March 1, 2025 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Tyler Reddick leads 23XI Racing sweep of front row at COTA

AUSTIN, Texas — Tyler Reddick led 23XI Racing to a front row lockout for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Chased by teammate Bubba Wallace during the Group 2 session of time trials, Reddick turned a lap in 98.076 seconds (88.094 mph) in his No. 45 Toyota to top Wallace by 0.224 seconds for the top starting spot in the third NASCAR Cup Series race of the season.

The Busch Light Pole Award was Reddick’s second at COTA, his first of the season and the 10th of his career, four of which have come on road courses.

“Going into (Turn) 1, I’m like, ‘Dang, I wish that he (Wallace) would have gapped himself a little bit more,’ because I felt like I was messing his lap up, for sure,” said Reddick, who won the 2023 Cup Series race at COTA and has an average finish of 5.0 at the track.

“Talking to him after the fact, his focus was to go out and follow me and kind of see what I was going to do and try to mimic it. Certainly, he’s on the path to getting better at the road courses.

“He’s learning and if he keeps it up here soon, I’ll be having to try to battle him head-to-head for these poles. It’s been really nice to see his growth and him improve and embrace the way we have to do things…”

Chase Elliott qualified third on his second lap at the 2.4-mile road course, which has been shortened this year, resulting in a race that will feature 95 laps instead of the 68 run last year.

Carson Hocevar posted the fourth fastest lap, followed by fellow Chevrolet drivers Daniel Suárez, Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain. Todd Gilliland was 10th in the fastest Ford.

Connor Zilisch qualified 14th in anticipation of his first NASCAR Cup Series start.


Great Expectations for Connor Zilisch’s Cup Debut? Not on his part

Connor Zilisch’s logic was inescapable. He doesn’t know what to expect from his NASCAR Cup Series debut on Sunday, so how can he have expectations?

“Yeah, it’s hard to set expectations when you haven’t done it before, right?” said Zilisch, who will wheel the No. 87 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet at Circuit of the Americas in his maiden voyage in NASCAR’s premier division.

“The car is new. I’m racing against probably 25 drivers I’ve never raced against before. Yeah, there’s a lot of variables that I just don’t know. So for me, setting expectations is really tough, right?

“I don’t want to set a goal of, you know, I want to go out and finish top five, and then I get a speeding penalty or my pit crew has a loose tire and I finish 15th because of something out of my doing, right? Because then I’ll be upset that I didn’t meet my goal.”

However, it’s not as if Zilisch is traveling into the complete unknown. In Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying on the newly configured 2.4-mile “national” course at COTA, he won the pole.

Ross Chastain and defending Cup race winner William Byron, both pulling double duty this weekend, were the only drivers within a second of Zilisch’s pole-winning time.

And though Zilisch won his first Xfinity Series race in his first start last year at Watkins Glen, he’s taking a large step up in class on Sunday.

“For me, my expectation is I expect to be reasonably fast,” he said. “I don’t want to say that I’m going to be really fast, but I do expect to not be way off on speed. But the biggest thing is going to be execution on Sunday and making the most of the race and not making mistakes. If the pit road speed is 50, expect me to be doing 48, right?

“I’m not going to be pushing the limit. I just want to take it easy and make sure I run all the laps and don’t get a penalty. That’s going to be the biggest thing when it comes to the race. But I feel like when it comes to speed, I feel confident in myself that I’ll be able to run fast enough laps to be at the front.”

To get to the front on Sunday, Zilisch will have to advance from the 14th starting position he earned during Saturday’s time trials.


After a strong start to the season, John Hunter Nemechek faces road course challenge

In Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, John Hunter Nemechek will start to get the true measure of his performance.

Nemechek and Ryan Blaney are the only two drivers to score top-10 finishes at both Daytona and Atlanta this season. Fifth in the Daytona 500 and 10th a week later, Nemechek is tied for sixth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with Kyle Larson.

Success on drafting tracks, however, doesn’t always translate to speed at other venues, and Nemechek is eager to see how his No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota performs at COTA on Sunday.

“I think that the first two races for us this year were about survival and putting ourselves in good spots to have good finishes and have shots to contend for a win,” Nemechek said. “I think that for us, coming into COTA, there’s a lot of unknowns. I feel like last year, we really struggled at road courses. That’s probably one of the areas that we lacked speed the most and the cars didn’t drive very well, didn’t have very much speed.

“It just wasn’t very good for us. But, with the changes over the offseason (with new crew chief Travis Mack and major turnover on the crew), there’s a lot of new personnel and a lot of new ideas. Different cars, I would say–hopefully, faster race cars than we had last year. I’m looking forward to seeing where we stack up as far as the road course program goes and how much improvement and gains we’ve made over the offseason.”

On Friday, Nemechek indulged in a sort of “branding” different from typical sponsor relations. He went shopping for boots and burned his initials into the leather with a branding iron.

He did the same with a pair he bought as a gift for wife Taylor.

Nemechek must have a heavy foot on Sunday after qualifying 33rd for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.


NASCAR Cup Series
Starting Line Up by Row
Circuit of The Americas
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 3/1/2025 @ 02:29 PM Eastern

Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: William Byron  03/24/24 2:43:15 85.224

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 45 Tyler Reddick The Beast Toyota 98.076 88.095
2 23 Bubba Wallace Mobil 1 Toyota 98.300 87.894

Row 2: 3 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 98.358 87.842
4 77 Carson Hocevar Delaware Life Chevrolet 98.453 87.758

Row 3: 5 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 98.482 87.732
6 88 Shane Van Gisbergen # WeatherTech Chevrolet 98.519 87.699

Row 4: 7 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 98.579 87.645
8 8 Kyle Busch Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet 98.589 87.637

Row 5: 9 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light For the Love of Texas Chevrolet 98.702 87.536
10 34 Todd Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 98.718 87.522

Row 6: 11 11 Denny Hamlin National Debt Relief Toyota 98.740 87.503
12 16 AJ Allmendinger Celsius Chevrolet 98.785 87.463

Row 7: 13 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 98.848 87.407
14 87 Connor Zilisch(i) Red Bull Chevrolet 98.928 87.336

Row 8: 15 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 99.098 87.186
16 71 Michael McDowell Gainbridge Chevrolet 99.184 87.111

Row 9: 17 4 Noah Gragson Rush Truck Centers Ford 99.205 87.092
18 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 99.210 87.088

Row 10: 19 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Toyota 99.215 87.084
20 38 Zane Smith TitleMax Ford 99.237 87.064

Row 11: 21 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 99.239 87.063
22 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Rate Chevrolet 99.369 86.949

Row 12: 23 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 99.426 86.899
24 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 99.456 86.873

Row 13: 25 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Duracell Ford 99.490 86.843
26 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Ford 99.541 86.798

Row 14: 27 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 99.550 86.791
28 60 Ryan Preece BuildSubmarines.com Ford 99.774 86.596

Row 15: 29 7 Justin Haley Group 1001 Chevrolet 99.850 86.530
30 41 Cole Custer Haas/Bonanza Ford 99.902 86.485

Row 16: 31 35 Riley Herbst # Chumba Casino Toyota 99.932 86.459
32 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 99.991 86.408

Row 17: 33 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 100.044 86.362
34 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 100.062 86.346

Row 18: 35 21 Josh Berry Freightliner Ford 100.291 86.149
36 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 100.702 85.798

Row 19: 37 51 Cody Ware Arby's Ford 102.062 84.654

Did Not Qualify: None.

Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 16 0 Ford 12 0
Toyota 9 0

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series