Tyler Reddick keeps his momentum going with the pole for the NASCAR Cup race at Kansas Speedway

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Tyler Reddick will start from a NASCAR Cup Series pole on Sunday for the fourth time this season, and try to reach victory lane for the fifth time, after the 23XI Racing driver turned the fastest lap in qualifying at Kansas Speedway.

Reddick's lap of 185.300 mph on a cold, blustery Saturday edged his team owner Denny Hamlin, who will start alongside him in an all-Toyota front row. It's the second pole at Kansas for Reddick as he tries to become only the fourth driver in NASCAR history to win five of the first nine races in a season, and the first since Dale Earnhardt in 1987.

“We came here a year ago and really struggled all weekend long. That was a tough pill to swallow, for sure. We had felt like this had kind of been our playground for a number of years," Reddick said. “We came back here last fall, it was a huge emphasis for us. We just wanted to come back here with something better, and we didn't lead a lot of laps with the car we had, but it was much more the direction we needed to be. We kind of used that as our starting point coming back here.”

Turned out to be quite the starting point. It’s the fifth pole in the last six Kansas races for Toyota, and the second there for Reddick, whose 5.5 average finish through eight races is the best in a season since 2021, when Hamlin had seven top-5s — but no victories.

As for Hamlin, he has long considered Kansas Speedway one of his best tracks. He has four wins at the mile-and-a-half oval, one more than Kyle Larson and Joey Logano, and his runner-up finish last fall was his fourth second-place run.

“We were all kind of wide open there, the last few guys,” Hamlin said of his qualifying effort. “The track got good for us.”

Ty Gibbs will start third after picking up his first career win last week at Bristol. Larson will be alongside him in Row 2, while Chase Briscoe and Carson Hocevar — who set the early quick time — will make up the third row.

All of them will be chasing Reddick, though, just like they have so often this season.

“It's one week at a time. I think that really helps. If you get too far ahead of yourself (you) let one bad moment snowball into a series of bad moments,” Reddick said. “The start we've had is great. I feel like we're in a really great spot to — hopefully with performances like today translating to tomorrow — continue growing the points lead.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing