Bristol starting lineup: Carl Edwards to start from pole position

Rea White

Bristol starting lineup: Carl Edwards to start from pole position image

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Carl Edwards will start where he finished at Bristol Motor Speedway: leading the field.

Edwards, who won the most recent race at the track, will start from the pole position for Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.

Rain fell Saturday afternoon and a thunderstorm threatened to arrive at Bristol and force a delay in the 8:13 p.m. ET scheduled race start. A competition caution will be called after 60 laps. UPDATE: After two attempts to run the race, NASCAR was forced to postpone it until 1 p.m. ET Sunday. However, it appeared rain would be a problem on Sunday as well..

Edwards admitted he was surprised by his starting position.

"A little bit surprising — we didn't make a mock run," he said. "That tells you how great of teammates I have. They're so fast and they helped us a lot, so we'll start where we started earlier this year. Hopefully we can put (our car) in victory lane, but this is going to be a heck of a race. Those are fast laps. That's a lot of fun. Just proud of my guys — they worked really hard. We rolled the dice and it was fast."

Denny Hamlin set a track record for qualifying in the opening round and will start alongside his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. JGR's Kyle Busch will start third, with Ryan Blaney and Matt Kenseth rounding out the top five.

This is the fifth pole of the season for Edwards.

MORE: Spectacular crashes, memorable moments at Bristol

In the session's first round, Greg Biffle spun early and had damage to the right rear of the car. It was the second spin of the day for Biffle, who endured a solo spin during the second practice session.

MORE: Drivers could see 'old-school' Bristol race

Clint Bowyer also slid up the track and bounced off the wall in the session.

Jeff Gordon advanced to the final round for the first time since taking over in the No. 88 car for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who remains sidelined with concussion-like symptoms. Gordon will start 11th.

This might be Gordon's last race at Earnhardt's replacement. He said Friday he would not drive next week at Michigan, and Junior appears close to returning to his car.

MORE: Racing into Bristol's great unknown | 10 drivers to watch

Chris Buescher also advanced to the final round. He has a win but needs to get into the top 30 in the standings in order to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup field. Buescher sits three points outside that group entering Saturday night's race. He will start 12th.

UPDATE: Michael Annett came up ill on Saturday and was replaced by Justin Allgaier in HScott Motorsports' No. 46 car.

Starting lineup

Sunday's green flag is expected about 1:15 p.m. ET.

Pos. No. Driver Brand Sponsor Speed
1 19 Carl
Edwards
Toyota Stanley 131.407 mph
2 11 Denny
Hamlin
Toyota FedEx Express 131.200
3 18 Kyle
Busch
Toyota M&M's's 75th
Anniversary
130.931
4 21 Ryan
Blaney
Ford Virginia Tech/
Motorcraft
130.637
5 20 Matt
Kenseth
Toyota Dollar
General
130.619
6 24 Chase
Elliott
Chevy NAPA
Auto Parts
129.850
7 78 Martin
Truex Jr.
Toyota Bass Pro Shops/
NRA Museum
129.544
8 47 AJ
Allmendinger
Chevy Busch's Grillin'
Beans
129.482
9 2 Brad
Keselowski
Ford Autotrader 129.334
10 22 Joey
Logano
Ford Shell/
Pennzoil
129.169
11 88 Jeff
Gordon
Chevy Axalta 129.038
12 34 Chris
Buescher
Ford Love's Travel
Stops
128.296
13 3 Austin
Dillon
Chevy DOW
Great Stuff
129.021
14 41 Kurt
Busch
Chevy Monster Energy/
Haas Automation
128.926
15 31 Ryan
Newman
Chevy Caterpillar 128.668
16 48 Jimmie
Johnson
Chevy Kobalt 128.623
17 43 Aric
Almirola
Ford Waffle
House
128.623
18 83 Matt
DiBenedetto
Toyota Cosmo
Motors
128.503
19 5 Kasey
Kahne
Chevy AARP
Drive to End Hunger
128.477
20 27 Paul
Menard
Chevy Knauf/
Menards
128.477
21 13 Casey
Mears
Chevy GEICO 128.262
22 6 Trevor
Bayne
Ford AdvoCare 128.142
23 42 Kyle
Larson
Chevy Huggies 127.997
24 4 Kevin
Harvick
Chevy Busch
Beer
127.436
25 17 Ricky
Stenhouse Jr.
Ford Fastenal 128.279
26 95 Michael
McDowell
Chevy Thrivent
Financial
128.134
27 14 Tony
Stewart
Chevy Haas
Automation
127.835
28 1 Jamie
McMurray
Chevy Cesna 127.809
29 10 Danica
Patrick
Chevy Nature's
Bakery
127.648
30 44 Brian
Scott
Ford Medallion
Financial/Jacob
127.588
31 15 Clint
Bowyer
Chevy 5-Hour
Energy
126.997
32 38 Landon
Cassill
Ford MDS
Transport
126.989
33 7 Regan
Smith
Chevy APC 126.553
34 16 Greg
Biffle
Ford EcoBoost 126.545
35 98 Cole
Whitt
Chevy Carolina
Skiff
125.486
36 55 Reed
Sorenson
Chevy TBD 125.363
37 23 David
Ragan
Toyota Dr. Pepper 125.158
38 32 Jeffrey
Earnhardt
Chevy Can-Am
Kappa
124.307
39 46 Justin
Allgaier
Chevy Pilot J
Battle at Bristol
123.626
40 30 Josh
Wise
Chevy Curtis Key/
Plumbing
122.263

Rea White