Tyler Reddick blistered the 2.4-mile National Course during qualifying for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), posting a lap time of 98.076 seconds at 88.095 mph to claim the pole. With the lap, the Corning, Calif. native also showed the way for his teammate, Bubba Wallace, who posted his best qualifying effort since Darlington last season and will start alongside Reddick in an all-Toyota front row.
“All in all, it felt like it was hard for anybody today to have the perfect lap,” Reddick said. “We hit the right areas to put together a good lap. We were able to hang on to it throughout the whole session.”
The triumph marked Reddick’s 10th pole in 185 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) starts and his second at COTA.
Reddick said managing tire falloff will be key to repeating the success he found in 2023, when he won the event.
“It’s a lot more than we’ve had here in the past,” he said. “It really does go away and it goes away quick. That will be important tomorrow. Taking care of the tires, staying up front does help. We were not where we wanted to be in the first practice. The team worked really, really hard today to find some handling, find some speed.”
Wallace, who’s previous best start at COTA was 10th last season, was chasing Reddick through the 17-turn circuit during qualifying, nearly catching him in a couple of spots.
“He slowed me up, for sure,” Wallace joked after qualifying. “I thought I slowed him up, just being that close. It all worked out – a good one-two start for our team.”
Chase Elliott, who won the inaugural EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix in 2021, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez round out the top five. Road course ringers Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger start sixth and 12th respectively, while 18-year-old Connor Zilisch, making his NCS debut, starts 14th.
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix action continues at 2:30 p.m. CT Sunday with the first-ever running on the new National Course.
Fuel Issues Spark Wild Finish in IMSA’s VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race 1:
In a shocking finish to the first of two 45-minute IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races, Canadian Jonathan Woolridge collected his second career victory in the series as the cars running first and second ran out of fuel coming to the white flag.
Woolridge trailed race-leading teammates Oscar Tunjo and Valentino Catalano by more than a minute on the second-to-last lap. Tunjo, who started the race from the pole position, led most of the race until Catalano took over out front with just over six minutes remaining.
The two ran nose-to-tail before Tunjo briefly claimed the lead from Catalano with 1:40 left on the clock. Seconds later, both cars ran out of fuel and slowed to a stop on course.
That opened the door for Woolridge to take the white flag as the new leader, and 2.4 miles later, he claimed the victory, his first since winning at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2023.
“I was a little surprised coming around the carousel there and finding those two parked there,” Woolridge said. “But I feel like that’s racing. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t and today we got lucky.”
Brian Thienes finished second in the P3 class and won the Bronze Cup race. Mirco Schultis rounded out the P3 podium with a third-place.
Full Recap of IMSA Race One Action from Saturday at COTA.
Tickets:
Tickets for children ages 12 and under start at just $10 for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix NCS race. For individual tickets, weekend packages and camping, fans can visit NASCARatCOTA.com.
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