Edwards edges Allmendinger for Sonoma pole

Facing high temperatures that kept the track slick, Edwards posted an average lap speed of 95.777 mph late in Round 2 to claim the pole over road course ace A.J. Allmendinger.

The pole is the third this season for Edwards and his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team and the 19th of his career.

Martin Truex Jr. qualified third, Kurt Busch was fourth and Kyle Larson completed the top-five.

“I just can’t say enough about my guys. This car is fast,” Edwards said. “This place is so much fun, it’s just so cool. After that first lap, I thought ‘Man, I could really screw this up’ because the first one was so good.

“Dave (Rogers, crew chief) is unreal. I’m just so fortunate to have him and have this crew and have everybody at JGR. My teammates have helped me a ton. I just hope we can put it together for a win.”

Round 2

Edwards made it a clean sweep of qualifying by going to the top of the speed chart late in the 10-minute session, much like he did in Round 1.

Kurt Busch led much of the final session but as the clock wound down, Allmendinger grabbed the top spot with a lap at 95.676 mph, only to see Edwards use a very smooth lap to grab the pole.

Denny Hamlin ended up sixth, Joey Logano seventh, Kyle Busch eighth, Paul Menard ninth, Tony Stewart 10th, Danica Patrick 11th and Brad Keselowski 12th.

“Honestly, it was a struggle yesterday. We could never find the direction of the car,” Allmendinger said. “The team did a great job to get the work and get this car closer to the front.

“This is definitely a big gain from where we were yesterday. We still have to get to work, we still need to do some work in race trim.”

Round 1

In a shocking change from Friday, many of the drivers fastest in the practice sessions struggled in the first 25-minute qualifying session on Saturday.

The session was nearly incident-free, except for Stewart who briefly ran off course on his first lap but was able to continue on without an issue.

Edwards led the way in the session, with an average lap speed of 96.301 mph. Also advancing to the second round were Truex, Kyle Busch, Logano, Stewart, Menard, Keselowski, Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, Patrick, Hamlin and Larson.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who as fastest in Friday’s final practice, failed to advance to the second round, as did his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates – Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott and Kasey Kahne.

“We ran about the same as we ran in practice on Friday, but obviously several guys didn’t do mock qualifying runs. We just didn’t see what everybody had yesterday,” Earnhardt said after the session. “I still feel we have a fast car for the race.”

Chip Ganassi teammates Larson and Jamie McMurray were fastest in Friday’s first practice. Larson squeaked into the second round in 12th while McMurray ended up 21st.