Tyler Reddick will look to push past his recent horrid luck in the NASCAR Cup Series from the pole position in Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota turned the fastest lap in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Starting Lineup: Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire
Officially, Reddick clocked in with a lap time of 29.054 seconds (131.094 mph), which was enough to bump Josh Berry, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, from the pole by a margin of 0.015 seconds.
For Reddick, this is the fifth pole position of the season, and it marks the 16th of his 243-race NASCAR Cup Series career. While he was just 31st-fastest in single-lap speed in Saturday’s practice session, Reddick knew he had a car better than that, he just never got a shot at a clean qualifying attempt in the practice.
“We just didn’t get a great opportunity in practice to lay down a lap in clean air. The short run didn’t seem really that bad. We didn’t have the lap, but the grip seemed there. So, I kind of committed,” Reddick said. “It’s like, I’ve got to qualify good. I don’t want to do what we did at Richmond and start in the 30s.”
Reddick spent the majority of the session seething on his team radio about the performance of his car in race trim. Reddick says he can’t recall ever feeling as heated about his car during a practice session.
“Oh man, I was really unhappy. I can’t recall a practice where I’ve complained like that,” Reddick admitted.
However, Reddick believes being as unhappy as he was in the session will allow his crew chief Billy Scott to zero in on the changes the car needs to compete for a win on Sunday in Loudon, NH.
Berry, who narrowly missed out on the pole, comes into this race with momentum as he is on a three-race top-10 finishing streak, and he finished runner-up in this race a season ago.
“Overall, good practice for us. Obviously, a great starting spot, and fighting hard right now for sure. We’re making the most of this run with our cars. They’ve been really strong,” Berry said after the runner-up qualifying effort.
William Byron will start on the inside of Row 2, and he’ll be joined by Denny Hamlin, the NASCAR Cup Series point leader.
Shane van Gisbergen, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
