CONCORD, N.C. — Needing a victory to advance to the round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Tyler Reddick won the pole for Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Driving the No. 45 23XIRacing Toyota, Reddick turned a lap of 85.939 seconds at 95.510 mph to nab the top qualifying spot on the road course configuration at the famed North Carolina race track.
It was Reddick’s second pole of the season and the 11th of his career.
Reddick’s biggest competition on Sunday will likely come from second-place qualifier Shane van Gisbergen, who has won four road course races in his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet this season.
“I think what you would define a long run – the long run seems like it comes quick with the way these tires go away,” Reddick said. “I believe he was the standout in that regard, on long run pace, so, I will try to look at what I’m doing with the car. We’ll try to look at what we can change on the car to see what more we can kind of do to help that. Outside of that, I thought my car handled pretty well over the course of the long run.
“We just have to just look through everything and see if there’s anything more there that we can find to help us. I mean, I think we’re okay when you look at the field minus the 88 (Shane van Gisbergen), but yeah, Shane’s obviously very good at what he does, he’s proven that this year in other years with this car. For us, we’ve got to kind of figure out how we can close that gap. It’s a pretty big one, but we’re up for that challenge.”
Ty Gibbs starts third for Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, with Kyle Larson fourth in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Chris Buescher was fifth for RFK Racing and Ford.
Larson and Reddick are the only playoff drivers who qualified in the top five.
