Tyler Reddick has continued his ferocious start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup season, claiming pole position for Sunday's AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway with a lap of 29.142 seconds in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.
The pole — Reddick's third of the year and the 14th of his career — capped a dominant Toyota afternoon, with team principal Denny Hamlin slotting his own car into second on a 29.161s lap, just 0.019 seconds adrift. Kyle Larson rounded out a Hendrick interruption in third for Chevrolet on 29.192s, with Ty Gibbs (29.192s) and Chase Briscoe (29.199s) completing a top five almost entirely painted in Camry colours.
For Reddick, the result extends a championship-leading run that already includes four wins from the opening stretch of the season. The 30-year-old said the car had felt right all weekend.
"This Toyota Camry was really solid in practice. Really, really good handling," Reddick said. "Just proud of everyone's effort here at 23XI."
Toyota's strength on the 1.5-mile oval was emphatic, with the manufacturer claiming six of the top ten starting positions. The Hamlin-Reddick front row lockout will give 23XI its strongest strategic platform of the season at a track where clean air on long runs has historically dictated race shape.
Behind the headline numbers, the most striking story may have come from 17th on the grid. Shane van Gisbergen, the reigning Cup Series rookie convert from Supercars, posted his strongest career qualifying effort at Kansas with a 29.537s lap — eight tenths off Reddick, but a vast improvement on his 24th and 34th-place starts in his two previous visits.
The Trackhouse Racing driver was visibly pumped after climbing from the cockpit. "Practice was pretty decent but I'm shaking a bit. That was pretty full-on," he said. "I tried going flat in turn three and then just lost it."
Van Gisbergen, who has built much of his Cup reputation on road and street courses, conceded that learning to extract the final tenths from an oval lap remains the steepest part of his American education. "You pick up eight tenths but you only have one corner to feel what" the car wants, he added — a candid admission of how compressed qualifying decision-making becomes on a high-speed mile-and-a-half.
His effort outqualified both Trackhouse teammates Ross Chastain (31st) and Connor Zilisch (36th) in a 37-car field, suggesting his oval craft is moving in the right direction even if the speed of the Toyotas remains a class apart.
Sunday's 400-mile race begins at 4am AEST, broadcast on Fox Sports and Kayo. With Reddick already the man to beat in 2026 and Hamlin's resurgent run behind the wheel, an internal 23XI duel for stage points and track position appears likely from the very first lap. Larson, the most successful active driver at Kansas, will be the first Chevrolet voice trying to break it up.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/reddick-snares-third-pole-of-2026-as-23xi-locks-out-front-row-at-kansas). Visit for full coverage.*
