Shane van Gisbergen beats Reddick to Cup pole at the Charlotte Roval
It was a pole sweep at the Roval for three-time Supercars champion SVG, who will lead the field to the green flag in both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races.
Shane van Gisbergen is missing out on the Bathurst 1000 this weekend for the first time since 2006, but he’s making the most of it as he dominates the NASCAR time sheets in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is his first pole position in just 12 career starts at the Cup level.
Tyler Reddick, who spun in practice, had a much tidier qualifying session, setting the early benchmark in the final round at 1:22.796s. SVG waited and ran very late, taking the top spot by less than a tenth with a 1:22.704s. To the the surprise of everyone, Reddick was able to response with an impressive second run where he closed the gap despite older tires, coming within 0.057s of Van Gisbergen’s pole time.
Shane Van Gisbergen, Kaulig Racing, WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro
Photo by: David Rosenblum / NKP / Motorsport Images
“He’s [Reddick] obviously very quick to do those extra laps and still match it,” said Van Gisbergen, who is driving the No. 13 Chevrolet this weekend. “Thank you to this Kaulig Racing team. Last minute deal to come and race here. Thanks to Matt [Kaulig] and the guys for letting me run their car and of course, WeatherTech for coming on board too. What an amazing day. I’m at a loss for words.”
SVG went on to say that he will be mindful of those in the playoff fight as this Sunday’s Cup race is the Round of 12 elimination race. “Just make sure we race clean. I have to respect there’s a lot of playoff guys around me. I have to race respectfully. But yeah, we’re here to win the race.”
Cla
Driver
#
Manufacturer
Laps
Time
Interval
Mph
1
S. van GisbergenKaulig Racing
13
Chevrolet
1
1’22.704
99.246
2
T. Reddick23XI Racing
45
Toyota
3
+0.057
1’22.761
0.057
99.177
3
A. AllmendingerKaulig Racing
16
Chevrolet
1
+0.311
1’23.015
0.254
98.874
4
J. LoganoTeam Penske
22
Ford
1
+0.462
1’23.166
0.151
98.694
5
A. CindricTeam Penske
2
Ford
1
+0.558
1’23.262
0.096
98.580
6
K. LarsonHendrick Motorsports
5
Chevrolet
3
+0.626
0.068
98.500
7
C. ElliottHendrick Motorsports
9
Chevrolet
2
+0.720
1’23.424
0.094
98.389
8
B. KeselowskiRFK Racing
6
Ford
1
+0.761
1’23.465
0.041
98.341
9
B. Wallace23XI Racing
23
Toyota
3
+0.864
1’23.568
0.103
98.219
10
W. ByronHendrick Motorsports
24
Chevrolet
2
+0.910
1’23.614
0.046
98.165
Behind the SVG-Reddick front row will be defending race winner A.J. Allmendinger in third, Joey Logano fourth, and Austin Cindric fifth. Team Penske teammates Logano and Cindric both enter this race in the elimination zone.
Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, and William Byron rounded out the top-ten in qualifying.
Playoff drivers starting a bit deeper in the field: Christopher Bell 12th; Daniel Suarez 13th; Ryan Blaney 14th; Alex Bowman 17th; Denny Hamlin 18th; Chase Briscoe 25th.
There were notable incidents during the session, which featured a new track layout with alterations to the Turns 5-7 section, as well as a tighter frontstretch chicane.
