NASCAR Watkins Glen 2016 qualifying results: Carl Edwards wins Cheez-it 355 pole

Completing a sweep of road course poles, Carl Edwards captured the No. 1 starting position in Sprint Cup qualifying Saturday at Watkins Glen.

Edwards recorded a best lap of 126.562 mph around the seven-turn, 2.45-mile track, the second of two road courses on the schedule. In the series’ other road course event, he also won the pole at Sonoma Raceway in June.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s lap bumped Kyle Larson off the top spot for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 with just over a minute remaining in the session. Larson will start second, followed by Tony Stewart. Edwards’ teammates Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch qualified fourth and fifth, respectively. Stewart won at Sonoma, snapping a three-year winless streak.

“Just really proud of this pole,” Edwards said. “For us, it’s a good accomplishment especially as slow as we were yesterday.

“I just have to really thank my teammates. I was, I think, the slowest of the group yesterday and we had a really good meeting and they helped me a ton and I think that input with those guys, I got to sleep on that and I thought about it a lot.”

Denny Hamlin, JGR’s fourth driver, was sixth, with Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, AJ Allmendinger and Jamie McMurray completing the top 10. Logano set the fastest time in Round 1 in the two-round knockout session and is the defending race winner.

After leading both practices on Friday Martin Truex Jr. was considered the favorite to take the pole, but during his hot lap in Round 1 he got interrupted by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was just exiting the pits, and qualified 14th. Truex retaliated by slowing intentionally in front of Stenhouse during his at-speed lap. Stehhouse qualified 30th.

“I don’t understand what (Stenhouse) was thinking,” Truex said. “He was just leaving pit road and he wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense why he would’ve done what he did except for the fact that he just wasn’t paying attention. It’s a shame”

Cheez-It 355 starting lineup