TOYOTA RACING – Tyler Reddick
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
LOUDON, NH. (Aug. 22, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Tyler Reddick was made available to the media on Saturday after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Reddick recorded his fourth pole of 2026 and the 15th pole of his career. The pole was also Toyota’s 10th pole position of the season.
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Chumba Casino Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
How tough is it to go for where you were kind of out to lunch in practice to winning the pool an hour later?
“I wasn’t how you think things through and how you want it to go. I was thinking, like, qualifying went good, maybe top 10, whatever. I didn’t have this thought that we’re going to go lay a lap down here and I’ll be talking to you guys again in a little bit. The thought was you want to get the most out of the car, most out of the lap and I just tried to understand what didn’t like out of my car and practice and make sure I don’t tap into that at all and just tried to make the most of what I thought our strengths were in practice, and I was just kind of able to kind of tie it all together and run a really good laugh in qualifying. From my perspective the tracks seemed a little different than normal, but this is the first time we’ve come here and done the 50-minute practice and then go qualify. I just felt like my mindset was in a good place for what I needed to do on the lap. I didn’t make any major mistakes. Concerning practice, that was not good for sure. We went out there and Billy (Scott, Crew Chief) told me if I’m not happy by lap 15, let’s pit and work on it. I didn’t get to lap 10 and I was like we got to get to work. Run two and run three weren’t exactly what we wanted. But as much as it may not be fun out during the moment trying to sort it all out and run the laps, it’s good to acquire the knowledge, run the laps, and see what the tires are doing. Then for us to be able to go to work on it tonight, figure out what direction we want to go. We will lean on our teammates, see what they had gains with, things of that nature. We put it all together and have what’s the car capable of in one lap, right? We were able to do this, so it tells me if we hit it we should be pretty good on speed, that’s going to be the tough part, right? It’s just making sure that we make the right changes between today and tomorrow.”
Is winning the pole a big boost for you and your team right now?
“Going to some of these tracks when I have been on more typical days, when I’m sitting here talking to you guys about sitting on a pole, we went out there in practice and been fast. The fire off and are good on the mid run and the long run speed, all that’s good, you know? This one is really, really fun and cool because practice was not like that for us. We had things that we were unhappy with, things we wanted to work on. It wasn’t like we walked away from practice, let’s make a little adjustment here and there and we were good to go for the race. We knew we’ve got things we need to really work on. So for us to take that, put it over here, and then start to focus on what we need to do in qualifying and then go lay a lap down like we did, that’s a big deal because it’s very easy after a practice like that to just have a mediocre qualifying effort and then your day just continues to not be great. So, I’ve been able to get the bullet a few places over the years it’s really fun and special, but the fashion that we did it today was really, really awesome.”
What will you do between now and tomorrow for the race in terms of figuring things out since it seems like you guys were way off in practice for long run speed?
“Going back to debriefing my teammates, going back for your notes, obviously the tire combination is a little bit different. It’s more what we ran a lot of short tracks this year. You look at those notes from those weekends too, it’s why you take notes. You document what’s going on, so you can go back through and understand what we need to do. Billy’s really good at that. My team’s really good at that to begin with. So, let’s have some good discussions about it. And then, I’ll lean in and kind of say which direction I want to go, but Billy does a really good job of understanding, there this is good, but we need to ignore this. And so, we’ll just have some big-time decisions to make between now and Sunday morning. But we’ll do our best to get them right. We’ll lean on our teammates and see how we get going in the race.”
Is where you were at in practice perplexing at all?
“I would say the feeling would be worse if we qualified 30th, you know? Because now you don’t have the track position and you don’t have pit selection. It’s like, man, I don’t know, is there speed even there? After Richmond, it was kind of a way for us like, okay, where are we at? Like, we didn’t even see anything out of it in the qualifying session. We were able to turn that around and we had good speed in the race. You know, if anything, be able to put this lab together and go that fast, especially against the Penske cars who’ve showed a lot of speed here. It’s more promising than anything. It’s like, okay, you know, I think we can get this right. So, we’ll just work on it.”
