It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Tyler Reddick, both on and off the racetrack.
After a disappointing result to start the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and a seventh-place result at Kansas, Reddick finds himself 29 points below the cutline, basically in a must-win situation.
Off the racetrack, though, things have been just as tough, with Reddick’s youngest son, Rookie, being in the cardiovascular ICU, showing potential signs of heart failure.
As Reddick chases a position in the semi-final round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the Corning, California-native is at the racetrack looking to put his best foot forward.
Well, that’s exactly what Reddick did Saturday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, winning the pole for Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400, beating out road course expert Shane van Gisbergen.
In qualifying Saturday, Reddick was able to get around the 2.28-mile purpose-built road course in 85.939 seconds (equivalent to an average speed of 95.510mph) to pick up his 11th pole in the NASCAR Cup Series.
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 NCS Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte’s ROVAL
“It’s nice we got the job done today. We obviously have some work to do tomorrow, but we did a good job of getting the track position,” Reddick told TruTV. “Just incredible effort by this team. I mean, this has been a track that we’ve been pretty strong at. And the tire is a lot different, obviously, as we saw today. Just really proud of this Jordan Wings Toyota Camry.”
Shane van Gisbergen, who has been to Victory Lane five times in the NASCAR Cup Series on road courses, will roll from the second position. While the Trackhouse Racing driver didn’t necessarily show immediate dominant pace to start runs in practice, the No. 88 Chevrolet was lights out as the tires wore.
Ty Gibbs was the fastest driver in the first group of qualifying on Saturday, and once all 37 drivers had posted a lap time, the driver of the No. 54 Toyota Camry XSE settled into third place. Defending Charlotte ROVAL winner Kyle Larson will start from fourth, with Chris Buescher rounding out the top five.
Michael McDowell picked up a solid qualifying result for Spire Motorsports in sixth, with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in seventh and eighth. AJ Allmendinger was the fastest driver in Saturday’s practice, but ended up ninth in qualifying.
Ross Chastain, who enters Sunday’s 400-miler sitting 13 points below the cutline, rounded out the top-10, with a line of four more post-season drivers, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, and William Byron sitting 11th through 15th.
Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, the two lowest-qualifying NASCAR Cup Series post-season drivers, will start from 17th and 19th.
The Bank of America ROVAL 400 will take place on Sunday, October 5, at 3:00 PM ET on USA Network, Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
