Carl Edwards has led a Ford front row for the AAA Texas 500 with a fast lap of 315.615 km/h (196.114 mph) at Texas Motor Speedway outside Fort Worth.
The pole was Edwards’ second of the season, 13th of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career and first at the 1.5-mile track, where he has won a series-best three times.
“This is huge,” said Edwards.
“We had a test here and the guys spent six days here with three days being rained out and we came back the next week and this is just cool. My guys worked so hard here on the test. I think we were the last people to leave the race track that test and the guys worked really hard and it paid off today.
“I have wanted the pole here so badly for so long, it is just really cool.”
Reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski will start alongside while co-championship leader Jimmie Johnson will start third, while fellow points header Matt Kenseth will start from sixth. Jeff Gordon, third in the Sprint Cup standings and 27 points behind the lead pair, qualified eighth.
Australia’s Marcos Ambrose will start in the top-10 for the 10th time this season – he will be 10th.
“We were a tiny bit loose in qualifying, but the car really felt great,” said the Tasmanian.
“I think we’ll be really good on Sunday, especially having two practices to fine tune tomorrow. The way the car is now, it will make it easy to keep up with the track on adjustments during the race.”
QUALIFYING: AAA Texas 500|
POS |
driver |
Car # |
Make |
Sponsor |
MPH |
Time |
|
1 |
Carl Edwards | 99 | Ford | Aflac | 196.114 | 27.535 |
|
2 |
Brad Keselowski | 2 | Ford | Miller Lite | 196.100 | –0.002 |
|
3 |
Jimmie Johnson | 48 | Chevrolet | Lowe’s | 195.943 | –0.024 |
|
4 |
Paul Menard | 27 | Chevrolet | Quaker State / Menards | 195.837 | –0.039 |
|
5 |
Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | Snickers | 195.780 | –0.047 |
|
6 |
Matt Kenseth | 20 | Toyota | Home Depot “Let’s Do This” | 195.518 | –0.084 |
|
7 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr | 88 | Chevrolet | AMP Energy Gold/ 7-Eleven | 195.312 | –0.113 |
|
8 |
Jeff Gordon | 24 | Chevrolet | Drive to End Hunger | 195.171 | –0.133 |
|
9 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr | 17 | Ford | FORD ECO BOOST | 195.129 | –0.139 |
|
10 |
Marcos Ambrose | 9 | Ford | Mac Tools | 195.030 | –0.153 |
|
11 |
Kasey Kahne | 5 | Chevrolet | Time Warner Cable | 194.665 | –0.205 |
|
12 |
Joey Logano | 22 | Ford | AAA | 194.517 | –0.226 |
|
13 |
Ryan Newman | 39 | Chevrolet | Outback Steak House | 194.384 | –0.245 |
|
14 |
Denny Hamlin | 11 | Toyota | FedEx Office | 194.377 | –0.246 |
|
15 |
Martin Truex Jr | 56 | Toyota | NAPA Auto Parts | 194.161 | –0.277 |
|
16 |
Juan Pablo Montoya | 42 | Chevrolet | Target | 193.805 | –0.328 |
|
17 |
Aric Almirola | 43 | Ford | Farmland | 193.659 | –0.349 |
|
18 |
Greg Biffle | 16 | Ford | 3M Hire Our Heroes Ford | 193.618 | –0.355 |
|
19 |
Kevin Harvick | 29 | Chevrolet | Budweiser | 193.604 | –0.357 |
|
20 |
Jeff Burton | 31 | Chevrolet | Caterpillar | 193.403 | –0.386 |
|
21 |
Austin Dillon | 33 | Chevrolet | Boot Barn | 193.334 | –0.396 |
|
22 |
Bobby Labonte | 47 | Toyota | Clorox | 193.126 | –0.426 |
|
23 |
Parker Kligerman | 30 | Toyota | Swan Energy-Lean1 | 193.043 | –0.438 |
|
24 |
Jamie McMurray | 1 | Chevrolet | McDonald’s | 192.933 | –0.454 |
|
25 |
Elliott Sadler | 55 | Toyota | Aaron’s Dream Machine | 192.905 | –0.458 |
|
26 |
Clint Bowyer | 15 | Toyota | Sour Apple Extra Strength 5-hour Energy | 192.802 | –0.473 |
|
27 |
Casey Mears | 13 | Ford | No. 13 GEICO Ford Fusion | 192.651 | –0.495 |
|
28 |
David Gilliland | 38 | Ford | Long John Silver’s | 192.048 | –0.583 |
|
29 |
David Ragan | 34 | Ford | SAFERCAR.GOV | 191.891 | –0.606 |
|
30 |
Danica Patrick | 10 | Chevrolet | GoDaddy | 191.829 | –0.615 |
|
31 |
Kurt Busch | 78 | Chevrolet | Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet | 191.421 | –0.675 |
|
32 |
Trevor Bayne | 21 | Ford | Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center | 191.347 | –0.686 |
|
33 |
Mark Martin | 14 | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1 | 190.530 | –0.807 |
|
34 |
Josh Wise | 35 | Ford | MDS Transport | 189.880 | –0.904 |
|
35 |
Michael McDowell | 98 | Ford | Phil Parsons Racing | 189.321 | –0.988 |
|
36 |
Kyle Larson | 51 | Chevrolet | Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau | 189.235 | –1.001 |
|
37 |
Landon Cassill | 40 | Chevrolet | Pirate Oilfield Services | 188.561 | –1.103 |
|
38 |
Travis Kvapil | 93 | Toyota | Burger King-Dr. Pepper | 188.344 | –1.136 |
|
39 |
David Reutimann | 83 | Toyota | Burger King-Dr. Pepper | 188.285 | –1.145 |
|
40 |
Timmy Hill | 32 | Ford | U.S. Chrome | 188.029 | –1.184 |
|
41 |
Joe Nemechek | 87 | Toyota | NEMCO-JRR, LLC | 187.246 | –1.304 |
|
42 |
Dave Blaney | 7 | Chevrolet | Tommy Baldwin Racing | 186.258 | –1.457 |
|
43 |
J.J. Yeley | 36 | Chevrolet | Accell Construction, Inc | 146.560 | –9.310 |
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