Edwards Grabs Cup Pole At Phoenix
Carl Edwards used to campout on the hill that overlooks Phoenix International Raceway. Saturday night he found himself on the pole at PIR for Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 after turning a lap of 132.773 mph in his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. "That run was real good. We've got some fast cars that still have to go, but that was a good run for me,'' said Edwards. "I told them, 'That felt great.' I think if I did it 10 more times, I couldn't go faster. That's all I can ask of my guys. They gave me a great race car." Edwards, still mathematically alive in The Chase, will start alongside outside polesitter Martin Truex Jr., who turned a lap of 132.758 mph. Jeff Gordon, who trails Jimmie Johnson by 30 points and won here earlier this year, will roll off third and be followed by J.J. Yeley, Johnny Sauter and Johnson. Greg Biffle, Tony Raines, Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-10. "We just struggled a little bit earlier. We were fairly good this morning in race trim, but we switched to qualifying and we weren't able to pick up like we wanted to and we ended up not very happy with the car,'' said Biffle. "We looked it over and made a lot of changes for this qualifying session and the Dish Network Ford Fusion ran really well on that lap. We're real happy about that.'' Chaser Jeff Burton will roll off 12th, Denny Hamlin will start 15th, Matt Kenseth will go out 18th and the rest of The Chasers include Clint Bowyer (20th), Tony Stewart (21st), Kevin Harvick (34th) and Kyle Busch (35th). Of the go or go-home drivers - those forced to qualify on time - Patrick Carpentier headed the list by qualifying the No.10 Dodge 24th and Sam Hornish Jr. finally made a race by qualifying 26th. Jacques Villeneuve will roll off 27th, Johnny Benson qualified 30th, Joe Nemechek was 31st and Bill Elliott took a champion's provisional in the 43rd spot. Left out in the cold and failing to make the race were Michael Waltrip, AJ Allmendiner, Ward Burton, John Andretti, Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann.
See more at www.allheadlinenews.com
