Tyler Reddick will lead the field to the green flag for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.
Aboard the No. 45 for 23XI Racing, Reddick narrowly edged out Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch by 0.011 seconds.
Busch is fresh off a Superstar Racing Experience victory at Motor Mile Speedway (Va.), his first career win in his first start with the all-star series.
Reddick had a fastest speed of 113.689 mph. It was the 27-year-old’s first pole of the season.
“I think the real turning point for me was on lap one. I forget, I was acting like I only had one lap in that first round, even though I had two,” Reddick said. “I knew that lap was going to be really close and I kind of got out of shape out of turn four. I pretty much knew I was going to hit the wall, but I knew I wasn’t going to make the second round with that first lap.
“I stayed in it, hit the wall pretty good but was able to transfer into the second round with that first lap and saved a lap on those tires. We didn’t have the recovery time that group a had to cool the tires off but running that one lap set us up pretty well for round two. I think a lot of drivers and teams were not generally expecting the pace fall off to be that much,” Reddick continued.
“We were able to observe that and have an idea that what we would need for a lap time in round two and it just worked out really, really well. I’m really excited to be on the pole for the first time this year with 23XI. We’ve been really strong when we’ve had the opportunities to qualify this year, and it is nice to get that first pole as a team and just to top it off even more than that, the West Coast Customs Toyota Camry is getting build outside the race track and is going to be at the front of the field tomorrow.
“I get to make some laps in it as well and now our car is going to be up next to it. That’s also really cool.”
Behind the front two, last week’s Pocono Raceway race winner Denny Hamlin qualified third, with Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott slotting in fourth.
Three additional Toyota’s made up the top 10 with Bubba Wallace in fifth, Ty Gibbs seventh and Martin Truex Jr. qualifying in 10th.
Two Chevrolet’s in William Byron (sixth) and Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (ninth) followed suit, with the lone Ford of Kevin Harvick qualifying eighth.
After electing to miss Saturday’s Cup Series action to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America (Wis.) A.J. Allmendinger will start last in 36th. Derek Kraus filled in for Allmendinger for practice and qualifying.
Allmendinger currently sits 17 points below the NASCAR Playoffs cutline.