HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The regular season championship leaders will start alongside one another on the front row for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 Playoff race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick besting Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson by a slight .113-second Saturday morning to claim the pole position.
This is the 28-year-old Californian Reddick’s third pole of the season in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota — ninth of his career — and comes at a crucial time in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 8 with Sunday the second of three races that will decide which four drivers advance to the Nov. 10 Phoenix race championship eligible to hoist the big trophy.
Reddick, a two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series winner at the 1.5-miler, turned a lap of 167.452 mph in the Toyota Camry to set the pace and importantly, earn the first pit stall selection. His work gave Toyota a three-series pole sweep for the weekend with Toyotas starting first starting positions in both Saturday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series races — the 13th time the make has done that.
“The pole has eluded me in the Cup series here, we’ve been very close and just needed a very good round two I think for our group, we ran a really good lap for sure,” said Reddick, the Regular Season Champion, who arrives in South Florida ranked sixth in the championship standings, 30 points behind Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron in that all-important fourth place transfer position.
“It’s always nice to run a really good lap, but when you run your lap and five cars go after you, you know they have the opportunity to adjust, so I was curious to see what the 5 (Larson)and 20 {Christopher Bell) were going to do there and obviously, the 5 got pretty close.
“All in all, it was a great day for us and looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
Toyotas and Chevrolets dominated the opening round of qualifying putting five cars each into the final one-lap run for the pole. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell — the current Playoff points leader — will start third in the No. 20 Toyota, alongside teammate and three-time Homestead winner Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won the Talladega, Ala. Playoff race three weeks ago, will start the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Chevrolet fifth with JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. starting sixth in the No. 19 Toyota.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who goes into the race ranked last among the eight Playoff drivers — 53 points below the cutoff line — will start the No. 9 Chevrolet seventh alongside JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Toyota. Kaulig Raing’s Daniel Hemric and Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley will start their Chevrolets from the fifth row — marking the best qualifying effort of the year for Haley and first time he’s advanced to the final round.
No Fords advanced to the final round for the first time since the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) race on March 24. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry was the fastest Mustang Saturday and will start 12th.
Only three Playoff drivers did not advance to the 10-car final qualifying round. Among them, reigning series champion, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who will start his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang 20th on the grid. He’s currently ranked seventh of the eight drivers, 47 points below the cutoff line.
Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron — the 2021 Homestead winner — will roll off 25th in the No. 24 Chevrolet. He is in that all-important fourth position in the standings, 27 points up on Hamlin in fifth.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano — who earned the first of four Championship 4 berths with a Las Vegas win last week — qualified 26th but will start from the rear after his No. 22 Penske team made a steering system change post-qualifying.
Of note, the pole-winner has won the Homestead race only one time since 2002 — Hamlin in 2020.
NOTEBOOK:
— Last week’s Las Vegas runner-up, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell conceded his near miss — by a slight .662-second to Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who gambled and won on fuel strategy — definitely stung. But by Monday, he said he was over it.
Bell led the most laps — 155 of 267 — but wasn’t ultimately able to catch Logano in the final frantic push to the checkered flag. And regardless of the race outcome, the finish puts the 29-year-old Oklahoman in the Playoff standings lead — 42 points above the cutline with the top four drivers advancing to compete for the title on Nov. 10 in Phoenix. A victory would have been an automatic ticket for Bell, but he is optimistic about his chances this weekend as the defending Homestead race winner.
“You’re never really safe, the three of us William (Byron), Kyle (Larson) and myself have kind of, the way that the cards fell, we’re kind of essentially point racing each other, and the guys below that are far enough below, they’re basically out of the points and essentially racing for wins,” Bell said. “Certainly, we’ll know more once we get through Homestead on Sunday night, but, right now, we’re planning on there being three winners and the three of us — William, Kyle and myself — are racing for that last points spot.”
“There’s a good chance William, Kyle or myself could win this weekend and it could change. But plus 42 (points) sounds great until you realize every time someone wins, that cutline shrinks more, more and more, or that gap to the cutline. You’re never safe and it’s going to be a battle.”
— Denny Hamlin’s three Homestead wins is most in this weekend’s field and a fourth trophy on Sunday would essentially salvage a challenging Playoff run for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. The driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota sits in fifth place — 27 points below the four-driver cutoff line that will decide who competes for the championship Nov. 10 at Phoenix.
