Carl Edwards captured the pole for Sunday’s race with a track record lap of 136.389 miles per hour around the 1-mile PIR flat oval, but the big news was that points leader Denny Hamlin, second-place Jimmie Johnson and third-place Kevin Harvick all qualified outside the top 15.
Edwards, the 2008 championship runner-up, used a great lap in his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion to edge the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford of AJ Allmendinger, who qualified at 136.250 mph. It was the third pole of the season for Edwards and seventh in 228 career Sprint Cup races.
“We’ve come to this race track focused on qualifying, so we can start up front and have a good run,” said Edwards. “It’s not been the year we wanted, obviously, but to look at the points and see that we have a shot to finish fourth, legitimately, based on our performance the next two weeks is what we’re here to do, so it’s a good start for us.” Fox News
Edwards covered the one-mile distance in 26.395 seconds (136.389 mph), as he, Allmendinger (136.250 mph) and Kurt Busch (136.240 mph) all eclipsed Ryan Newman’s track qualifying record of 135.854 mph (26.499 seconds), set on Nov. 5, 2004.
Edwards credited crew chief Bob Osborne with adjusting his No. 99 Ford for cooler, faster track conditions from practice to qualifying. NASCAR.com
POS CAR DRIVER MAKE 1 99 Carl Edwards Ford 2 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford 3 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 4 16 Greg Biffle Ford 5 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 6 0 David Reutimann Toyota 7 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 8 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 9 9 Aric Almirola Ford 10 20 Joey Logano Toyota 11 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 12 6 David Ragan Ford 13 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota 14 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 15 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 16 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 17 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 18 98 Paul Menard Ford 19 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 20 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 21 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 22 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 23 19 Elliott Sadler Ford 24 13 Casey Mears Toyota 25 83 Kasey Kahne Toyota 26 9 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 27 82 Scott Speed Toyota 28 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 29 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 30 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge 31 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 32 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 33 26 J.J. Yeley Ford 34 7 Robby Gordon Toyota 35 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 36 55 Mike Bliss Toyota 37 37 David Gilliland Ford 38 38 Travis Kvapil Ford 39 164 Landon Cassill Toyota 40 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 41 71 Brendan Gaughan+ Chevrolet 42 34 Tony Raines+ Ford 43 81 Terry Labonte Dodge
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