The Roush Fenway Racing driver, who has won two of the past three races and emerged as the biggest Chase for the Sprint Cup threat to points leader Kyle Busch, turned a 121.860-mph lap to capture the pole position for Saturday’s Sharpie 500.
For the fourth time in his career and the first time this season, Edwards will start first, leading David Reutimann, Jeff Gordon and Regan Smith to the green flag. Busch will be eight spots behind.
“The pole is huge,” Edwards, 29, said. “It keeps our momentum going, even though I don’t believe in momentum, it sounds good.”
“Bob Osborne [Edwards’ crew chief] said if I didn’t win the pole, he’d be really ticked off [because of the contact with the wall],” said Edwards. “But if that’s all the damage we see in the next 24 to 36 hours, we’ll be all right.
“The pole’s huge for us at this track. Obviously, track position and pit selection couldn’t be more important.”
Reutimann, whose previous best starting position was fifth at Talladega last October, was surprised by his qualifying speed.
“It was just a little free, but actually better than I thought it would be,” Reutimann said. “I had to pedal it pretty hard coming off of Turn 2, because I got back to the gas pretty quick, and it shoved the front end a little bit.”
Pleased with his high qualifying position, Gordon said fans need to get used to the “new,” reconfigured Bristol, with its graduated banking and wider racing groove.
“I think we need to get used to great racing here being side-by-side racing, rather than wreck-each-other racing,” Gordon said. “We’ve got more racing room here. There’s still going to be bumping and banging, but it’s not going to be like it was before, because it’s not a one-groove racetrack anymore.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be a two-man Chase, honestly,” said Edwards, looking ahead to the 10-race playoffs that begins in three weeks at New Hampshire. “I hope it is. It would be nice to just have to beat one guy. But there are so many good guys. ... Everyone has the potential to run really well and you can’t count any competitors out.”
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