NASCAR Cup Darlington starting lineup: Tyler Reddick beats Bubba Wallace to pole

In a tricky qualifying session at Darlington Raceway, Tyler Reddick went fastest of all with a 29.072s lap, even while hitting the wall at the exit of Turn 4.

The closest driver to the championship leader in qualifying was the same driver closest to him in the championship standings -- 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, who ended the session 0.126s behind the pole-sitter.

"Gosh, I came off of (Turn) 2 and I asked Billy (Scott, crew chief) how was it and he said really good," said Reddick, who now has 13 career poles in the Cup Series. "Believe it or not, I tried to take it easy and just finish the lap in (Turns) 3 and 4. I just overdid the throttle and knew I was in trouble about a third of a way through, but unfortunately, knew if I lift, I'm not going to have a good lap, so I just had to hit the wall at that point."

There were no incidents during the session, but several cars touched the wall, as is to be expected at Darlington. McDowell, Jones, Gibbs, and Hocevar were some of the drivers with the biggest contact with the wall, and Hocevar -- who also hit the wall in practice -- smacked it twice during his lap.

Busch and RCR teammate A. Dillon held the two fastest times for a bit, but the pace rapidly picked up as the final two cars went out onto the track.

It began with Keselowski, but his time on the provisional pole was short-lived. Reddick rocketed to the top of the time sheets, almost four full tenths quicker in a stunning lap. He also hit the wall at the exit of Turn 4.

His teammate tried to match him, but Wallace ultimately slotted into second, 0.126s behind. Hendrick drivers were the closest to 23XI, with Chase Elliott qualifying third, Kyle Larson fourth, and then the RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski leading Ford in fifth.

Darlington Starting Lineup

cla	#	driver	manufacturer	time	gap	mph
1	45	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	29.072		169.152
2	23	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	29.196	0.124	168.434
3	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	29.319	0.247	167.727
4	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	29.377	0.305	167.396
5	6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	29.424	0.352	167.129
6	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	29.443	0.371	167.021
7	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	29.476	0.404	166.834
8	8	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	29.478	0.406	166.823
9	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	29.500	0.428	166.698
10	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	29.538	0.466	166.484
11	7	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	29.550	0.478	166.416
12	2	Austin Cindric	Ford	29.570	0.498	166.304
13	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	29.601	0.529	166.130
14	35	Riley Herbst	Toyota	29.613	0.541	166.062
15	48	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	29.624	0.552	166.001
16	77	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	29.677	0.605	165.704
17	60	Ryan Preece	Ford	29.708	0.636	165.531
18	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	29.721	0.649	165.459
19	38	Zane Smith	Ford	29.723	0.651	165.448
20	71	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	29.731	0.659	165.403
21	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	29.776	0.704	165.153
22	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	29.785	0.713	165.103
23	19	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	29.819	0.747	164.915
24	43	Erik Jones	Toyota	29.825	0.753	164.882
25	1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	29.847	0.775	164.760
26	21	Josh Berry	Ford	29.878	0.806	164.589
27	16	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	29.885	0.813	164.551
28	54	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	29.889	0.817	164.529
29	22	Joey Logano	Ford	29.912	0.840	164.402
30	4	Noah Gragson	Ford	29.980	0.908	164.029
31	34	Todd Gilliland	Ford	29.997	0.925	163.936
32	88	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	30.091	1.019	163.424
33	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	30.125	1.053	163.240
34	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	30.309	1.237	162.249
35	41	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	30.422	1.350	161.646
36	10	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	30.584	1.512	160.790
37	66	Timmy Hill	Ford	32.044	2.972	153.464

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