Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 Toyota 23XI Racing team roared to the Charlotte Roval Pole Award on Saturday. This was his second pole in 2025 and 11th NASCAR Cup Series career pole as he bested four-time race winner Shane Van Gisbergen, who will start second.
Heading into Sunday’s NCS race, Reddick sits 11th in Playoff standings needing to make up 29 points for a berth into the Round of 8. In 2023, Reddick scored the top spot for this race. In five Roval starts, he’s earned three-top 10 finishes with his best of second place in 2021.
Starting behind Reddick and SVG is non-playoff contender Ty Gibbs, defending race winner Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher and Micheal McDowell.
Tire Fall Off a Factor
In years prior, tire fall off wasn’t as prevalent as during Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions. Reddick said it will definitely be a something to contend with during Sunday’s 109-lap race.
“I feel like when we raced at Sonoma in the past, we’d have the high fall off,” Reddick said. “But the track certainly took rubber, but a lot of rubber and rubber buildup off-line too. I feel like I’ve seen this before.
“Probably, when I did the Watkins Glen tire test. I believe it’s on this tire combination that we have been racing this year. It did a lot of that at that tire test, and we really haven’t seen it to the level that it did today.
“The way it acted today was somewhat reminiscent of that test, but obviously, when we returned to race it was much different. You had some fall off, but it wasn’t rubbering the whole track.”
Sunday Strategy Altered
Whatever teams learned in past Roval races could be at risk. With how the track rubbered up and Goodyear tires fell off regarding speed and handling, the pole sitter thinks some teams will be starting from scratch in how to race Sunday.
Another factor for Reddick and the No. 45 Toyota team is where they are in Playoff points coming into the Roval race.
“That’s how we played it the last two years, but we weren’t quite as far back on points as we are right now going into tomorrow’s race,” Reddick said. “So, I think everybody that had a plan, an idea on the strategy for this race just had it completely ripped in half and all the teams are now looking at what the fall off was like today, and refiguring what the strategy’s going to look like.
“I would imagine that tires are going to be important to have late if there’s a caution based on what we saw today.”
SVG Factor Also in Play
All eyes are on SVG and the No. 88 Chevrolet team of Trackhouse Racing. With those four wins to his credit on the left and right layouts, Reddick and every driver in the race knows SVG will be the one to watch.
“I think what you would define a long run – the long run seems like it comes quick with the way these tires go away,” Reddick said. “I believe he was the standout in that regard, on long run pace. So, I will try to look at what I’m doing with the car.
“We’ll try to look at what we can change on the car to see what more we can do to help that. Outside of that, I thought my car handled pretty well over the course of the long run. We just have to just look through everything and see if there’s anything more there that we can find to help us.
“I think we’re okay when you look at the field minus the No. 88 (Shane van Gisbergen). Shane’s obviously very good at what he does. He’s proven that this year and other years with this car.
“For us, we’ve got to kind of figure out how we can close that gap. It’s a pretty big one, but we’re up for that challenge.”
The challenge begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA TV, NASCAR Network Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90.
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