By Staff report | NASCAR.com
Carl Edwards earned the Coors Light Pole Award for the Bad Boy Off Road 300 Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) by recording a third-round lap of 135.453 mph in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
This is Edwards’ third pole in the last four races at New Hampshire and his sixth of 2016.
Martin Truex Jr., the Sprint Cup Series points leader, will start second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota after his final-round lap of 135.212 mph.
Rounding out the top five were Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at 134.896 mph, Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 134.858 mph and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 134.796 mph.
Ten cars did not make it through inspection before qualifying began at 4:45 p.m. ET. Among the drivers delayed were Chase drivers Kevin Harvick (P19), Austin Dillon (P29) and Tony Stewart (P22).
Others delayed included Danica Patrick (P24), AJ Allmendinger (P17), Regan Smith (P30), Matt DiBenedetto (P33), Kasey Kahne (P9), Greg Biffle (P32) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (P21).
Clint Bowyer spun about eight minutes after the start of qualifying, bringing out the red flag — which helped the cars that were waiting to clear inspection. He will start 37th.
All were able to get on the track before the first round ended, but Dillon and fellow Chase driver Chris Buescher (P28) did not advance past the first round.
Defending race winner Matt Kenseth will start eighth in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (134.363 mph).
