Dillon tops qualifying

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Austin Dillon will start on the pole at Talladega Superspeedway. What happens from there is anybody’s guess.

Dillon celebrated his 29th birthday by posting the highest speed in qualifying Saturday at 192.544 mph for his second pole of the year. Aric Almirola, who won at Talladega in October, was second, followed by Clint Bowyer, five-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski and Daniel Hemric.

Even by Talladega standards, there’s an element of mystery and potential for chaos heading into Sunday’s Cup series race, which is often marked by big wrecks and late dramatics.

Now, NASCAR has replaced the horsepower-sapping restrictor plates that have been fixtures at Talladega and Daytona for two decades. The cars have tapered spacers and the height of the rear spoiler has been raised in hopes of cutting speeds.

NASCAR tweaked the cars in between Friday practice sessions trying to slow the cars down.

■ Tyler Reddick held off Gray Gaulding in a two-lap shootout to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway for his first victory of the year.

Reddick withstood a last-lap move by Gaulding to survive the caution-packed race and overcame a speeding penalty on pit road and brushes with both the wall and rookie Noah Gragson. Nobody could get by him after a restart from the eighth caution, a red flag after a seven-car wreck.

His car sustained damage on the right side after hitting the outside wall.

“The day kept getting crazier as we were working on it,” Reddick said. “It took longer than we planned. We came out way behind the leaders and we were two laps from getting lapped and we somehow got lucky. A caution came out and saved us and put us right back in the mix.”