Despite brush with wall, Reddick streaks to Darlington pole
Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
DARLINGTON, S.C.—The top two drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series standings will start 1-2 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday—but not before pole winner Tyler Reddick scraped the Turn 4 wall on his no-holds-barred qualifying lap.
Reddick beat 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace for the top spot on the grid by 0.124 seconds in Saturday’s time trials for the Goodyear 400 (3 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
As the series leader and winner of the first three races of the season, Reddick was the only driver to tour the 1.366-mile speedway in more than 169 mph, posting a speed of 169.152 mph in his No. 45 Toyota. Wallace, second in the standings and 61 points behind his teammate, paced his Toyota to 168.434 mph.
The Busch Light Pole Award was Reddick’s second of the season and the 13th of his career, but he ended the qualifying session with a noticeable “Darlington stripe” along the right side of the car.
“I knew qualifying was going to be really tough,” Reddick said. “A lot of drivers were having trouble finding that edge, that limit in Turn 1. I nailed that pretty good. Felt really good about the lap going down the back straightaway, and I truly think I kind of underdid it through the center of (Turns) 3 and 4 and felt like I just had to get on the gas and get off the corner—and basically just ran it into the wall.
“Looks like we’re all good on the damage, but to be able to have that kind of speed in practice and again in qualifying was awesome to see.”
Chase Elliott, runner-up to Denny Hamlin last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, was third fastest at 167.727 mph, but Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying inspection twice, resulting in loss of pit selection and ejection of his car chief.
Reigning series champion Kyle Larson claimed the fourth starting position at 167.396 mph, followed by Brad Keselowski in the fastest Ford at 167.129 mph.
“I thought it was really smooth,” said Keselowski, who qualified one position ahead of RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher (167.021 mph). “It looks like Chris is qualified right next to me. I felt like I got all it had. We know the cars are going to be very difficult to drive, and that did not disappoint.”
Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Austin Dillon will start from positions seven through 10, respectively.
Along with Elliott’s Chevrolet, the No. 17 Ford of Buescher and the No. 66 Ford of Timmy Hill failed pre-qualifying twice and lost pit selection for Sunday’s race and the services of their respective car chiefs for the weekend.
Hill starts 37th on Sunday.
Starting Line Up by Row
Darlington Raceway
Goodyear 400
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 3/21/2026 @ 04:37 PM Eastern
Driver Date Time Speed
Track Race Record: Matt Kenseth 05/11/13 03:32:45 141.383
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
Row 1: 1 45 Tyler Reddick Xfinity Toyota 29.072 169.152
2 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Toyota 29.196 168.434
Row 2: 3 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet 29.319 167.727
4 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 29.377 167.396
Row 3: 5 6 Brad Keselowski Solomon Plumbing Ford 29.424 167.129
6 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford 29.443 167.021
Row 4: 7 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Delta Ford 29.476 166.834
8 8 Kyle Busch BetMGM Chevrolet 29.478 166.823
Row 5: 9 11 Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 29.500 166.698
10 3 Austin Dillon BPS/Winchester Long Beard XR Chevrolet 29.538 166.484
Row 6: 11 7 Daniel Suarez NationsGuard Chevrolet 29.550 166.416
12 2 Austin Cindric Freightliner Ford 29.570 166.304
Row 7: 13 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 29.601 166.130
14 35 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Toyota 29.613 166.062
Row 8: 15 48 Justin Allgaier(i) Ally Chevrolet 29.624 166.001
16 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Marg Machine Chevrolet 29.677 165.704
Row 9: 17 60 Ryan Preece Kroger/Oscar Mayer/Heinz Ford 29.708 165.531
18 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Jack Links Non-Vegan Chevrolet 29.721 165.459
Row 10: 19 38 Zane Smith Mystik Lubricants Ford 29.723 165.448
20 71 Michael McDowell Delaware Life Chevrolet 29.731 165.403
Row 11: 21 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 29.776 165.153
22 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Toyota 29.785 165.103
Row 12: 23 19 Chase Briscoe Free Bird Southern Spring Water Toyota 29.819 164.915
24 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 29.825 164.882
Row 13: 25 1 Ross Chastain Moose Fraternity Chevrolet 29.847 164.760
26 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 29.878 164.589
Row 14: 27 16 AJ Allmendinger Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 29.885 164.551
28 54 Ty Gibbs SiriusXM Toyota 29.889 164.529
Row 15: 29 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 29.912 164.402
30 4 Noah Gragson Long John Silver's Ford 29.980 164.029
Row 16: 31 34 Todd Gilliland Ruedebusch Ford 29.997 163.936
32 88 Connor Zilisch # Red Bull Chevrolet 30.091 163.424
Row 17: 33 97 Shane Van Gisbergen WeatherTech Chevrolet 30.125 163.240
34 51 Cody Ware Jacob Construction Chevrolet 30.309 162.249
Row 18: 35 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Chevrolet 30.422 161.646
36 10 Ty Dillon Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 30.584 160.790
Row 19: 37 66 Timmy Hill(i) Auto Direct USA Ford 32.044 153.464
Did Not Qualify: None.
Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 17 0 Ford 11 0
Toyota 9 0
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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