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May 23, 2021

Tyler Reddick earns first career Busch Pole in COTA qualifying


Tyler Reddick topped the leaderboard in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Circuit of The Americas, earning the Busch Pole at 92.363 mph in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Right behind him was Kyle Larson in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 92.293 mph.

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Rounding out the top five were Austin Cindric in the No. 33 Team Penske Ford, Saturday’s Xfinity Series winner Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and William Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. AJ Allmendinger, who led the first round of qualifying, will start seventh in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.

Series points leader Denny Hamlin was 19th fastest with a speed of 90.579 mph in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He reported some power steering issues during his Round 1 lap, necessitating his crew to work on his car during the session. He’ll start right behind a pair of Toyota teammates in Martin Truex Jr. and Bubba Wallace, in 17th and 18th, respectively.

Reddick’s pole was RCR’s first on a road course since Dale Earnhardt grabbed the pole position for the 1996 race at Watkins Glen. At the time of RCR’s last road course pole, Reddick was seven months old.

“This pole is a huge testament to all the hard work everyone does at RCR, ECR, and Chevrolet, ” Reddick said. “Road racing has been a big challenge in my career and I’ve worked really hard to get better at it. Running yesterday’s Xfinity race helped me with some valuable seat time, so it’s great to see all that hard work come together with a pole.”

The EchoPark Texas Grand Prix will get underway at 2:30 p.m. ET (FS1, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

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