Tyler Reddick earned his third pole position of the season Saturday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 Playoff opener.
Reddick’s lap of 184.603 mph knocked fellow Chevy driver William Byron from the pole position and then Austin Cindric finished the session by grabbing the outside pole position on the final qualifying lap of the 10 cars that advanced to second round.
Reddick also topped qualifying at the Indianapolis road course and then at Texas Motor Speedway just three weeks ago. The three pole-tally is a career best for the third-year NASCAR Cup Series driver. Only hours before qualifying, Reddick was named to drive the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota next year.
“It’s pretty awesome,’’ a smiling Reddick said of the day’s work.
Interestingly, in the 29 races held to date at the track, no driver has ever won the Las Vegas race starting from the pole position. Kyle Busch was the race winner and polesitter in 2009, but technically he did not actually start from pole position, having to move to the rear of the starting grid after an engine change.
Asked about the difficulty of turning a pole position into a win at Las Vegas, Reddick was surprised to learn the statistic as well.
“Hopefully we’ll change that tomorrow,” said Reddick, who did win a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas in 2019.
“I think the track just changes a lot from practice to qualifying,” Reddick added, “For us, when we’ve started on the pole or we started toward the front on these mile-and-a-halves, we’ve had a lot of speed and we just unfortunately had some things not go our way.”
Byron will start third, alongside Ryan Blaney, who boasted the fastest lap in practice. Blaney’s teammate Joey Logano, Daniel Suárez, Jo Christopher Bell, Harrison Burton, Bubba Wallace and Austin Dillon rounded out the top-10 on the starting grid.
Only four of the eight Playoff contenders – Byron, Blaney, Logano and Bell – advanced into the final round of qualifying. The other four Playoff drivers will start a bit farther back, including Ross Chastain, who will roll off 11th. Chase Briscoe starts 16th with Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott 20th and Denny Hamlin, 31st in the 36-car field.
Brad Keselowski, who leads all current drivers with three Vegas victories, will start from 25th.
NASCAR Cup Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas, NV
South Point 400 – October 15, 2022
Saturday’s Qualifying Results
1. 8 Tyler Reddick ALSCO Chevrolet 29.252 184.603
2. 2 Austin Cindric # Autotrader Ford 29.302 184.288
3. 24 William Byron (P) RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 29.344 184.024
4. 12 Ryan Blaney (P) Menards/Knauf Ford 29.354 183.961
5. 22 Joey Logano (P) Pennzoil Ford 29.400 183.673
6. 99 Daniel Suarez Kid Rock’s Honky Tonk Chevrolet 29.469 183.243
7. 20 Christopher Bell (P) Rheem – Opteon Toyota 29.474 183.212
8. 21 Harrison Burton # DEX Imaging Ford 29.523 182.908
9. 45 Bubba Wallace McDonald’s Toyota 29.665 182.033
10. 3 Austin Dillon BssProShops/TRACKEROffRd Chevrolet 29.711 181.751
11. 1 Ross Chastain (P) Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet 29.468 183.250
12. 17 Chris Buescher Castrol Ford 29.495 183.082
13. 4 Kevin Harvick GEARWRENCH Ford 29.509 182.995
14. 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 29.517 182.945
15. 34 Michael McDowell Love’s Travel Stops Ford 29.606 182.395
16. 14 Chase Briscoe (P) Code 3 Associates Ford 29.617 182.328
17. 48 Noah Gragson(i) Ally/Koker’s Garage Chevrolet 29.626 182.272
18. 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota 29.634 182.223
19. 23 Ty Gibbs(i) MoneyLion Toyota 29.638 182.199
20. 9 Chase Elliott (P) Hooters Chevrolet 29.656 182.088
21. 16 A.J. Allmendinger(i) Celsius Chevrolet 29.658 182.076
22. 43 Erik Jones FOCUSfactor Chevrolet 29.667 182.020
23. 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 29.693 181.861
24. 41 Cole Custer Feeding America/Wow Wow Ford 29.720 181.696
25. 6 Brad Keselowski King’s Hawaiian Ford 29.743 181.555
26. 15 J.J. Yeley(i) ConectUS Kyocera Ford 29.847 180.923
27. 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 29.857 180.862
28. 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 29.918 180.493
29. 47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Kona Brewing Co Big Wave Chevrolet 29.947 180.319
30. 7 Corey LaJoie OpTic Gaming Chevrolet 29.982 180.108
31. 11 Denny Hamlin (P) FedEx Office Toyota 30.001 179.994
32. 77 Landon Cassill(i) Voyager: Crypto for All Chevrolet 30.063 179.623
33. 42 Ty Dillon Lucky 29 Vodka Chevrolet 30.307 178.177
34. 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT UBCF Ford 30.378 177.760
35. 38 Todd Gilliland # Ruedebusch Dev. & Construction Ford 30.386 177.713
36. 78 B.J. McLeod(i) Pala Casino Spa Resort Ford 30.581 176.580
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (P) Playoff driver
