KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A fourth victory from the pole position would suit Tyler Reddick just fine after the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota prevailed in Saturday’s highly competitive qualifying session at Kansas Speedway.

Reddick toured the 1.5-mile speedway in 29.142 seconds (185.300 mph) to claim his third pole of the season, his second at Kansas and the 14th of his career.

In doing so, Reddick edged his car owner, Denny Hamlin (185.179 mph), by 0.019 seconds for the top starting spot in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, the ninth NASCAR Cup Series race of the year.

The pole was the fifth in the last six Kansas races for Toyota drivers.

The 2026 season already has been a remarkable one for Reddick, who won the first three races and added a fourth victory March 22 at Darlington Raceway. Reddick’s last three wins have come from the pole position: at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta (starting on metrics after a qualifying rainout), Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and at Darlington.

Should Reddick win on Sunday, he would become the fourth driver in Cup Series history –and the first since Dale Earnhardt in 1987 — to win five of the first nine events of a season. Reddick tops the series standings with a 62-point edge over second-place Ryan Blaney.

“We had a lot of good handling in our car for Atlanta,” Reddick said of his and his team’s ability to convert qualifying speed into race wins. “COTA, obviously I felt like the 12 (Blaney) and Shane (van Gisbergen) were really strong. I think just good handling, handling that you can trust, handling that stays with you in the long run (really helps). So, Darlington, same thing.

“Here, the speeds were a bit higher, and I didn’t know if we’d be able to get the pole, but it was really nice to see that the handling that we have, the short-run speed that we have, appears to be all there today.”

Bristol winner Ty Gibbs and defending series champion Kyle Larson posted identical times (29.192 seconds for 184.982 mph) and will start third and fourth, respectively, with Gibbs getting the nod on owner points. Larson is the two-time defending winner of the spring race at Kansas.

Chase Briscoe qualified fifth at 184.938 mph as Toyotas claimed four of the top five starting positions. Carson Hocevar was sixth, followed by Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Blaney and Bubba Wallace.

–NASCAR Wire Service

Following a topsy-turvy season that saw them fire their head coach with just eight games left in the regular-season, the Vegas Golden Knights appear to be peaking at just the right time.

The Golden Knights (39-26-17, 95 points) sprinted to a 10-game point streak down the stretch to claim their fifth Pacific Division title in nine seasons and will host the Utah Mammoth in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Vegas didn’t clinch the Pacific Division until it defeated Seattle, 4-1, in its regular-season finale. The Golden Knights, who won the 2023 Stanley Cup under Bruce Cassidy, captured 15 of a possible 16 points (7-0-1) down the stretch under the guidance of John Tortorella, who replaced Cassidy as head coach on March 29.

Before the coaching change, Vegas had won just five times (5-10-2) since the Olympic break and saw a four-point first-place lead disappear, falling to just four points above the Western Conference playoff bubble.

“Kind of a weird year for sure, especially in the Pacific,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “A lot of ups and downs. We were on top there for a while, and then we were in third flirting with the wild card. And then we found our game at the right time and were able to win the division. That’s what we wanted to do and we did it.”

Barely. Edmonton, which finished in second place with 93 points, lost four of its last six games (2-2-2), including a 5-1 home loss to the Golden Knights, while Anaheim, which finished third three points behind Vegas with 92 points, lost eight of its final 10 games (2-6-2).

Tortorella, who guided Tampa Bay to the 2004 Stanley Cup title, is credited with rebuilding confidence in a more relaxed locker room that appeared to have tuned out Cassidy.

“All I know is that since I’ve been here, they have played at a level and played as a team, consistently,” Tortorella said.

Utah (43-33-6, 92 points) finished fourth in the rugged Central Division but captured the top Western Conference wild-card spot, the franchise’s first playoff berth since moving from Arizona to Salt Lake City two years ago. Prior to that, the then-Arizona Coyotes last made the playoffs in 2020, losing in five games in the first round to Colorado.

Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt was a member of the inaugural “Golden Misfits” Vegas team in 2017-18 that went all the way to the Stanley Cup final before losing in five games to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. He believes Utah, which won two of the three regular-season meetings with the Golden Knights, has the potential to do well in its first playoff series.

“I love the idea that our guys are quick, they’re fast, they’re in this time of year for the first time,” Schmidt said. “The youthfulness is going to be something I’m excited to see. When we put pressure on teams and continue to roll over them and roll onto them, get our puck in and kind of let our speed kind of dictate the pace and how we want to play, it makes it really hard to play against us.”

“We did our job getting there, and now it’s on to the next milestone here — getting some wins, getting some experience, and doing what we came here to do,” forward Michael Carcone said.

Tortorella said he’s excited to see how his new team responds to the challenge.

“It’s the most exciting time because everybody’s playing at a different level, and it’s a good test to see how high you can get as a team,” Tortorella said. “Everything is going to be amped up. As each game goes by in the series, it’s going to be harder and harder. So it’s a great challenge for the players.”

–Field Level Media

Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to start the decisive third-quarter run for the host New York Knicks, who pulled away for a 113-102 win over the Atlanta Hawks in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series Saturday night.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Monday night in New York.

Jalen Brunson scored 19 of his game-high 28 points in the first quarter for the third-seeded Knicks, who reached the Eastern Conference finals last year for the first time since 2000. Towns finished with 25 points and was 10 of 10 from the free throw line while Anunoby collected 18 points.

Josh Hart (11 points, 14 rebounds) posted a double-double while Mikal Bridges added 11 points.

CJ McCollum scored 26 points for the Hawks, who earned the sixth seed in their first trip to the playoffs since 2023. Jalen Johnson had 23 points while Onyeka Okongwu (19) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (17) each scored in double figures. Dyson Daniels had 11 rebounds.

The Hawks led by four in the first quarter but never led again after Anunoby’s free throw put the Knicks ahead 24-23 with 2:29 left. New York matched its biggest lead of the quarter when Brunson ended the period with a floater to put the hosts up 30-24.

The Knicks opened a trio of 11-point leads in the second before the Hawks mounted a 19-8 run to tie the score at 48-all on McCollum’s floater with 3:43 left. Anunoby answered with a dunk for New York, which ended the half with a 57-55 lead.

Okongwu hit a 3-pointer 1:48 into the third to tie the score for the final time at 58-all before Towns and Anunoby drained their 3-pointers to spark a decisive 15-5 run that ended with a Bridges dunk with 5:31 left. The Hawks got within five once before New York concluded the quarter ahead 83-74.

The Hawks inched no closer than seven in the fourth, when the Knicks went on a 10-0 run to expand their lead to 106-87 with 4:36 remaining. Atlanta scored the next 11 points, but the teams traded empty possessions before Towns’ layup gave New York a double-digit lead again with 48 seconds left.

–Field Level Media