What more can you say at this point about the start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season that Tyler Reddick has had? The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE already had four race wins on the stat sheet, and on Saturday afternoon, a day in which he paced NASCAR Cup Series practice at Kansas Speedway, the driver rocketed to his third pole position of the season.
Starting Lineup: AdventHealth 400 at Kansas
Reddick, the rising star of the team owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, will start Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway from the pole position.
The driver claimed the pole with a lap time of 29.142 seconds, which equates to a 185.300 mph average lap speed, around the 1.5-mile speedway in Kansas City. Reddick’s lap was 0.019 seconds faster than Denny Hamlin, who secured the second starting spot for Sunday’s race.
Reddick applauded his crew chief, Billy Scott, for opting to tune on their No. 45 car on pit road prior to them heading out onto the track in the opening moments of their practice session, after they spotted something during the prior group’s time on track.
“It’s really awesome. Again, just this SupplyHouse Toyota Camry was really, really solid in practice. We elected to give up rolling out first, got those adjustments we wanted to, and yeah, just really, really good handling on our Toyota Camry,” Reddick explained.
For Reddick, this is his 14th career pole position, and the pole gives him a huge track position advantage at a track where he has won before and where his 23XI Racing team has scored wins with three different drivers over the years. Needless to say, the confidence is soaring.
“Just proud of everyone’s effort at 23XI,” Reddick stated. “We’ve been solid. Obviously, we had that stretch where we were really tough to beat here. We’ve worked hard to improve that. And to have a Saturday go like this, smooth, just great handling out of our Camrys is just what we want to see.”
There’s no reason to think Reddick won’t be in contention for his fifth win of the opening nine races of the season on Sunday.
Hamlin, who has four wins at Kansas Speedway throughout his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career, will be right beside Reddick on the initial start of the race, and he should also have something to say about who ultimately ends up in victory lane.
Ty Gibbs, who comes into this race fresh off his first career win last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, will look to go back-to-back as he starts third in Sunday’s race at Kansas. Gibbs has reeled off six consecutive top-10 finishes, five of which have been top-fives.
Gibbs will be joined in Row 2 by Kyle Larson, the driver who has been the biggest threat at Kansas Speedway over the last few seasons. Larson is still looking for his first win of the season.
Chase Briscoe, Carson Hocevar, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.
