On Friday, Carl Edwards won his second straight pole on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. With the pole, he helped give Joe Gibbs Racing four of the top five spots for the upcoming race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Edwards — who won the race in Bristol in 2014 — won his third pole at the facility. He also won the pole last week at Texas Motor Speedway.
“That’s pretty cool to run a less than 15-second lap,” Edwards said. “It’s a real testament to my guys and everybody on this team has been working so hard.
“You see it each week the JGR Toyotas are up front and these cars are really nice to drive. Dave Rogers (crew chief) and everybody did a really nice job.”
He took the top spot with a 127.997 mph lap in his Toyota Camry at the 0.533-mile track. Edwards joins Kurt Busch, as the drivers, who have won back-to-back poles this season.
When Edwards won the pole at this track previously, he had good results. In March 2011, he finished second in the race.
But in August 2008, he won the race — which is one of three wins that he has at this track.
“This one’s really special because Bristol is tough,” Edwards said. “I feel really good about chances in the race because of the race trim we ran.”
After Edwards was his teammate Matt Kenseth, who qualified second. Kenseth is the defending race winnder and had a lap of 127.419.
Joey Logano qualified third with a 127.191 run. Kenseth and Logano have two of the previous five wins at the facility. Denny Hamlin qualified fourth, while Kyle Busch was fifth in their JGR Toyotas.
The younger Busch, who qualified fifth, is on a hot streak, as he has swept the past two race weekends.
