Tyler Reddick
The NASCAR Cup Series set its field of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon. That race will serve as the cutoff for the ‘Round of 12’ in the NASCAR Playoffs as the bottom four of those remaining in championship contention will be eliminated when the checkered flag waves on Sunday.
After the qualifying session was completed, it was Tyler Reddick who earned the right to start the main event from the pole position. However, there was a bit of good fortune that fell the fast qualifier’s way. With cars still on track with seconds remaining in the session, Denny Hamlin spun. Because the No. 11 car was blocking the track, NASCAR officials made the decision to end qualifying at that point.
Reddick, who earned his first pole on a road course in 2023 for his 23XI Racing team, will enter Sunday’s race just below the NASCAR Playoffs cutline. But track position will give his team options when it comes to race strategy.
The 27-year-old driver from Corning, California who has three career road course wins to his credit admitted that his performance on Saturday in Charlotte wasn’t perfect. Still, it was good enough.
“Just put down a good lap, but obviously, making mistakes,” Reddick told the USA network after qualifying. “Today was more of the same thing. Honestly, I got lucky. I had one of my dirtiest laps I’ve probably had in practice but was able to make up for it in some other areas. It’s a credit to a very strong Toyota Camry TRD. Everyone at 23XI, we work very hard on these road courses. It’s really nice to get this first road course pole of the year.”
In terms of being able to advance to the next round of the Playoffs, Reddick pointed out that he and his team gave themselves their best chance at success.
“This is exactly what we needed to do,” he declared. “We had a plan. It’s hard for every part of the plan to go right. This is what we need to do on Saturday. We obviously missed a little on the first lap in practice. We had good pace, for the most part. I knew I had to go out and qualify to give us some opportunities and some options. We’ll see how the race plays out but it’s going to be nice to have the track position to start. We’ll see how it goes.”
The race will be shown live by NBC on Sunday at 2:30(eastern).
NASCAR Playoffs Standings: 1. William Byron(locked into the ‘Round of 8’), 2. Ryan Blaney(locked into the ‘Round of 8’), 3. Denny Hamlin(+50), 4. Christopher Bell(+22), 5. Chris Buescher(+19), 6. Martin Truex Jr.(+17), 7. Kyle Larson(+15), 8. Brad Keselowski(+2), 9. Tyler Reddick(-2), 10. Bubba Wallace(-9), 11. Ross Chastain(-10), 12. Kyle Busch(-26)
Bank of America Roval 400 Starting Lineup: 1. Tyler Reddick, 2. Christopher Bell, 3. Daniel Suarez, 4. Bubba Wallace, 5. Kyle Busch, 6. A.J. Allmendinger, 7. Joey Logano, 8. Chase Elliott, 9. Denny Hamlin, 10. Ty Gibbs, 11. Martin Truex Jr., 12. Ross Chastain, 13. Michael McDowell, 14. William Byron, 15. Austin Dillon, 16. Alex Bowman, 17. Ryan Blaney, 18. Ryan Preece, 19. Brad Keselowski, 20. Chris Buescher, 21. Aric Almirola, 22. Kevin Harvick, 23. Erik Jones, 24. Corey LaJoie, 25. Justin Haley, 26. Mike Rockenfeller, 27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 28. Josh Bilicki, 29. Austin Cindric, 30. Chase Briscoe, 31. Harrison Burton, 32. Todd Gilliland, 33. Austin Hill, 34. Zane Smith, 35. Andy Lally, 36. Kyle Larson, 37. Ty Dillon
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