NASCAR Cup Series

Starting lineup for Duck Commander 500 as Carl Edwards takes pole

Published Apr. 8, 2016 3:20 p.m. ET

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This just in: Texas Motor Speedway is still fast, as Friday afternoon’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying session showed.

On an overcast Texas afternoon, Carl Edwards won the pole for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at TMS, turning a best lap of 194.609 miles per hour in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

In taking his 17th career pole and first of the year, Edwards edged out the No. 22 Team Penske Ford of Joey Logano, who ran 193.306 mph. Martin Truex Jr.’s Furniture Row Racing Toyota ran an identical speed to Logano, but Logano got second place by virtue of being higher in the points.

Rookie Chase Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top five.

Edwards became the seventh different pole winner in as many races this season. “This is a huge deal for us to get our first pole of the year,” said Edwards, who comes into this race fourth in points.

A three-time winner at TMS, Edwards trails only Jimmie Johnson for wins here among active drivers. He said the combination of NASCAR’s new-for-2016 low-downforce aero package and new tires works to his advantage.

“To me, it feels like that tire and this downforce package lets me go into the corner and move the car around and feel the tire underneath me,” said Edwards. “Even in qualifying, there were times I got a little sideways or slid a little bit, and I could recover. And that’s really fun as a race-car driver.”

Second-qualifier Logano was close but not close enough.

“It’s funny because where we were really good, we were really good in (Turns) 1 and 2,” said Logano. “And that’s where we beating the No. 19 (Edwards).  And then I went in there the last time and it didn’t turn like it was, and I was like, ‘Oh, no!’ It was our good area and we actually fixed (Turns) 3 and 4 to where we were pretty good down there.”

Behind the front-runners will be some fast cars.

Brian Vickers, who was fastest in the first round, wound up 13th, the first driver to miss the final round. None of the four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers contended for the pole, as Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick were 21st and 22nd , respectively, while Danica Patrick didn’t make it out of the first round.

“Really wanted the pole, but I got really loose in (Turn) 1 and 2,” said Vickers, who is in his final contracted ride with SHR filling in for the injured Tony Stewart.

Martinsville winner Kyle Busch was 15th , one position ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“We really weren’t that far off,” said Earnhardt. “Half an tenth and we’d have made the next round.”

The two biggest names who failed to advance out of the first of three rounds were Patrick, who was 26th, and Clint Bowyer, who was way back in 36th place in the 40-car field.

The final Happy Hour round of Cup practice in advance of Saturday night’s race takes place tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on FS1.

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