AUSTIN, Texas — Tyler Reddick led 23XI Racing to a front-row lockout for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Chased by teammate Bubba Wallace during the Group 2 session of time trials, Reddick turned a lap at 88.094 mph in his No. 45 Toyota to top Wallace by 0.224 seconds for the top starting spot in the third NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2025 season.
The Busch Light Pole Award was Reddick’s second at COTA, his first of the season and the 10th of his career, four of which have come on road courses.
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“Going into (Turn) 1, I’m like, ‘Dang, I wish that he (Wallace) would have gapped himself a little bit more,’ because I felt like I was messing his lap up, for sure,” said Reddick, who won the 2023 Cup Series race at COTA and has an average finish of 5.0 at the track.
“Talking to him after the fact, his focus was to go out and follow me and kind of see what I was going to do and try to mimic it. Certainly, he’s on the path to getting better at the road courses.
“He’s learning and if he keeps it up here soon, I’ll be having to try to battle him head-to-head for these poles. It’s been really nice to see his growth and him improve and embrace the way we have to do things…”
Chase Elliott qualified third on his second lap at the 2.4-mile road course, which has been shortened this year, resulting in a race that will feature 95 laps instead of the 68 run last year.
Carson Hocevar posted the fourth fastest lap, followed by fellow Chevrolet drivers Daniel Suárez, Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain. Todd Gilliland was 10th in the fastest Ford.
Connor Zilisch qualified 14th in anticipation of his first Cup Series start.
Van Gisbergen fastest in practice
On a revised track layout at Circuit of The Americas, NASCAR Cup Series drivers practiced in two separate 20-minute practice sessions split into two groups. Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen was fastest in both practice sessions, topping the leaderboard at 87.409 mph in Practice 2.
William Byron (86.892 mph), Carson Hocevar (86.853 mph), Ryan Blaney (86.801 mph) and Alex Bowman (86.742 mph) rounded the top five.
Chase Elliott (86.702 mph), Kyle Larson (86.641 mph), Kyle Busch (86.626 mph), Daniel Suárez (86.622 mph) and Ross Chastain (86.573 mph) completed the top 10 in Practice 2.
MORE: Practice results
In the first session, van Gisbergen’s No. 88 Chevrolet set the quickest time at 87.401 mph, holding off Bowman (87.146 mph) and Trackhouse teammate Connor Zilisch (87.025 mph).
Larson (86.701 mph) and AJ Allmendinger (86.684 mph) rounded out the top five.
Austin Cindric (86.642 mph), Suárez (86.576 mph), Noah Gragson (86.487 mph), Ty Gibbs (86.316 mph) and Chastain (86.309 mph) completed the top 10 in Practice 1. Both practice sessions were incident-free.
Contributing: Staff reports