Sitting 29 points below the Playoff cutline, Tyler Reddick’s championship hopes are hanging by a thread heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. However, the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota begins a near must-win situation from an enviable spot, the pole.
While Reddick is proud to start Sunday’s race with excellent track position, he isn’t going to rest on his laurels heading into the race.
“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 explained in an interview on TruTV after securing the pole position.
Reddick took the pole in the final moments of Saturday’s qualifying session, as he cranked off an 85.939-second (95.510 mph) lap time around the 2.32-mile makeshift road course within the confines of the Charlotte Motor Speedway facility.
The heroic lap allowed Reddick to surpass Shane van Gisbergen, who has won the most recent four NASCAR Cup Series road course events, by a margin of 0.032 seconds.
“Just incredible effort by this team,” Reddick said of topping SVG. “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.”
If he is going to win Sunday’s race, Reddick knows his team will likely have to find a bit more race pace, but he’s confident that they can achieve that overnight.
“We need a little bit. We’re going to have to find it, but I believe in my group, I believe in my team. We’ll just go to work on it tonight,” Reddick stated.
This marks the 11th pole position of the Corning, CA native’s NASCAR Cup Series career, and it comes in his 214th start.
Ty Gibbs, who continues his quest for his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, will roll off from the third starting spot on Sunday, and he is joined by Kyle Larson, a Playoff contender, and Chris Buescher inside the top-five of the starting lineup.
Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell (Playoff contender), Chase Briscoe (P), AJ Allmendinger, and Ross Chastain (P) rounded out the top-10 fastest qualifiers in the session.
Seven of the 12 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders will begin the final race of the Round of 12 of the Playoffs from outside the top-10 on the starting grid.
Ryan Blaney, who locked in his spot in the Round of 8 with a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, will start from the 11th spot.
Bubba Wallace, who enters the race 26 points below the cutline, was the top of the Playoff drivers not currently locked into the Round of 8 outside of the top-10 as he qualified 12th, a decent effort for the 23XI Racing driver considering his road racing record.
William Byron (13th), Denny Hamlin (14th), Chase Elliott (15th), Joey Logano (17th), and Austin Cindric (19th) were the remaining NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders in the qualifying session.
Here is the official starting lineup for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Race 32 of 36.
Pos
Car
Driver
1
45*
Tyler Reddick (P)
2
88
Shane van Gisbergen #
3
54
Ty Gibbs
4
5
Kyle Larson (P)
5
17
Chris Buescher
6
71
Michael McDowell
7
20
Christopher Bell (P)
8
19
Chase Briscoe (P)
9
16
AJ Allmendinger
10
1
Ross Chastain (P)
11
12
Ryan Blaney (P)
12
23*
Bubba Wallace (P)
13
24
William Byron (P)
14
11
Denny Hamlin (P)
15
9
Chase Elliott (P)
16
10
Ty Dillon
17
22
Joey Logano (P)
18
41
Cole Custer
19
2
Austin Cindric (P)
20
99
Daniel Suarez
21
7
Justin Haley
22
6
Brad Keselowski
23
35*
Riley Herbst #
24
38*
Zane Smith
25
48
Alex Bowman
26
47
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27
77
Carson Hocevar
28
8
Kyle Busch
29
60
Ryan Preece
30
4*
Noah Gragson
31
34*
Todd Gilliland
32
51
Cody Ware
33
21
Josh Berry
34
66*
Josh Bilicki (i)
35
42
John Hunter Nemechek
36
3
Austin Dillon
37
43
Erik Jones
(P) indicates NASCAR Cup Series Playoff driver
* indicates “Open” entry
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points
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