Continuing Joe Gibbs Racing’s recent resurgence, Carl Edwards captured the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Edwards put down a lap of 135.164 mph in qualifying Friday to earn his first pole of the season and first since November 2013. Sharing the front row with Edwards is Joey Logano, who won at New Hampshire last fall.
“I’ve struggled at this race track so this is big for me personally,” Edwards said. “Everybody at JGR has been working so hard. These Toyotas are fast.”
David Ragan, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski — who won the 5-Hour Energy 301 in 2004 — qualified sixth through 10th, respectively.
JGR fields cars for Edwards, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Kenseth. Led by race-winner Kyle Busch, the team saw all four drivers finish in the top five a week ago at Kentucky Speedway — a feat last accomplished by Roush Fenway Racing in August 2008 at Michigan International Speedway.
Owned by NFL Hall of Fame head coach Joe Gibbs, JGR struggled through the early months of the season before finding more speed recently. Kyle Busch has won two of the past three races, while JGR is the only team to have four drivers reach victory lane in 2015.
“It feels to me like we’re in this sweet spot that I’ve only been in a couple times in my time in this sport where all of us are fast and we’re all pushing one another,” Edwards said. “But we’re sharing information and it’s really neat. It’s fun to have teammates like I have that motivate me and push me and challenge me, but we all do it and at the same time celebrate each other’s successes. It’s really cool and I think there will be a lot of good things to come.
“I do recognize that Kentucky is a standalone event and this track is really unique so this might not continue, but for now it’s really fun.”
Staged under sunny conditions Friday, the weather was quite a contrast to what drivers faced each of the past two weeks at Kentucky and Daytona International Speedway when storms canceled times trials. That qualifying went off as planned was welcome news to Ryan Blaney, who missed both races when NASCAR set the field by owners’ points, as his team only runs a part-time schedule.
Blaney posted the fastest speed in Round 1, but struggled in Round 2 and will start 16th Sunday.
“We’re just happy to be racing here this weekend,” Blaney said. “The past couple weekends have been pretty tough on us with Daytona and Kentucky getting rained out and knowing we had a fast car. It’s not the starting spot we wanted, but I think our race car will be pretty good and we’ll find that out (Saturday) in practice.”
Reed Sorenson was the only entrant who failed to qualify.
5-Hour Energy 301 starting lineup
