Carl Edwards wins pole as JGR cars all qualify in top 5

Carl Edwards got his fifth pole of the season at Bristol on Friday (AP).

A race after sweeping the pole positions at the Sprint Cup Series’ road courses, Carl Edwards swept the poles at Bristol.

Edwards turned the fastest lap of Friday’s qualifying session for Saturday night’s race at Bristol for his fifth pole of the season. Edwards won the pole for the Cup race at Watkins Glen two weeks ago and also has won poles at Sonoma and Texas this season.

His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin qualified second and Kyle Busch qualified third. Matt Kenseth was fifth and Martin Truex Jr., driving for technically-aligned Furniture Row Racing, qualified seventh. It’s a pretty safe bet the Joe Gibbs Racing cars are (unsurprisingly) going to be the cars to beat during Saturday’s race.

We’ll also see if Saturday night’s race is setting up for domination by Edwards. He led 276 laps at Bristol in the spring as he won his first race of the season. Bristol has changed since then; the track has added a sealer at the bottom of the track along with other modifications to attempt to make the lower groove more competitive. While those changes may impact the type of racing Saturday night, they sure didn’t slow JGR down.

Here’s how the field will line up.
1. Carl Edwards
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Kyle Busch
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Matt Kenneth
6. Chase Elliott
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. AJ Allmendinger
9. Brad Keselowski
10. Joey Logano
11. Jeff Gordon
12. Chris Buescher
13. Austin Dllon
14. Kurt Busch
15. Ryan Newman
16. Jimmie Johnson
17. Aric Almirola
18. Matt DiBenedetto
19. Kasey Kahne
20. Paul Menard
21. Casey Mears
22. Trevor Bayne
23. Kyle Larson
24. Kevin Harvick
25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26. Michael McDowell
27. Tony Stewart
28. Jamie McMurray
29. Danica Patrick
30. Brian Scott
31. Clint Bowyer
32. Landon Cassill
33. Regan Smith
34. Greg Biffle
35. Cole Whitt
36. Reed Sorenson
37. David Ragan
38. Jeffrey Earnhardt
39. Michael Annett
40. Josh Wise