Shane van Gisbergen doubled down with his second NASCAR national touring series pole position of the day at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) by claiming the top-starting spot for this weekend’s Bank of America Roval 400 on Saturday, October 12.
The three-time SuperCars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, was one of 10 from a list of 38-entered competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying, where the first phase of qualifying consisted of two 19-car groups (Group A and Group B) and the top-five fastest competitors from each group transferring into the final qualifying round.
After being the fastest qualifier from the Group B qualifying round and the fastest in practice, van Gisbergen would proceed to claim the pole position with his best lap occurring at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds, which was enough to edge Tyler Reddick by 0.057 seconds.
With his accomplishment, van Gisbergen, who was initially not registered to compete in this event but ended up being added in Kaulig Racing’s No. 13 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, notched his first career pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series division. He also became the 242nd competitor overall to win a pole in NASCAR’s premier series and he delivered the first Cup pole for Kaulig Racing as he will make his 10th Cup start of the 2024 season at the Charlotte Roval on Sunday. The New Zealander’s previous best starting spot in the Cup Series was third, which occurred at the Chicago Street Course in July 2023 and Watkins Glen International this past August.
Van Gisbergen, who will also start on pole position for Saturday afternoon’s Xfinity Series Playoff event at the Roval in his quest to advance into the Round of 8, also joins Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain as non-Playoff contenders to record poles as he strives to become the sixth competitor to win a Cup event at the Roval.
“Man, thank you to this Kaulig Racing team,” van Gisbergen said on USA Network. “[It was a] Last minute deal to come and race here. Thanks to [team owner] Matt [Kaulig] and the guys for letting me run their car. What an amazing day. I’m lost for words. I have to respect [that] there’s a lot of Playoff guys around me. I have to race respectfully. We’re here to win the race. Hopefully, we have a good day.”
Reddick, who won the Charlotte Roval pole a year ago and who made a last-ditch effort to topple van Gisbergen off the top of the qualifying charts, will start in second place with his best lap occurring at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds. Ironically, Reddick, the highest-starting Playoff contender, also rallied from being involved in a spin during the event’s practice session.
AJ Allmendinger, van Gisbergen’s teammate at Kaulig Racing and the reigning Bank of America Roval 400 winner, will start in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 98.874 mph in 83.015 seconds. Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, Playoff contenders and teammates at Team Penske, will line up in the top five.
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, Playoff contenders and teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, will follow suit in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Playoff contender William Byron complete the top-10 starting spots.
With six of the 12 Playoff contenders starting in the top 10 for Sunday’s main event, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe will start 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th and 25th, respectively.
With Sunday’s main event at the Charlotte Roval serving as the final Round of 12 event of the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, the following names that include Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe enter the Roval below the top-eight cutline while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott occupy the final two transfer spots by 14 and 13 points, respectively. William Byron is the only Playoff contender who is currently locked into the Round of 8 based on points while Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney follow suit in the top six in the Playoff standings.
*All 38 competitors entered for Sunday’s event at Charlotte earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
- Shane van Gisbergen, 99.246 mph, 82.704 seconds
- Tyler Reddick, 99.177 mph, 82.761 seconds
- AJ Allmendinger, 98.874 mph, 83.015 seconds
- Joey Logano, 98.694 mph, 83.166 seconds
- Austin Cindric, 98.580 mph, 83.262 seconds
- Kyle Larson, 98.500 mph, 83.330 seconds
- Chase Elliott, 98.389 mph, 83.424 seconds
- Brad Keselowski, 98.341 mph, 83.465 seconds
- Bubba Wallace, 98.219 mph, 83.568 seconds
- William Byron, 98.165 mph, 83.614 seconds
- Kyle Busch, 98.637 mph, 83.214 seconds
- Christopher Bell, 98.605 mph, 83.241 seconds
- Daniel Suarez, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
- Ryan Blaney, 98.464 mph, 83.360 seconds
- Todd Gilliland, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
- Ross Chastain, 98.277 mph, 83.519 seconds
- Alex Bowman, 98.453 mph, 83.370 seconds
- Denny Hamlin, 98.174 mph, 83.607 seconds
- Ty Gibbs, 98.377 mph, 83.434 seconds
- Carson Hocevar, 98.039 mph, 83.722 seconds
- Michael McDowell, 98.305 mph, 83.495 seconds
- Austin Dillon, 98.009 mph, 83.747 seconds
- Zane Smith, 98.128 mph, 83.646 seconds
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 97.924 mph, 83.820 seconds
- Chase Briscoe, 97.987 mph, 83.766 seconds
- Harrison Burton, 97.834 mph, 83.897 seconds
- Daniel Hemric, 97.921 mph, 83.823 seconds
- Corey LaJoie, 97.756 mph, 83.964 seconds
- Chris Buescher, 97.760 mph, 83.961 seconds
- Martin Truex Jr., 97.647 mph, 84.058 seconds
- Kaz Grala, 97.752 mph, 83.968 seconds
- Noah Gragson, 97.560 mph, 84.133 seconds
- Justin Haley, 97.718 mph, 83.997 seconds
- Ryan Preece, 97..234 mph, 84.415 seconds
- John Hunter Nemechek, 97.664 mph, 84.043 seconds
- Josh Berry, 97.069 mph, 84.558 seconds
- Erik Jones, 97.515 mph, 84.172 seconds
- Josh Bilicki, 95.261 mph, 86.163 seconds
The 2024 Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 13, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