Hamlin has four top-10 finishes in the seven Playoff races with a best showing of fourth at Bristol, Tenn. last month. Most telling, perhaps, he has led only two of the races for a combined five laps.
“It doesn’t matter how far back you are in points, you’ve just got to find a way to win,” Hamlin said, adding, “Anything can happen and certainly you’re never out of it until they throw the checkered. But (crew chief) Chris (Gabehart) does a really good job of pumping the team up, keeping them motivated and getting the best out of them. We all go through these swells where we’re not performing our best and certainly the timing is not ideal right now.
“But every week is new week with them and me so certainly I feel optimistic going into this one. We’ve done the work in the week to get better and we’re all going to hopefully perform our best.
“I think in this sport, momentum is very over-rated,” he added. “It’s week-to-week. We have to perform like we’re capable of and we just haven’t shown that in quite some time.”
— Joey Logano’s victory in last week’s Round of 8 Playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earned him the first automatic bid into the Nov. 10 Championship Four at Phoenix Raceway. The two-time series champion said his No. 22 Team Penske team has absolutely seized the advantage of the extra two weeks to prepare for the championship race — both competitively and psychologically.
“There’s no doubt after you’ve done something once, you’re gonna be better the second time, right” Logano says of his sixth appearance in the Championship foursome. “We talked about what the week is like leading into it, and all the other things you have to do, all the distractions, all the stress that’s there. It’s a hard week, there’s no doubt.
“I laugh all the time because so many drivers, in all three series, a lot of their answer is, ‘we just treat it as another race, it’s just another race’. BS, it’s not another race. Not even close, it’s the championship, it’s the biggest race you’ll ever be a part of. It’s bigger than that. Everyone tries to minimize it so they can sleep better at night. It’s not about that.
“And I think for some drivers and teams, they love that pressure and I think there’s some that just hate it and it affects them in a negative way. It probably depends on who you are, but I know going through things more than once definitely helps you know how to prepare for what’s coming your way.”
— Frankie Muniz, the celebrated actor from the “Malcolm in the Middle” television show, formally announced Friday at Homestead that he will competing fulltime in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in 2025 driving the No 33 Ford for Reaume Brothers Racing.
And he’ll be making his first start for the team this weekend in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead and then again in two weeks in the Phoenix season finale.
He competed fulltime in the 2023 ARCA Menards Series earning a top-five (fifth place) and 11 top-10 finishes in 20 races. After what turned into a partial season this year — largely due to an illness that sidelined him this summer — he recorded ninth and 12th-place finishes in his two starts. Getting this chance by an established team is an important for Muniz, who is eager to take the next step in his professional progression.
Muniz said part of this opportunity means the Scottsdale-Ariz.-based driver will spend significant time at back East, closer to the team in Charlotte, N.C.
“I want to put myself into every situation I can to be better as a race car driver so that’s spending more time with the team, going over stuff with the engineers and watching past races with my spotter and being in the simulator Ford gives me access to, that’s great and let’s do it. Going back and forth is not easy. And I just want to fully immerse myself in being a NASCAR driver and best way to do that is being by the team in Charlotte.”
“Just ready to put my head down and go fast,” he said, reiterating that he wants people to know, “I’m not doing this as just a hobby.
— Highly-touted young driver William Sawalich also brought big news to South Florida — Joe Gibbs Racing announcing that the 18-year-old will steer the No. 18 Toyota fulltime in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025.
And the two-time ARCA Menard’s East Series champion is going full-in with his NASCAR experience this weekend competing in both races in Saturday’s Truck and Xfinity Series double-header.
Although he’s competed in 13 previous truck races in the last two seasons, this will be his Xfinity Series debut.
“Honestly, I feel like it would be tougher to do the Xfinity race as a standalone race just because (I get) the warm-up in the truck race, get a green flag stop in, get used to pit road — which I’m still kind of new to that. Just getting a feel for everything because it’s a lot different.”
ETC. … Wood Brothers Racing lead engineer Grant Hutchens will serve as temporary crew chief for Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Ford team beginning this weekend. He replaces veteran crew chief Jeremy Bullins who led the team to its historic 100th victory in August at Daytona International Speedway. … JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier announced Friday that he had signed a two-year contract extension with the team.
–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media
