Edwards continues strong run with Richmond pole

Edwards continues strong run with Richmond pole


By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Service

RICHMOND , Va. —For a man who didn't believe in momentum, Carl Edwards continued to build toward the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a pole-winning run Friday at Richmond International Raceway.
Edwards will start from the top spot in Saturday night's Air Guard 400, the final race before the Chase begins Sept. 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. With a lap at 127.762 mph (21.133 seconds), Edwards edged Juan Pablo Montoya (127.455 mph) in winning his first Coors Light Pole Award at the .75-mile short track.
AJ Allmendinger (127.101 mph) qualified third, followed by Clint Bowyer (127.077 mph) and David Reutimann (127.017 mph). Bowyer is fighting for the 12th and final spot in the Chase and leads 23rd-place qualifier Ryan Newman by 117 points in the Cup standings. Bowyer needs a finish of 28th or better to lock Newman out of the Chase.
"I used to just laugh at people who talked about momentum, because I didn't believe there was momentum in this sport," said Edwards, who has scored more points in the last nine races than any other Cup driver. "I thought you just had what you had at the racetrack. Lately, though, we've been building this momentum, and it has been working, and I'm enjoying it.
"The previous eight or nine races have been really good, and if we can make the next 11 of them as good as the previous nine, then I think we are going to be really good. When we sit down and look at the schedule, like we did yesterday, and look at the Chase races to get our plan of approach in those races, we feel like we have a car that can win every one of those races."
The pole was Edwards' second of the season and the sixth of his career.
Joey Logano, Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne will start from positions six through 10 Saturday night. Greg Biffle, who needs a 42nd-place finish to lock himself into the Chase, qualified 24th.
Bobby Labonte, the Sprint Cup champion in 2000, was 41st fastest in time trials and had to rely on a past champion's provisional to make the 43-car field. That meant the champion's provisional wasn't available to his brother, 1984 and 1996 Cup champ Terry Labonte, who failed to make the show in his first attempt with his new team, Stavola Labonte Racing.
The provisional goes to the most recent past champion not otherwise in the field.
Michael McDowell, Todd Bodine, Scott Riggs and Brian Keselowski also failed to qualify for Saturday night's race.