Texas Two-Step: Reddick, Wallace Set Up All 23XI Front Row For NASCAR Cup Race At COTA
Story By: CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS – AUSTIN, TX – Tyler Reddick blistered the 2.4-mile National Course during qualifying for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), posting a lap time of 98.076 seconds at 88.095 mph to claim the pole.
With the lap, the Corning, Calif. native also showed the way for his teammate, Bubba Wallace, who posted his best qualifying effort since Darlington last season and will start alongside Reddick in an all-Toyota front row.
“All in all, it felt like it was hard for anybody today to have the perfect lap,” Reddick said. “We hit the right areas to put together a good lap. We were able to hang on to it throughout the whole session.”
The triumph marked Reddick’s 10th pole in 185 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) starts and his second at COTA.
Reddick said managing tire falloff will be key to repeating the success he found in 2023, when he won the event.
“It’s a lot more than we’ve had here in the past,” he said. “It really does go away and it goes away quick. That will be important tomorrow. Taking care of the tires, staying up front does help. We were not where we wanted to be in the first practice. The team worked really, really hard today to find some handling, find some speed.”
Wallace, who’s previous best start at COTA was 10th last season, was chasing Reddick through the 17-turn circuit during qualifying, nearly catching him in a couple of spots.
“He slowed me up, for sure,” Wallace joked after qualifying. “I thought I slowed him up, just being that close. It all worked out – a good one-two start for our team.”
Chase Elliott, who won the inaugural EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix in 2021, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez round out the top five. Road course ringers Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger start sixth and 12th respectively, while 18-year-old Connor Zilisch, making his NCS debut, starts 14th.
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix action continues at 2:30 p.m. CT Sunday with the first-ever running on the new National Course.
