Tyler Reddick raced his way to a monstrous Busch Light Pole Award for the return of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 20.
The two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Corning, California, made early head waves by being the fastest during the first round of on-track qualifying and within his Group A qualifying group, where he was one of 10 overall to transfer into the final round and contend for the pole position.
Once in the final round, Reddick, who was the 10th and final competitor to post a qualifying lap, managed to post the fastest-qualifying lap at 181.932 mph in 49.469 seconds. The qualifying lap was enough to knock off team owner Denny Hamlin off the top of the chart by 0.012 seconds.
With his accomplishment, Reddick, driver of the No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing and who was the fastest during Friday’s practice session, clinched his eighth NASCAR Cup Series career pole, his second of the season, his first since doing so at Darlington Raceway in May and his second overall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Ironically, Reddick’s first Indianapolis pole occurred in 2022 when the Cup Series’ competitors were racing on the venue’s road-course circuit. During the main event, Reddick would proceed to win and emerge as one of three competitors overall to win a Cup event on Indy’s road-course circuit as he attempts to become the first competitor to win at Indianapolis both on the road course and oval overall.
“I feel like [today’s pole]’s equal of importance, for sure,” Reddick, who compared his first pole at Indy in 2022 to today, said in the media center. “I knew we had to be really close to perfect today. I still wasn’t, honestly, but we did a good enough job the rest of the other three corners to be able to capture [the pole]. I feel like both [poles] are just as important as the other in regards to the race the following day. It’s a great thing that we were able to accomplish today.”
Despite being guaranteed a spot into the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs based off of winning at Talladega Superspeedway in April, Reddick, who is currently ranked in third place in this year’s regular-season standings and trails points leader Chase Elliott by 15 points, continues to keep his eyes squared on the prize and against his fellow competitors for the remaining regular-season events on the schedule, starting with a potential crown-jewel victory on Indy’s oval-shaped circuit.
“We got a good opportunity in front of us, but we know that a lot of the guys that are right there behind us are really good at making adjustments and doing what they need to do,” Reddick added. “We have to be mindful of all potentials of how the race unfolds.”
Reddick will share the front row with Denny Hamlin, Reddick’s owner at 23XI Racing who ended up with the second-fastest qualifying lap at 181.492 mph in 49.589 seconds.
Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, will line up in third place and he will share the second row with teammate William Byron. Kyle Larson, who attempted the Memorial Day double duty role in May and finished 18th in this year’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, will start in fifth place and line up next to Ty Gibbs on the third row. Ironically, Larson also qualified in fifth place during his Indy 500 bid.
Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and John Hunter Nemechek, all of whom transferred into the final round of qualifying, will line up from seventh to 10th, respectively, while Austin Dillon and Joey Logano will follow suit on the starting grid in the top 12.
Notably, Austin Cindric ended up in 38th place on the starting grid due to making significant contact with the outside wall during his qualifying lap.
All 39 Cup competitors entered for this weekend’s main event made the show.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
1. Tyler Reddick, 181.932 mph, 49.469 seconds
2. Denny Hamlin, 181.492 mph, 49.589 seconds
3. Chase Elliott, 181.803 mph, 49.504 seconds
4. William Byron, 180.155 mph, 49.957 seconds
5. Kyle Larson, 181.298 mph, 49.642 seconds
6. Ty Gibbs, 180.043 mph, 49.988 seconds
7. Ryan Blaney, 179.849 mph, 50.042 seconds
8. Michael McDowell, 178.898 mph, 50.308 seconds
9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 173.859 mph, 51.766 seconds
10. John Hunter Nemechek, 178.462 mph, 50.431 seconds
11. Austin Dillon, 180.912 mph, 49.748 seconds
12. Joey Logano, 180.270 mph, 49.925 seconds
13. Alex Bowman, 180.777 mph, 49.785 seconds
14. Martin Truex Jr., 180.076 mph, 49.979 seconds
15. AJ Allmendinger, 180.643 mph, 49.822 seconds
16. Harrison Burton, 179.946 mph, 50.015 seconds
17. Bubba Wallace, 180.592 mph, 49.836 seconds
18. Christopher Bell, 179.759 mph, 50.067 seconds
19. Corey LaJoie, 180.476 mph, 49.868 seconds
20. Chase Briscoe, 179.734 mph, 50.074 seconds
21. Noah Gragson, 180.159 mph, 49.956 seconds
22. Ty Dillon, 179.669 mph, 50.092 seconds
23. Chris Buescher, 180.025 mph, 49.993 seconds
24. Todd Gilliland, 179.630 mph, 50.103 seconds
25. Daniel Suarez, 179.165 mph, 50.233 seconds
26. Brad Keselowski, 179.097 mph, 50.252 seconds
27. Zane Smith, 178.962 mph, 50.290 seconds
28. Ross Chastain, 178.973 mph, 50.287 seconds
29. Erik Jones, 178.816 mph, 50.331 seconds
30. Carson Hocevar, 178.451 mph, 50.434 seconds
31. Ryan Preece, 178.713 mph, 50.360 seconds
32. Daniel Hemric, 178.366 mph, 50.458 seconds
33. Jimmie Johnson, 178.444 mph, 50.436 seconds
34. Kyle Busch, 178.338 mph, 50.466 seconds
35. Justin Haley, 177.508 mph, 50.702 seconds
36. Cody Ware, 176.737 mph, 50.923 seconds
37. Josh Berry, 176.578 mph, 50.969 seconds
38. Austin Cindric, 161.091 mph, 55.869 seconds
39. Timmy Hill, 169.773 mph, 53.012 seconds
The 2024 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is set to occur on Sunday, July 21, and air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
