Tyler Reddick will lead the field to the green flag Sunday at the Charlotte Roval as the Cup Series playoff field prepares to get trimmed once again.
Reddick, below the cutline and facing elimination, won the pole with a lap of 95.510mph (85.939s). It is his second pole on the Charlotte Roval and the 11th of his career.
“An incredible effort by this team,” Reddick said. “This has been a track that we’ve been pretty strong at, and the tire is a lot different, obviously, as we saw today. I’m really proud of this Jordan Wings Toyota Camry. It’s been a difficult week, and it’s nice we got the job done today, and we obviously have some work to do tomorrow, but we did a good job of getting the track position.
“I’ll try and keep Shane (van Gisbergen) behind me and see if we can’t get it d one tomorrow.”
Reddick is 29 points below the cutline to start the race.
Shane van Gisbergen qualified second and will join Reddick on the front row. Van Gisbergen, who is seeking his fifth win in six road course starts this season, clocked in at 95.474mph.
Ty Gibbs qualified third (95.265mph), Kyle Larson (P) fourth (95.103mph) and Chris Buescher fifth (94.912mph). Larson is the defending winner at Charlotte.
Michael McDowell qualified sixth (94.812mph), Christopher Bell (P) seventh (94.790mph), Chase Briscoe (P) eighth (94.780mph), AJ Allmendinger ninth (94.772mph) and Ross Chastain (P) 10th (94.689mph).
There were seven playoff drivers who qualified outside the top 10, but a few of them will be bunched together at the start – Ryan Blaney qualified 11th with Bubba Wallace in 12th, William Byron in 13th, Denny Hamlin in 14th and Chase Elliott in 15th. Blaney and Elliott, however, are already locked into the next round.
Joey Logano qualified 17th and Austin Cindric 19th. The Team Penske duo were the lowest qualifying playoff drivers.
