Race Weekend Central

Carl Edwards Grabs the Pole for the Food City 500

You didn’t see it coming until it happened. Carl Edwards entered full stealth mode to win the pole for Sunday’s Food City 500, posting a fast lap speed of 127.997 mph in the closing minutes of the final round of qualifying.  Early in the round, Joey Logano and points leader Kyle Busch swapped the top spot back and forth for a few laps with Trevor Bayne trying to break up their party, but Edwards and teammate (and defending race winner) Matt Kenseth both waited to hit the track and posted the top 2 spots.  Logano, who has qualified in the top 10 seven times in eight races this year, qualified third, breaking up the Joe Gibbs Racing party up front, and Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch took the fourth and fifth starting positions respectively.

Jimmie Johnson qualified sixth, .198 seconds behind Edwards.  Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr., AJ Allmendinger and Trevor Bayne round out the top 10.  Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski were the final two drivers of those who made the third round and will start 11th and 12th respectively.

Jamie McMurray missed the top-12 cut by one one-thousandth of a second to qualify 13th. Other notables include Rookie of the Year contenders Ryan Blaney in 18th, Chase Elliott in 19th, Chris Buescher in 21st and Jeffrey Earnhardt in 37th. Reigning Most Popular Driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  wound up in 20th after his car got loose during his second-round run.

2016 Food City Starting Lineup

About the author

Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.

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Chris

I like the new look of Frontstretch, nice look! I hope the changes also take care of the bugs in the comments section. Have to say that the biggest disappointment is the lack of comment from the Frontstretch staff on the whole issue as they have always been pretty responsive whether by e-mail or in the comments section over the years but this season seems a little different. Still one of the better racing sites out there just seems a bit different this season.

Ken

Logano must be having nightmares, what with all the Gibbs Goons around him.

Chris

Thanks Amy for the update!

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