Edwards wins pole in Richmond for new sponsor

Aflac sponsored Carl Edwards has Kelloggs Cheez-It sponsorship for just 2 races this year and bingo, he's on pole.

Carl Edwards will start from the top spot in Saturday's Air Guard 400 at Richmond Raceway, the final race before the Chase begins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. With a lap at 127.762 mph (21.133 seconds), Edwards edged Juan Montoya (127.455 mph) in winning his first pole at the 0.75-mile short track.

A.J. Allmendinger (127.101 mph) qualified third, followed by Clint Bowyer (127.077 mph) and David Reutimann (127.017 mph).

"I used to just laugh at people who talked about momentum, because I didn't believe there was momentum in this sport," said Edwards, who has scored more points in the last nine races than any other Cup driver. "I thought you just had what you had at the race track. Lately, though, we've been building this momentum, and it has been working, and I'm enjoying it.

"The previous eight or nine races have been really good, and if we can make the next 11 of them as good as the previous nine, then I think we are going to be really good. When we sit down and look at the schedule, like we did yesterday, and look at the Chase races to get our plan of approach in those races, we feel like we have a car that can win every one of those races."

The pole was Edwards' second of the season and the sixth of his career.

Joey Logano, Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne will start from positions six through 10 Saturday.

Results

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie