Roush Fenway Qualifies 1-2-3 in Texas

Greg Biffle had a new sponsor in the way of 3M Scotch Blue Painter's Tape, and as happens often in NASCAR, a new sponsor gets awarded with pole position as a Thank You

Roush Fenway Racing turned in one of the most impressive qualifying performances in its 24-year history, including winning the pole to capture first, second, third and seventh in Friday's Sprint Cup qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway. Roush Fenway enters the weekend with 298 NASCAR victories and hopes to leave Texas with its 300th win in hand.

“That’s really exciting that our race cars are that good," said Biffle of the RFR 1-2-3 effort. “It’s just a tribute to our (Roush Fenway) driver lineup, the guys at the race shop, Doug Yates with the engine shop, how far they’ve come with this FR9 – all those things are a big factor in our cars being up front at these mile-and-a-half race tracks.

“It was a great lap for us," added Biffle. “The car was really, really fast right off the truck. That’s just a tribute to my team and how hard they’ve worked and how far we’ve come as a team this season."

Greg Biffle will start on the pole for the third time in 2011. He will be joined on the front row by Roush Fenway teammate David Ragan, with Matt Kenseth starting just behind them on the second row in third. Carl Edwards, who leads the Sprint Cup point standings, will start seventh.

Biffle turned a lap of 27.873 (193.736 mph) around the 1.5-mile oval at Texas to win the pole. The pole is Roush Fenway’s ninth Cup pole of the season and its second at Texas. Roush Fenway swept both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at TMS in the spring.

“We’ve (RFR) got the top three spots," said Chase leader Edwards. “So now we’ll just work on the race trim. There couldn’t be a better race track for us. This is a fun one. We’re going to work hard tomorrow and run that Nationwide car and hopefully learn a little bit for the race on Sunday."

Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 Sprint Cup race is set for 3:00 p.m. and will be televised live on ESPN. Roush Fenway has won eight times in Sprint Cup action at Texas, including with Kenseth in the spring.

Lineup

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie