Tyler Reddick will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after earning his fourth Busch Pole Award in qualifying.

Redick led the field in the final round with a speed of 184.603 mph (29.252 s). Richard Childress Racing’s driver was the penultimate driver to take a time in the final round of single-car qualifying.

Three of Reddick’s four career NASCAR Cup Series poles have come this season. This will be the first time he has started on the field in Las Vegas.

“Well, it didn’t slow me down,” Reddick said of the moment he lapped in Turn 4. “I was either going to hit the wall or I wasn’t, and it should have been a really good lap. I had no intention of being so close, but I knew I would have to pass [Turns] 3 and 4 are really good and this wall [Turn] 4 came a lot closer and a lot sooner than I originally expected.

“Man, what a turnaround for our group this morning. Everyone at this ALSCO Chevrolet works very, very hard. This whole 8 team. In practice, we really weren’t shooting where we wanted to be. We had a bit of a release and went to work and looked for life in the second run. In the third stint we tried a couple more things that didn’t quite work out and just made some really fantastic adjustments again in qualifying by getting the car closer.

“It’s still a bit sketchy [Turns] 1 and 2, but the car had great speed. We’ve learned a lot and we’ll be able to make some pretty good adjustments for tomorrow’s race.”

Austin Cindric will join Reddick in the front row. Cindric qualified second at 184.288 mph.

Round 8 playoff drivers William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano finished third, fourth and fifth respectively. Byron finished third at 184.024 mph, Blaney was fourth at 183.961 mph and Logano was fifth at 183.673 mph.

Daniel Suarez qualified sixth at 183.243 mph. Christopher Bell, the 8th round playoff driver, qualified seventh at 183.212 mph.

Harrison Burton qualified eighth at 182.908 mph, Bubba Wallace qualified ninth at 182.033 mph, and Austin Dillon qualified 10th at 181.751 mph. Burton’s qualifying effort tied his career best in a rookie season.

The remaining four playoff participants will start outside the top 10. Ross Chastain qualified 11th, Chase Briscoe qualified 16th and Chase Elliott qualified 20th. The lowest qualifying playoff driver was Denny Hamlin in 31st. Hamlin is the defending race winner.

NEXT: South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET).

https://racer.com/2022/10/15/reddick-claims-las-vegas-cup-pole/