Carl Edwards, hoping to boost his Chase chances with a victory Saturday night in the Air Guard 400 at Richmond International Raceway, got a fast start Friday by winning the pole for the final race of the “regular” season.
Edwards turned a fast lap of 127.762 mph to bump Juan Pablo Montoya from the pole for the second race of the year at RIR.
The pole is the second of the year for Edwards, who is fifth in points entering Saturday’s race. FOXNews
A.J. Allmendinger (127.101 mph) qualified third, followed by Clint Bowyer (127.077 mph) and David Reutimann (127.017 mph). Bowyer is fighting for the 12th and final spot in the Chase and leads 23rd-place qualifier Ryan Newman by 117 points in the Cup standings. Bowyer needs a finish of 28th or better to lock Newman out of the Chase.
“I used to just laugh at people who talked about momentum, because I didn’t believe there was momentum in this sport,” said Edwards, who has scored more points in the last nine races than any other Cup driver. “I thought you just had what you had at the race track. Lately, though, we’ve been building this momentum, and it has been working, and I’m enjoying it.
“The previous eight or nine races have been really good, and if we can make the next 11 of them as good as the previous nine, then I think we are going to be really good. When we sit down and look at the schedule, like we did yesterday, and look at the Chase races to get our plan of approach in those races, we feel like we have a car that can win every one of those races.” NASCAR.com
Montoya, Allmendinger and Reutimann have no such Chase concerns, all having missed the top 12. But Allmendinger said his run was the product of hard work for his team on finding a way to improve how well they adapt to practicing during the day and qualifying at night.
“That is probably the thing we struggle with the most in these races,” he said.
Among the 10 locked in Chase performers, leader Kevin Harvick will start 20th, No. 2 Jeff Gordon will start 22nd and third-place Kyle Busch will roll off from the 32nd spot.
Local favorite Denny Hamlin will start 14th. The Associated Press
All 12 Chase qualifiers will start on equal footing in points aside from bonus points earned for victories in the first 26 races.
“There are 10 guys locked in right now that are going to do everything they can to get 10 bonus points and run as hard as they can,” said Denny Hamlin, who has five victories this season and could be the leader when the field is re-seeded. “I foresee everyone is going all out this weekend.” USA Today
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Air Guard 400 at Richmond - Race Line-Up
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