Reddick’s average lap speed of 113.689 mph in the final round of Saturday’s qualifying session was enough to hold off the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Kyle Busch (113.636 mph) and win the pole for Sunday’s race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
While Reddick has four wins in his three-plus seasons in Cup, the 23XI Racing driver has never led a lap on a short track. The pole is his first of the 2023 season and fifth of his career.
“I got everything out of it, for sure, to get into the second round” said Reddick, who tagged the wall with his No. 45 Toyota in the first round. “It’s a really exciting weekend for this team.”
Reddick’s 23XI Racing team co-owner Denny Hamlin was third-fastest (113.536 mph), Chase Elliott was fourth and Reddick’s teammate, Bubba Wallace, rounded out the top five.
Completing the top-10 in the starting lineup are William Byron – who was fastest in practice Saturday, Ty Gibbs, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Martin Truex Jr.
Round 1 / Group A
Hamlin, the last of 18 cars to make a qualifying attempt, ran just one lap but it was fast enough to lead the session at 114.606 mph.
Byron, who was fastest in Saturday’s practice, was second (114.088 mph) and Stenhouse was third (113.326 mph).
Also advancing to the final round of qualifying were Wallace and Elliott.
Among those who failed to advance were Harrison Burton, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez.
Round 1 / Group B
Harvick led the way in the second group with an average lap speed of 115.587 mph – which ended up the fastest lap of the day.
Truex was second-fastest (115.222 mph0 and Gibbs was third (114.708 mph).
Also advancing to the final round of qualifying were Reddick and Busch. Reddick tagged the wall on his qualifying lap but did not appear to damage his No. 45 Toyota.
Among those who failed to advance to the final round were Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman.
