KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Just weeks after scoring his first-career NASCAR XFINITY Series win at Kentucky Speedway, Tyler Reddick added his first-career pole during knockout qualifying at Kansas Speedway Saturday afternoon.
Reedick took his No. 42 Broken Bow Records Chevrolet to a lap of 29.815 seconds (181.117 mph) around the 1.5-mile intermediate oval in the third and final round, edging out Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones by just .015 of a second for top qualifying honors.
The pole comes in Reddick’s 17th career start, and Saturday will be the first race Reddick has competed in since the passing of his grandmother.
“This means a lot,” Reddick said of winning the pole. “The last two weeks have been rough. She’s been battling (declining) health for a long time, and finally lost the battle. She always watched every single race, every lap on track, whether she was there watching at the race track or at home. Hopefully we can do something special for her today. This will be the first race she hasn’t been here to see, but I know she’s watching from up above. I want to get a win for her and my family.”
Jones’ lap of 29.830 seconds (181.026 mph) in the No. 20 Reser’s American Classic Toyota was good enough for the front row, but not good enough to earn his second pole of the year and first at Kansas.
Ryan Blaney timed in third (29.980/180.120) with the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford, giving all three manufacturers representation among the top three grid spots. Christopher Bell and Austin Dillon completed the top five.
Playoff leader William Byron was sixth-fastest, with Cole Custer, Matt Tifft, Brennan Poole, Daniel Hemric, Elliott Sadler and Brandon Jones filling out the first six rows of the grid.
Justin Allgaier (13th) and Ryan Reed (15th) were the only two playoff drivers who failed to transfer through to the final round of qualifying.
The Kansas Lottery 300 takes the green flag at 3 p.m. ET, live on NBC, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
Full qualifying results can be viewed on the next page…
