NASCAR Bristol 2016: Lineup, starting grid for Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race

After Denny Hamlin set the fastest time in the first two rounds of qualifying on Friday, Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards figured Hamlin was a shoo-in to capture the pole for Saturday’s Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Instead, it was Edwards with a 131.407 mph lap who took the pole-position and finds himself at the head of the starting lineup for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race. Hamlin qualified second. Kyle Busch, driving another JGR entry, is third.

That Edwards took his fifth pole of the season wasn’t a testament to his ability, he said, but underlines the open notebook mindset prevalent within JGR. With the forecast calling for inclement weather on Friday afternoon, Edwards and crew chief Dave Rogers opted in practice to focus on setting up their Toyota for race conditions over qualifying.

So when the rain held off and NASCAR was able to get qualifying in, Edwards and Rogers looked at the chassis setups on Hamlin, Busch, and Matt Kenseth’s respective cars to establish a baseline for their own.

“That tells you how great of teammates I have,” Edwards said of his pole run. “They’re so fast and they helped us a lot. ... This is all about my teammates. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have been able to come up with that setup and run that lap.”

Having won from the pole in April at the half-mile track, Edwards is going for his second straight Bristol victory. In that race the 37-year-old was dominant, leading eight times for 276 of 500 laps.

A win on Saturday night and Edwards will become the first driver since Darrell Waltrip (1981-1982) to win three consecutive Bristol races from the pole. And because he’s securely in the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs, Edwards can aggressively pursue a third straight win.

“The difference between the spring race and this one or the first race and this race is just a lot less pressure,” Edwards said. “We can come here and have a good time and it’s a great way to come to Bristol.”

Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race starting lineup