23XI Racing swept the front row in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Circuit of The Americas, with former winner Tyler Reddick taking the pole and teammate Bubba Wallace alongside.
The two set their fastest laps while running together on the track. Reddick, the 2023 winner at COTA, ran 88.095mph (98.076s).
“I was worried I screwed his lap up and he was worried he screwed my lap up,” Reddick told Prime. “Man, today really threw us for a loop. The pace was nowhere where we thought it was going to be, and everybody here on this 45 and everyone here at 23XI really had to go to work on our Toyota Camrys. We made massive improvements from practice one to practice two. Obviously we didn’t have the fire off the lap we were wanting, and I knew we were going to have to go out there and find it right away.
“I’m just really glad today went like it did. It’s going to be great track position for us tomorrow.”
Reddick has started fourth or better in five starts at COTA.
Wallace starts second after running a lap of 87.894mph. It’s his second top-10 start in five races at COTA and his first top-five start.
“When we come to the road course races, I think everybody in the Toyota camp leans on Tyler,” Wallace said on Prime. “He does a great job of giving us the right information to chase – sometimes. But I really thought I screwed his lap up. I got into Turn 1 better, and then I was close , and I think if roles were reversed, I’d be like, ‘Back up off me a little bit. Give me some room.’ But that’s how good he is.
“Hats off to everyone at 23XI. The 45 and 23 on the front row are getting Riley up to speed on everything. I was way out in left field in practice, so we made some big gains on our Mobil 1 Toyota. I have to keep finding it. Tomorrow is a different pace for me — racing and being aggressive and staying up front. That’ll be the new challenge. But all in all, just continuing to get speed and getting more comfortable in these types of places — that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about the men and women at 23XI.”
Herbst had his first qualifying lap disallowed because of track limits. It would have put him third fastest behind his teammates.
Chase Elliott instead qualified third. Elliott felt he messed up his first attempt and came to pit road to cool his tires before making another lap. He clocked in at 87.842mph.
Carson Hocevar was fourth fastest (87.858mph) and Daniel Suarez completed the top five (87.732mph).
Shane van Gisbergen qualified sixth (87.699mph), Kyle Larson seventh (87.645mph), Kyle Busch eighth (87.637mph), Ross Chastain ninth (87.536mph) with Todd Gilliland completing the top 10 (87.522mph).
Denny Hamlin qualified 11th and AJ Allmendinger 12th. Connor Zilisch qualified 14th for his Cup Series debut with Trackhouse Racing.
The defending race winner, William Byron, qualified 15th. Michael McDowell ran 16th.
Christopher Bell ended up 19th, Joey Logano 23rd, Chris Buescher 24th, Ryan Blaney 25th and Brad Keselowski 26th.
Herbst wound up down in 31st. Josh Berry qualified 35th. Austin Cindric qualified a lowly 36th, and Cody Ware rounded out the field last.
There are 37 teams entered in Texas.
NEXT: The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday.
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