BRISTOL, Tenn. — The Carl Edwards Express continued to roll Friday at the Bristol Motor Speedway, where he earned the pole position for tonight’s Sharpie 500 Sprint Cup race.

Edwards’ lap of 15.75 seconds, or 121.860 mph, follows his two wins and two runner-up finishes in the last six Cup races as he grows closer to points leader Kyle Busch. The pole is Edwards’ first at Bristol, where his previous best starting spot was third.

“I honestly didn’t expect this to be a place I could sit on the pole, but (crew chief) Bob Osborne gave me an awesome car,” said Edwards, who nearly hit the wall on his pole-winning lap. “This is a great start to the weekend.”

Edwards edged Toyota driver David Reutimann, whose lap of 121.175 mph also earned him a career-best Bristol start on the outside of row one. Five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon will start third, followed by Regan Smith and Bill Elliott, driving for the Wood Brothers this weekend. The rest of the top 10 are Kevin Harvick, Ken Schrader in the Hall of Fame Racing entry, A.J. Allmendiger, points leader Busch and Elliott Sadler.

Among Chase hopefuls, Kasey Kahne starts 13th, Greg Biffle 14th, Denny Hamlin 21st, Clint Bowyer 22nd, Matt Kenseth 25th, David Ragan 27th, Tony Stewart 28th, Jimmie Johnson 34th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40th.

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