AUSTIN, Texas – Tyler Reddick took strides during the offseason to improve his driving skillset on road courses. Those efforts paid off with the Busch Pole Award Sunday morning at Circuit of The Americas.
Driving the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Reddick turned a lap of 2:12.911 during the second and final knockout round at the 20-turn, 3.462-mile permanent road course to best Kyle Larson for top honors in the Cup Series’ inaugural visit to the Austin, Texas facility.
It marked Reddick’s first career Cup Series pole in his 52nd start, as well as just the eighth chance Reddick has had in his premier series tenure to qualify due to COVID-19 race weekend procedures.
“It’s no secret that I was absolutely terrible on road courses for a long time and I still have a lot to learn, but I didn’t want that to be my weakness anymore,” Reddick tipped. “I really focused in the offseason on just being better and put a lot of work into this [style of racing]. This whole team did a lot to help me get better. A.J. Allmendinger and a lot of people aligned with RCR have played into this.
“I just had to get my confidence up and racing the Xfinity [Series] car yesterday really helped with that,” he added. “Getting a top 10 with Jordan Anderson Racing … qualifying and running well in that car yesterday helped a lot. We were off in the rain yesterday in this car, but the Xfinity track time helped me go out there and put a good lap down in this car. It’s just so cool to grab the first ever Cup pole here.”
Kyle Larson made it an all-Chevrolet front row with a lap of 2:13.011 in the No. 5 for Hendrick Motorsports. He’s looking to avenge a potential win that got away at the Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway road course earlier this season when the 68-lap, 231-mile race goes green later in the day.
“I was happy with that, pretty proud of that, actually. To have two laps, ever, around here and only be a tenth off pole is pretty awesome,” Larson said. … [Under braking] is pretty much where I got beat. I hit my marks, but under-drove one section.
“It’s pretty cool for two dirt open wheel kids who grew up racing outlaw karts at Cycleland (Calif.) Speedway to be on the pole at a road course.”
Defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and road-course ace Austin Cindric was third for Team Penske, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and a second Hendrick driver in William Byron.
Joey Logano, A.J. Allmendinger, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman filled out the 12 drivers who advanced through both rounds of qualifying.
Kurt Busch was the first driver who failed to advance to the final round, with a lap of 2:14.708 slotting him 13th on the grid for the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
The elder Busch brother missed the advancement cut by 13 hundredths of a second.
“I’m a racer and just wanted to be in that fast 12 to give my guys and Monster Energy a shot at the pole,” said Kurt Busch. “To see all this and how it’s broken out, with rain yesterday, dry [conditions] today and six hours of my own simulator time along with six hours of time on the Chevrolet simulator … it’s crazy.
“The fastest lap I had ever turned before today [at COTA] was a 2:17, so to be three seconds faster today with a real car … I like the real car,” he added. “The simulator gets you close, but I’m a racer and I wanted to be in that last group to have a shot at the pole. … This is a who’s who of road racers.”
The 2004 Cup Series champion also believes that rain could potentially throw a wrench into the works come race time later in the day.
“We’ll see what the weather brings us later today,” Kurt Busch added. “We have to be prepared for anything right now.”
Other notables starting deeper in the field at Circuit of The Americas include three-time season winner Martin Truex Jr. (17th), Denny Hamlin (19th), Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell (23rd), Brad Keselowski (24th) and Ryan Newman (34th).
With 40 drivers on the property for 40 starting spots, no one failed to qualify for the event.
Sunday’s EchoPark Texas Grand Prix is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. ET start, with live coverage on FS1, the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
To view the full starting lineup, advance to the next page.