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
The attacks came a day after Trump voiced frustration over lack of progress in negotiations to stop Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Israel said it had worked with the U.S. for months to plan the attacks.
Before U.S.-Iran negotiations were underway in Geneva, the U.S. had assembled a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to try to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in January to bolster the number of warships in the region. The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean to head to the Middle East and are now in the Mediterranean.
The fleet has added more than 10,000 U.S. troops to the region.
The fighting disrupted air travel in the region.
Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, home to both the long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, closed their airspace on Saturday. Airspace in southern Syria was also closed, as were skies above Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain and Oman’s Muscat International Airport, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
Planes en route to Israel were rerouted to other airports.
Virgin Atlantic canceled its flight from London's Heathrow Airport to Dubai and said it would avoid flying over Iraq, meaning flights to and from India, the Maldives, Dubai and Riyadh could take slightly longer. Virgin Atlantic said all flights would carry appropriate fuel in case they need to reroute on short notice.
Turkish Airlines said on X that flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan will be suspended until Monday and flights to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman would be suspended on Saturday.
Dutch airline KLM previously said it was suspending Tel Aviv flights starting Sunday.
Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble in the aftermath of an Israeli-U.S. strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (ISNA via AP)
People sits in a shelter after warning sirens sound following Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Vehicles drive along a highway following Israeli and U.S. strikes in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles queue outside a gas station following Israeli strikes in the city, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
