CONCORD, N.C.– Tyler Reddick picked an ideal time to regain his form and beat Shane van Gisbergen — the road-course wonder from Down Under — in Saturday qualifying at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
With a lap at 95.510 mph, Reddick edged three-time Australian Supercars champion van Gisbergen for the pole position in Sunday‘s Bank of America Roval 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos
Reddick, who also claimed the top starting spot at the 17-turn layout in 2023, beat van Gisbergen (95.474 mph), winner of the last four NASCAR Cup Series races on road courses, by 0.032 seconds to earn his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his second at the 2.28-mile circuit and the 11th of his career.
In a qualifying session that featured unexpected severe fall-off of tires selected for all six road courses this season, Reddick put himself in position to overcome the 29-point deficit he faces entering the Round of 12 cutoff race in the playoffs.
Reddick believes the tire factor may be the most important aspect in determining strategy for Sunday‘s race.
“I think everybody that had a plan, an idea on the strategy for this race just had it completely ripped in half,” said Reddick, who posted three road course victories shortly after the transition to the Gen 7 car in 2022.
“All the teams are now looking at what the fall-off was like today and refiguring what the strategy’s going to look like. I would imagine that tires are going to be important to have late if there’s a caution, based on what we saw today.”
The top 10 drivers in time trials constituted a diverse mix of playoff and non-playoff drivers. With Reddick on the pole, fellow title chasers Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ross Chastain qualified fourth, seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively.
Behind van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs (95.265 mph) was third fastest, followed by Chris Buescher (fifth), Michael McDowell (sixth) and AJ Allmendinger (ninth), as non-Playoff drivers accounted for five of the top 10 starters.
Cup Series Playoff drivers Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott claimed positions 11 through 15 on the grid, respectively. Team Penske’s Joey Logano, the defending series champion, and Austin Cindric will start 17th and 19th.
Logano holds the eighth position in the Cup standings, 13 points above the current elimination line for the Round of 8. Cindric is 48 points below the line, almost certainly needing a victory to advance.
Blaney and Elliott already have earned berths in the Round of 8 with their respective victories in the first two Round of 12 events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Four playoff drivers will see their title hopes end in tomorrow’s elimination race.
Van Gisbergen, who also started second in his most recent win at Watkins Glen, is seeking his fifth consecutive road course victory. The record for the Cup Series is six straight, set by Jeff Gordon (1997-2000).
AJ Allmendinger paces the field in practice
After a practice session split between two groups, it was AJ Allmendinger, the 2023 Roval winner, who turned the fastest lap, hitting a top speed of 94.748 mph. Fellow Group 1 drivers Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suárez, Kyle Busch and Zane Smith rounded out the top five. Carson Hocevar, Larson, Justin Haley, Bell and Noah Gragson completed the top 10.
Larson and Bell were the only two playoff drivers who cracked the top 15 overall. Ross Chastain (16th) and William Byron (20th) were the next closest championship hopefuls as the rest of the playoff drivers ranked 23rd or worse after practice.
Tire fall-off played a major factor and served as an eye-opener for nearly every team in their search for grip. Gibbs was the fastest over a five-lap average, four-time road-course winner van Gisbergen was the fastest over a 10-lap average and Regular Season Champion Byron was fastest over a 15-lap average.
Both practice sessions ran caution-free; however, 23XI Racing driver Riley Herbst suffered a hard hit in the first session. He carried too much speed exiting Turn 5, which sent the No. 35 Toyota around and briefly climbed up the tire barrier before landing on all four wheels and continuing under green flag conditions with minimal damage.
Read the full article here
