Tyler Reddick takes third pole of 2024; Larson P2 in Homestead Qualifying

It was an excellent start to the weekend for most of the eight remaining NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders, with the lead taken by Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE. The regular season champion scored his third pole of the 2024 season on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With the pole position comes the No. 1 pit box on pit road, which has been a huge advantage over the years, but Reddick believes that with razor-thin margins in the Next Gen era, the first pit box is more important than ever.

“Yeah, I mean, any advantage you can get in this Next Gen era is big,” Reddick said after securing pole. “Yes, it’s great.”

The fast lap for Reddick in the final round of qualifying was 32.248 seconds (167.452 mph), which at 0.077 seconds was good enough to secure him the top starting spot for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400, which serves as the second of three races in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Reddick, who admits he probably would have been beaten for pole had he not been in Group A, says he decided to go for the excitement during his qualifying run. A week after an aggressive move failed him in Las Vegas, his latest aggressive decision resulted in a pole-winning run at Homestead.

“… when I went into the second lap, looking at what everyone else had run for speed, (I) decided to do what I thought was best and it worked. Sometimes you take that risk, and it doesn’t really go your way Luckily it was a good lap for us,” Reddick noted. “Given the same tires the 5 (Kyle Larson) would probably have been a little faster, but we are fortunate to be in Group A this weekend and take advantage of that.”

The pole marks the ninth of Reddick’s NASCAR Cup Series career, and it is his 180th career start, and it is his first at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which was special for Reddick.

“Yeah, the pole has eluded me a little bit in the Cup Series here (at Homestead-Miami Speedway),” Reddick explained. “We were very close, we just had to have a very good second round. Yes, I think we certainly rode a very good lap with our group. Yeah, again, we were just lucky where we were in Group A. It gave us a bit of a cushion.”

The 28-year-old racer is one of the most skilled at Homestead, a track where drivers who can get as close to the outside wall as possible without hitting it excel. In four career starts at the 2.5-mile speedway, Reddick has already posted a second (2021), third (2023 and fourth (2020)) finish. He will attempt to earn his first win at the track in NASCAR Cup Series competition on Sunday.

Kyle Larson, a fellow Playoff player and the favorite to win the end-of-season Bill France Cup, will start from the side on the outside of the front row. Larson turned a 32.325-second lap in the final round of qualifying, allowing him to take the second starting spot in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin made it a top-four for the Playoff in qualifying as they will form the second row of the Straight Talk Wireless starting grid on Sunday.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. impressed as the driver of the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was the top non-Playoff entrant in fifth place. This is Stenhouse’s first top-five starting finish since Darlington in May 2023.

Martin Truex Jr., who was eliminated from the Playoffs in the Round of 16, rolls off the grid in sixth place.

Chase Elliott was the fifth and final Playoff candidate to clinch a top-10 starting spot for Sunday’s race when he qualified seventh. Bubba Wallace, Daniel Hemric and Justin Haley rounded out the top-10 starters for Sunday’s race.

Ryan Blaney, who had a frustrating start to the eighth round of the Playoffs in Las Vegas as he was involved in a practice crash and then finally a crash on Stage 2 of the South Point 400, Sunday’s race will start from the 20th position.

William Byron, who won at Homestead in 2021 and is he comes into this race on a four-race finish streak in the top fivehad a sub-par qualifying effort. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will start Sunday’s race from the 25th spot and will be one position ahead of the final Playoff candidate in the field, Joey Logano.

Logano suffered power steering issues, which ultimately caused steering system issues within his No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse during practice and qualifying. As a result, Logano will likely have to start at the back of the field on Sunday after what is expected to be unapproved modifications to his car on Saturday afternoon.

Luckily for the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he won last weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and is locked into the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4, which will compete for the NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks.

Heading into Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead, Logano (Locked In), Bell (+42 points), Larson (+35) and Byron (+27) are the four NASCAR Cup Series drivers above the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff -cutline. Hamlin (-27), Reddick (-30), Blaney (-47) and Elliott (-53) are all significantly borderline points short, but can turn their fortunes around and shake up the Playoff grid with an opportunistic win this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway or next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.