Shane van Gisbergen earns NASCAR Cup pole at Charlotte Roval

Shane van Gisbergen is missing out on the Bathurst 1000 this weekend for the first time since 2006, but he’s making the most of it as he dominates the NASCAR time sheets in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is his first pole position in just 12 career starts at the Cup level. 

Tyler Reddick, who spun in practice, had a much tidier qualifying session, setting the early benchmark in the final round at 1:22.796s. SVG waited and ran very late, taking the top spot by less than a tenth with a 1:22.704s. To the the surprise of everyone, Reddick was able to response with an impressive second run where he closed the gap despite older tires, coming within 0.057s of Van Gisbergen’s pole time.

“He’s [Reddick] obviously very quick to do those extra laps and still match it,” said Van Gisbergen, who is driving the No. 13 Chevrolet this weekend. “Thank you to this Kaulig Racing team. Last minute deal to come and race here. Thanks to Matt [Kaulig] and the guys for letting me run their car and of course, WeatherTech for coming on board too. What an amazing day. I’m at a loss for words.”

SVG went on to say that he will be mindful of those in the playoff fight as this Sunday’s Cup race is the Round of 12 elimination race. “Just make sure we race clean. I have to respect there’s a lot of playoff guys around me. I have to race respectfully. But yeah, we’re here to win the race.” 

Behind the SVG-Reddick front row will be defending race winner A.J. Allmendinger in third, Joey Logano fourth, and Austin Cindric fifth. Team Penske teammates Logano and Cindric both enter this race in the elimination zone.

Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, and William Byron rounded out the top-ten in qualifying.

Playoff drivers starting a bit deeper in the field: Christopher Bell 12th; Daniel Suarez 13th; Ryan Blaney 14th; Alex Bowman 17th; Denny Hamlin 18th; Chase Briscoe 25th.

There were notable incidents during the session, which featured a new track layout with alterations to the Turns 5-7 section, as well as a tighter frontstretch chicane.