Your teammate Bubba Wallace was second in average speed. Is this something you’ll look at later with him and his team?
“I’d say so. We’ll start with our teammates and lean on other Toyota teammates as well. Like I said, notes from years past, notes from other times we ran this tire. We have to do a really good job of going through that stuff. We’ll lean on others and see what their opinions and perspectives were for practice, they’re going to hear what mine was. That’s what having teammates is all about working together, helping each other out. It’s probably going to sound crazy but the guy who’s starting first is going to be really leaning on these teammates to figure out what to do.
You could see some wet racing in the rain tomorrow, what are you expecting if that happens?
“Funny enough, last, you know, when we when we did this here a couple years ago, I was the first one in turn one to figure it out. I have some good experience with it. That was the day I was really hoping it was ending under rain, but I understand what we did. But it was a lot of fun. When you race in damp conditions here, it’s very tricky. The grip is limited, and there’s cracks, so different levels of age with the asphalt, the paint, all the things that go into it. It makes it really tricky and fun, but we’ll just be ready for whatever. Got some good experience over the years at a couple other tracks with those conditions and I feel like everyone’s level just continues to raise up every opportunity we have with those wet conditions.”
How confident were you in your entry speed in turns one and three? And did you let the car attack the flat corners the way that you wanted?
“It’s tricky, I think in the qualifying scenario, you have a totally wide open, clean track. When you get running in the race you’re dealing with traffic, you have to adjust your line, you have to readjust your marks. And it’s tough here without flat this track is. The car needs to be stuck to the track and when you get in traffic and scenarios change your marks change. It’s easy for the car to not drive like you want it. Just in general, this is a really difficult track to keep the car working, but that’s what makes it so rewarding and fun when you get it right. You’ll see that in the race tomorrow, drivers will be having to move their marks around trying to keep the car working under the corner entries with that traffic. But, that’s racing.”
When you have a turnaround like that between practice and qualifying, how much confidence does that give you?
“When we get done here, we got plenty of things to discuss and figure out. It’s a confidence boost, right? It’s like, okay, well, we know we can at least get it, right? We didn’t really have a sign or a showing of that in one lap or the averages in practice. We were kind of in a bit of traffic. I love the single group practice session, the track evolves more like the race. I think it’s helpful in trying to understand what your car is going to do, what new tires are going to do, on the more rubbered in surface. But there are things that come with it, right? Like there’s just less holes on the racetrack to get a clean hole and figure out what he got. But it’s just one of those things that’s funny, right? Everyone hunts so hard to have clean air in practice but only one guy is going to have it a second of the race. Tt’s just one of those things you try and try and manage, but for us, we got it right on qualifying, so we know that the speed is there. We just got to figure out how to keep it, keep it coming over the run and find a happy spot where I’m good with the balance and I can get the most out of it like I did in qualifying.”
If it stays dry and we have a long run tomorrow, how sketchy are the cars going to be feeling?
“That’s always kind of a game that’s played everywhere you go. When you’re in traffic, people are trying to undercut. We’ve seen others go the opposite way when they know they’re getting undercut. They’ll just say, all right, well, we’ll go past our window, go long, and have try to have a tire advantage. It’s just one of the fun things about racing in general, stock car racing in general, when the cycle does start, and it’s a track where the balance fades away, the tires fall away, the pace slows down. So, it’s just one of those things that kind of happens everywhere. I think it’s kind of a product of the difference in left side tire even more so than the than the horsepower, just the snappy sketchiness on the exits. Richmond felt like it took a step in that direction too, this last time. But again, my opinion, more from the tire change than even the power. It’s kind of the direction they’re going with the tires and the left side being a little different this year. It’s making it more of a handful for us, which is good. It means more mistakes will happen, more lap time variation and more passing.”
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