By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Tyler Reddick leads 23XI Racing sweep of front row at COTA
AUSTIN, Tex.—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.
