Biffle on pole, Chase co-leader Edwards 2nd at Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Kansas — Carl Edwards doesn’t like sneaking up on people. He’d rather have a huge lead and let everyone else try to track him down.
Maybe that is why he was so giddy over his qualifying run Friday.
The Chase co-leader turned a lap of 174.571 mph, putting him on the front row with Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle for Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway. Biffle had the fast lap at 174.887, giving Edwards an ally up front with Chase contenders Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth making up Row 2.
“This is the ideal I’ve ever qualified here, so I’m not going to be frustrated about it,” Edwards said. “I’m proud of our qualifying effort and pretty excited to have an all-Ford front row. That’s pretty neat. There’s a lot of pride for that in our shop.”
Busch will roll off third after a lap of 174.447 mph, while Kenseth will begin fourth.
The top nine drivers in the Chase are separated by just 19 points.
“I felt like the automobile had decent speed,” Busch said. “Starting up front is beneficial, getting a good pit selection is beneficial, so carry those things into Sunday. My next closest competitor for the Chase starts right in front of me, so other than that, we are not worried who’s behind us.”
There’s a bunch of them back there.
Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch are tied for third in the standings, though both will have ground to make up. Stewart, who won the first two Chase races, will roll off 23rd after struggling all day Friday; Busch will begin 17th after his victory last week at Dover.
“The front end just would not settle like it needed to,” Kurt Busch said. “But tomorrow is a new day. We’ve got two more cracks at practice to try and dial the automobile in.”
Denny Hamlin will begin seventh, Jeff Gordon qualified 10th, Ryan Newman will begin 11th and Brad Keselowski 12th among Chase contenders. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 18th and Jimmie Johnson 19th.
“If it ain’t us winning,” Edwards stated glibly, “hopefully it’s not another Chase guy.”
The native of Columbia, Mo., has fared well at Kansas Speedway, which he still thinks about his home track. Edwards has three top-5 finishes in nine starts on the 1½-mile trioval.
He’s coming off a frustrating race at Dover in which a pit road speeding penalty cost him a chance at victory. After the race, Edwards brashly told his team over the radio, “We’re going to Kansas and we are going to win, and let’s just go do it.”
“That’s still my plan,” he said. “I hope I can come through with that. I feel that we can do it and I really felt like we could do it at Dover. I was really amped up at the end of that race. We are running pretty well now. We’ll find out in race trim tomorrow how confident I am.”
It helps having a two-time winner at Kansas starting right next to him.
Biffle, who won the 2007 and 2010 races, stated he will do whatever he can to help his teammate in the Chase. Biffle stated he had even let Edwards lead a lap, though he acknowledged that the No. 99 automobile is strong enough that it will probably get to the front on its own.
“You know what? If you look back, we have been pretty dang strong on all the mile-and-a-half and two-mile tracks as an organization,” Biffle said. “Carl is going to have a fast car. I do not think it will be an issue with him leading a lap.”
Random News
- Roche "good" cholesterol drug shows early promise
- John Baer: Why cannot pols get priorities straight?
- Price tag for Shell deal gets larger with cleanup
- Gaza premier calls speaks with Israel 'futile'
- Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln' gets its Mary Todd: Sally Field
- SIERRA LEONE: Government Online Mining Database to Increase Transparency
- INDIA: Temple Treasures Open Up Problems of Plenty
- Mitt Romney's Vaguely Promising Plan for Entitlement Reform
- Argentine singer shot dead in Guatemala
- EU probe delves into heart of Google's business
Submited at Saturday, October 8th, 2011 at 12:00 am on Sports by Gillan
Comment RSS 2.0 - leave a comment - trackback
