Tyler Reddick won his sixth career pole at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Saturday, giving him a significant opportunity to win his way into the Round of 8 of the Playoffs.
Despite three road course wins to his name, this is Reddick’s first road course pole and his third of the season.
The 27-year-old, currently ninth in standings, is two points below where he needs to be to advance to the next round.
Reddick set the fastest pace with a lap of 1:21.214 while Christopher Bell will start second in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Bell won this race last year and later went on to win Martinsville and advance to the Championship 4.
Daniel Suárez, Bubba Wallace (Reddick’s 23XI team-mate), Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, and Ty Gibbs complete the top ten.
Neither Gibbs nor Hamlin posted a qualifying time in round two due to a spin by Hamlin, prompting NASCAR to end qualifying during both Hamlin and Gibbs’ laps.
Reddick, who had early road course success replacing Kurt Busch at Pocono last year, expressed a great respect for road racing and has claimed it’s one of his favourite styles.
“Honestly, today was the same thing we’ve been doing all year,” he said.
“We just got lucky because I had one of the dirtiest laps I’ve probably ever had. I made up for it in some other areas and I just credit to a strong Toyota Camry TRD and everyone at 23XI.
“We work really hard on these road courses and it’s nice to get the first road course pole of the year.
“This is what we need to do (to advance in the Playoffs),” he added.
“It’s hard for every part of the plan to go right, but this is what we need to do on Saturday.
“We had a good pace, and I knew I had to go out and qualify to give us some opportunities and options. We’ll see how the race plays out and it’s nice to have the track position at the start.”
Reddick will chase his third win of the season and his fourth on a road course. The race begins at 14:00 local time on Sunday.
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