Tyler Reddick Notches Second Career Cup Pole with Ridiculous Lap at Indy’s Road Course

Whether you’re on board or not, the youth movement has made its way into the NASCAR Cup Series, with four of the top-five qualifiers for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Road Course having less than 100 starts at NASCAR’s top-level.

Securing the pole position for Sunday’s second-ever contest at the 2.439-mile road course was Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick, posting an insane lap of 88.354 seconds (99.378mph) to grab his second career pole.

Reddick had the field cleared by a quarter-second in the second round of qualifying, with Austin Cindric’s 88.606-second lap only being good enough for the runner-up spot.

Mitchell, Indiana-native Chase Briscoe – who came so close to winning the series’ inaugural event at the road course in 2021 — will start from third, with Christopher Bell starting alongside him on the second row.

The oldest driver inside the top five in qualifying was 32-year-old Joey Logano, who will start from fifth, alongside his other Team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney, who ensures that the organization places all three cars inside the top six.

After a massive L-2 Penalty handed down on Tuesday, Michael McDowell – who keeps his crew chief Blake Harris for this week’s event as the team appeals the penalty – picked up his fifth top-10 start of the year, qualifying in seventh.

Regular-season points leader Chase Elliott – who rides a streak of five consecutive top-two results – will start from eighth, while Rookie of The Year contender Todd Gilliland secures a career-best ninth-place start.

Kyle Busch will roll from the 10th position in Sunday’s event, as he chases his second victory of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Other notables include Daniel Suarez (11th), Denny Hamlin (15th), AJ Allmendinger (20th), Ross Chastain (21st), Kyle Larson (22nd), William Byron (23rd), Martin Truex Jr. (25th), and Alex Bowman (28th).

Daniil Kvyat – a former Formula One competitor making his NASCAR Cup Series debut for Team Hezeberg — will start in 36th, after getting a combined 12 laps between practice and qualifying on Saturday.