Reddick takes Xfinity pole at Homestead, Hemric leads title contenders

Title hopeful William Byron shot to the top of the charts with a 163.706mph lap, but it wasn't enough to hang on for pole. Ryan Preece slid into P1, only to be bumped moments later by Cole Custer.

It was ultimately Reddick who threw down a 165.624mph lap to snag pole position from them all. He will lead the field to the green flag in the Ford EcoBoost 300 Saturday afternoon.

"I thought it was going to be horrible," he admitted after qualifying. "I thought we were going to be fifth or sixth to be honest. We were getting through 1 and 2 really good which gave us a cushion in 3 and 4. It's a pretty good feeling to end the year on it."

Custer, who just missed out on the final four at Phoenix, will start alongside Reddick on the front row. Newly crowned Camping World Truck Series champion Christopher Bell will start third while Daniel Hemric leads the Championship 4 drivers up in fourth.

Byron ended up falling down to sixth, but he's not concerned. "It was normal. We usually qualify fifth or sixth which is good because we usually race a little bit better. Hopefully we can get up by the wall and make it stick."

Round 1

Bell led the way in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the opening round of qualifying. Ty Majeski was second, Reddick third, Custer fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. fifth.

All four championship drivers easily advanced beyond the first round of qualifying. Hemric was sixth, Sadler 12th, Byron 15th and Allgaier 16th.

Casey Mears was the final driver to make the cut in 24th. Surprisingly, Richard Childress Racing's Ben Kennedy was among those eliminated, clocking in just behind Mears 25th. 

Round 2

Reddick went quickest in the second round of qualifying at 166.22mph. Hemric was once again the quickest title contender in fifth. Byron clocked in ninth and was the only JR Motorsports driver to advance.

Both Sadler and Allgaier found themselves on the wrong side of the cut line and will start 14th and 16th, respectively.

Reddick, Custer, Hemric, Bell, Byron, Preece, Poole, Majeski, Tifft, Koch and Mears were the twelve drivers who advanced into the pole round.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	42	Tyler Reddick	Chevrolet	32.604		165.624
2	00	Cole Custer	Ford	32.745	0.141	164.911
3	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	32.810	0.206	164.584
4	21	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	32.820	0.216	164.534
5	18	Ryan Preece	Toyota	32.839	0.235	164.439
6	9	William Byron	Chevrolet	32.986	0.382	163.706
7	48	Brennan Poole	Chevrolet	32.996	0.392	163.656
8	22	Sam Hornish Jr.	Ford	32.998	0.394	163.646
9	60	Ty Majeski	Ford	33.096	0.492	163.162
10	19	Matt Tifft	Toyota	33.143	0.539	162.930
11	11	Blake Koch	Chevrolet	33.188	0.584	162.709
12	98	Casey Mears	Ford	33.263	0.659	162.343
13	3	Harrison Rhodes	Chevrolet	33.071	0.467	163.285
14	1	Elliott Sadler	Chevrolet	33.122	0.518	163.034
15	16	Ryan Reed	Ford	33.242	0.638	162.445
16	7	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	33.272	0.668	162.299
17	24	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	33.319	0.715	162.070
18	5	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	33.332	0.728	162.006
19	4	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	33.382	0.778	161.764
20	33	Brandon Jones	Chevrolet	33.531	0.927	161.045
21	14	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	33.629	1.025	160.576
22	01	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	33.714	1.110	160.171
23	62	Brendan Gaughan	Chevrolet	33.723	1.119	160.128
24	93	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	0.000		0.000
25	2	Ben Kennedy	Chevrolet	33.509	0.905	161.151
26	0	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	33.540	0.936	161.002
27	07	Ray Black Jr.	Chevrolet	33.572	0.968	160.848
28	23	Spencer Gallagher	Chevrolet	33.582	0.978	160.800
29	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	33.650	1.046	160.475
30	8	Caesar Bacarella	Chevrolet	33.841	1.237	159.570
31	15	Harrison Rhodes	Chevrolet	33.885	1.281	159.363
32	52	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	34.017	1.413	158.744
33	90	Josh Williams	Chevrolet	34.023	1.419	158.716
34	13	Carl Long	Toyota	34.049	1.445	158.595
35	78	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	34.067	1.463	158.511
36	40	Chad Finchum	Chevrolet	34.298	1.694	157.444
37	39	Stephen Leicht	Chevrolet	34.402	1.798	156.968
38	99	David Starr	Chevrolet	34.622	2.018	155.970
39	74	John Graham	Dodge	36.100	3.496	149.584
40	38	Jeff Green	Chevrolet	36.229	3.625	149.052