Reddick Earns Brickyard Pole at Indy
Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota, won the pole award in qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick earned the pole position for the 30th Anniversary Brickyard 400 Presented by PPG NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a lap at 181.932 miles per hour in qualifying Saturday. It’s Reddick’s second pole position of the season (Darlington) and eighth career overall. Reddick also won the pole on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in 2022, before winning the race that same season.
“I was one of the last cars to go in Group B,” said Reddick, “so I watched a lot of drivers in round one have issues in turn four and a couple of other areas on the race track. It definitely seemed like it was easy to overstep the boundaries. I wanted to put down a good lap in that first round – and it was a very solid lap. We knew we had a solid car, and it was going to be important to make the right adjustments and back it up in round two. We had a little bit of pace fall off in round two from round one at first, but nevertheless, I thought we did a good job with the adjustments, and we were able to lay a lap down good enough to claim the pole.”
For the driver of the No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota, the importance of winning the pole goes beyond leading the 39-car field to the green flag on Sunday.
“It’s a big deal. Just starting towards the front is huge, but any additional spots we can get, once we got inside the seventh/eighth window is going to be huge for stage points in the beginning if it plays out, somewhat naturally, but also pit road here is narrow. These cars are wider than the Gen 6 car, and the Gen 6 race here that I was a part of, pit road was sketchy already, so expect pit road to be pretty chaotic already for the majority of the field and us having the option to choose first is going to really help us, I feel.”
Photo by Walter Kuhn/Penske Entertainment
Starting next to Reddick on the front row is 23XI team co-owner Denny Hamlin. According to Reddick, that presents an interesting scenario.
“Well, if I tear it up, he’s paying for it (laughs). It's his car. I try not to use that against him. I honestly feel like we race each other very fair, but hard. I've learned a lot about racing from him as well. I feel like we have a good level of trust and respect for one another, but obviously, when we come to a place like this (Indianapolis Motor Speedway), I know how badly he wants to win here. And I know how bad I want to win here.
“It’ll just be something we’ll have to manage throughout the day, and we’ll just see how it goes. Obviously, he and the 11 team are stout. The 5 (Kyle Larson), the 9 (Chase Elliott), those are guys that have been good all year long. But yeah, I wonder if that’s something he thinks about while we’re racing. Like ‘man, if he uses me up?’ Is he thinking about fixing up his race car or worried about his race?”
Fastest in Friday’s practice session, and again in qualifying, Saturday, Reddick knows he has a great opportunity in front of him on Sunday. But he’s also well aware that he has his work cut out for him.
“We know a lot of the guys right there behind us are really good at making overnight adjustments and doing what they need to do. I mean you look at guys like the 12 (Ryan Blaney) and what they did at Pocono this past weekend. Jumping under a different strategy put him in position to be able to win the race at Pocono. So, we have to be mindful of all potentials for how the race unfolds tomorrow. But certainly, having track position in the beginning can get you stage points.”
Should he win on Sunday, Reddick would become the first NASCAR driver to win on both the road course and the oval at Indy. Certainly, a feat to be celebrated.
“I feel like I celebrated pretty hard when I won here in 2022, so I just hope to match it again.”