DARLINGTON, S.C. – The top two drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series standings will start 1-2 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday — but not before pole winner Tyler Reddick scraped the Turn 4 wall on his no-holds-barred qualifying lap.
Reddick beat 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace for the top spot on the grid by 0.124 seconds in Saturday’s time trials for the Goodyear 400 on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
As the series’ points leader and winner of the first three races of the season, Reddick was the only driver to tour the 1.366-mile speedway in more than 169 mph, posting a speed of 169.152 mph in his No. 45 Toyota. Wallace, second in the standings and 61 points behind his teammate, paced his Toyota to 168.434 mph.
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The Busch Light Pole Award was Reddick’s second of the season and the 13th of his career, but he ended the qualifying session with a noticeable “Darlington stripe” along the right side of the car.
“I knew qualifying was going to be really tough,” Reddick said. “A lot of drivers were having trouble finding that edge, that limit in Turn 1. I nailed that pretty good. Felt really good about the lap going down the back straightaway, and I truly think I kind of under-did it through the center of (Turns) 3 and 4 and felt like I just had to get on the gas and get off the corner — and basically just ran it into the wall.
“Looks like we’re all good on the damage, but to be able to have that kind of speed in practice and again in qualifying was awesome to see.”
Chase Elliott, runner-up to Denny Hamlin last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, was third fastest at 167.727 mph, but Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying inspection twice, resulting in loss of pit selection and ejection of his car chief.
Reigning series champion Kyle Larson claimed the fourth starting position at 167.396 mph, followed by Brad Keselowski in the fastest Ford at 167.129 mph.
“I thought it was really smooth,” said Keselowski, who qualified one position ahead of RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher (167.021 mph). “It looks like Chris is qualified right next to me. I felt like I got all it had. We know the cars are going to be very difficult to drive, and that did not disappoint.”
Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Austin Dillon complete the top 10 of the starting order.
Along with Elliott’s Chevrolet, the No. 17 Ford of Buescher and the No. 66 Ford of Timmy Hill failed pre-qualifying twice and lost pit selection for Sunday’s race and the services of their respective car chiefs for the weekend.
Justin Allgaier, piloting the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in place of Alex Bowman as Bowman recovers from vertigo, qualified 15th.
Hill starts 37th on Sunday.
Practice
Erik Jones and Riley Herbst posted the fastest laps in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday, each posting matching laps of 164.33 mph (29.925 seconds).
Austin Cindric (163.827 mph), Carson Hocevar (163.576 mph) and Connor Zilisch (163.446 mph) completed the top five in single-lap speeds.
MORE: Practice results
Cindric was quickest in 10-lap averages at 160.175 mph ahead of Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch and Herbst.
Notably, of the 26 drivers who posted 20-lap averages, the four slowest were typical Cup Series contenders Kyle Larson, William Byron, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott.
Practice offered teams their first chance to evaluate the real-life impacts of racing at Darlington with the 750-horsepower short-track package in the Next Gen car, coupling more power with less aerodynamic grip. Saturday’s quick time posted by Jones and Herbst was nearly a full second slower than that set by Michael McDowell (29.007 seconds) during practice for last fall’s Southern 500.
According to Racing Insights, drivers’ lap times slowed by roughly 1.5 seconds over just 10 laps.
Contributing: Staff report