Edwards Races To Pole On Ford Fan Friday At BMS

Carl Edwards claimed the pole for Sunday’s Jeff Byrd 500 Presented by Food City after a blistering lap around the World’s Fastest Half-Mile on Friday afternoon.

Edwards earned the Ford Fan Friday pole position after a lap of 14.989 sec., just .081 sec. slower than Ryan Newman’s track record, set in March 2003. Teammate Greg Biffle landed on the outside of the front row.

“We’ve got to keep this thing rolling,” the driver of the Scotts EZ Seed Ford said. “This is fun. The cars have just been great. For me and Greg to be up there sitting on the front row, I mean Greg motivated me. I didn’t think anybody was gonna be able to go that fast.

“I thought that the track had slowed down a lot more than that, so I was out there driving my heart out. I had my volume turned down too far, so I couldn’t hear Bob the first lap. I thought, ‘Man, we must not be fast. He hasn’t said anything.’ I don’t know what the times were exactly, but my second lap was petrifying. I was driving for all I could, but this is fun.

It was Edwards’ second pole at BMS, his first coming in August of 2008. In that race, he went on to win his second Sprint Cup event at the half-mile oval.

Biffle was proud of his lap, but knew one little slip up would have landed him much further down the running order.

“It was so close…just putting the gas down a second earlier or letting off the brake and let it roll, the cars are so tight on time that you don’t want to make a mistake because a small mistake puts you 15th. A tiny bit of a mistake puts you second, so it was a really good lap. The guys did a great job getting the cars ready and our cars are just running so good. I wish I had us a tick more, but I get to start on the front row still.”

Regan Smith earned his best career starting position, qualifying third, while Paul Menard finished fourth and David Ragan qualified fifth. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr, Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne completed the top 10.

Sprint Cup points leader Tony Stewart will start 13th, while Kurt Busch, who is second in the points, will start 20th. Knoxville native Trevor Bayne, who opened the season with a win at Daytona, will start 19th.

After tire issues during practice on Friday, Goodyear and NASCAR officials determined to switch compounds for racing action on both Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s a Scotts weekend here and it’s cool to have the Scotts car on the pole right now,” Edwards continued. That was not a perfect lap… I was driving hard. My hands are still a little shaky right there from that one.”

Bristol Motor Speedway PR