NASCAR Cup Kansas starting lineup: Tyler Reddick beats Denny Hamlin to pole

The dream season continues for Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing, just one day after partnering with Rockstar Energy. The championship leader earned his 14th career pole and his third of the 2026 season at Kansas Speedway.

With a fast lap of 29.142s, Reddick beat his boss Denny Hamlin by 0.019s for the top spot. It was a Toyota 1-2-3 in qualifying with last week’s winner Ty Gibbs in third.

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Kyle Larson led the way for Chevrolet in fourth, while Chase Briscoe qualified fifth. Carson Hocevar, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, and Bubba Wallace filled out the remainder of the top ten.

“It’s really awesome,” said Reddick. “This Toyota Camry was really solid in practice. We elected to give up rolling out first (in practice) to get those adjustments we wanted to. Really, really good handling. Just proud of everyone’s effort here at 23XI. We’ve been solid. We had that stretch where we were really tough to beat here and we’ve worked hard to improve that. To have a Saturday go like this — just smooth with great handling is exactly what we want to see.”

Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin with Michael Jordan after Kansas qualifying

Qualifying recap

Heim was the first driver out and set the benchmark at 29.664s. Van Gisbergen then bested him by over a tenth for provisional pole, and held it for a little bit until Byron eclipsed him by 0.033s.

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But it was Bell who blew them all away with a 29.325s lap, leading the first half of qualifying.

Things picked up in the second half of qualifying, with Suarez rocketing to the top of the charts, but only briefly as Buescher took over by a mere 0.003 with a 29.227s. But again, it didn’t last long as Hocevar went to the top with a 29.212s.

But the JGR duo of Hamlin and Briscoe quickly toppled that, and while Larson got close before losing time in the final corner, the only car that could beat Hamlin was another Toyota.

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There were no crashes in qualifying, but Ty Dillon, who will start last, got into the wall on his flying lap.

Full starting lineup

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