LOUDON, N.H. — Tyler Reddick ripped to his fifth pole of the season during qualifying Saturday for Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
A five-time winner this season, Reddick drove the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota to a lap of 29.054 seconds (131.094 mph) to take the top spot.
It is Reddick’s 16th career NASCAR Cup Series pole.
“When we get done here, we got plenty of things to discuss and figure out. It’s a confidence boost, right? It’s like, OK, well, we know we can at least get it, right? We didn’t really have a sign or a showing of that in one lap or the averages in practice,” Reddick explained. “We were kind of in a bit of traffic. I love the single group practice session, the track evolves more like the race. I think it’s helpful in trying to understand what your car is going to do, what new tires are going to do, on the more rubbered in surface. But there are things that come with it, right?
“Like there’s just less holes on the race track to get a clean hole and figure out what he got. But it’s just one of those things that’s funny, right? Everyone hunts so hard to have clean air in practice but only one guy is going to have it a second of the race. Tt’s just one of those things you try and try and manage, but for us, we got it right on qualifying, so we know that the speed is there. We just got to figure out how to keep it, keep it coming over the run and find a happy spot where I’m good with the balance and I can get the most out of it like I did in qualifying.”
Reddick edged Wood Brothers Ford Racing driver Josh Berry by a mere .015 seconds on the one-mile race track. Berry enters Sunday’s race with three consecutive top-10 finishes.
William Byron will start his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet third, with point leader Denny Hamlin alongside in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the top five in a Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman completed the top 10.
