Edwards’ luck of draw earns pole for Shootout

Carl Edwards

Carl Edwards is on the pole for the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. The starting lineup for the 24-car field was determined by a draw Thursday night.

The 75-lap exhibition will be broken into segments of 25 and 50 laps.

From what I've seen so far, there might not be many cars left after the first 25," said Edwards, referring to crashes in practice Thursday. "This race is going to be very interesting. It's going to spread out a little bit. It's going to become a handling race. It doesn't matter where you start unless if somebody misses a gear, we'll be in front of it."

Defending race champion Kevin Harvick was not at the draw party as he was battling flu-like symptoms. He will start second but will have to go to the rear of the field because he did not practice the car.

None of the drivers who went to backup cars after crashes in practice earlier Thursday will have to go to the rear of the field. Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Mark Martin will go to backup cars.

"None of us have been in a race car very much lately, and we all kind of jump in there and it's a little bit slippery," Edwards said. "If we can make it through the first 10 laps of a run all weekend on tires, it's going to string out, it's going to be a really good race, it's going to be little packs of cars that have to handle."

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