AUSTIN, Texas - Tyler Reddick earned his first career Cup pole Saturday at Circuit of the Americas.
It also is the first time Richard Childress Racing has won a Cup pole on a road course since August 1996 at Watkins Glen International with Dale Earnhardt.
MORE: COTA Cup starting lineup
MORE: Details for Sunday’s Cup race
“It’s no secret I was absolutely terrible on road courses for a long time,” Reddick told FS1. "... I really focused in the offseason to be better and put a lot of work into this, this whole team did.”
Reddick said an incident at the Charlotte Roval spurred him to be better on road courses.
“It was so bad it was almost hard to describe,” he told the media. “We were at the Charlotte Roval. I had to brake almost three car lengths sooner than almost anybody. I remember kind of really screwing up Kevin Harvick’s race because of where I had to brake. He was not even thinking about (braking) yet, and he ran into the back of me and knocked his nose in and really messed up his day.
“I was tired of just being so bad that I felt like I was just kind of in the way and had to get out of everybody’s way and wanted to change that.”
Kyle Larson joins Reddick on the front row.
Austin Cindric starts third and has Kyle Busch, who won Saturday’s Xfinity race, next to him in the second row. William starts fifth. Joey Logano starts sixth.
Qualifying was held in dry conditions. The Cup race is scheduled to take the green flag at 2:43 p.m. ET
#NASCAR ... @NASCARatCOTA pole winner @TylerReddick explains how an incident at the Roval with @KevinHarvick led to Reddick focusing on being better at road courses. pic.twitter.com/xX4JOdd9Ms
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) May 23, 2021