Carl Edwards smiles before qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, April 8, 2016. He has yet to win here and comes in at 8-1 odds but in the last Texas race, he led the most laps before losing the victory to Johnson who passed him with four laps to go.
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Carl Edwards is one man who can challenge Johnson on Saturday, standing as a three-time Texas victor. Logano, with more championship owner points than Truex, will be on the front row besides Edwards. Qualifying is set for 2:45 p.m. ET Friday, and you can check out the race at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Scroll down for our real-time updates, analysis, statistics, pictures, tweets and anything else worth noting from Texas Motor Speedway.
Here are some drivers to watch Saturday night in the Duck Commander 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway….
Logano said the transition into the season’s first night race was aided by this late practice.
Stewart said Thursday night that he is anxious to get scans on his back at the end of this month to get an idea of when he might be able to make his debut in what will be his last season as a full-time driver. “It’s driving me insane wanting to see what it looks like and what is the diagnosis and when they think they’re going to let me go”. He has won three times at Texas.
“The doctor has to go to NASCAR to clear me, so there’s no point in going through the agony (of questioning) when it’s still in their hands”. The last two spring races at Texas has seen two first-time winners.
“I like it here, I really enjoy Texas”, said the 36 year old, who got to fire off a shotgun as part of the pole celebrations.
“We missed it a little bit from yesterday, I thought we were really good yesterday and the track was a little faster today and moved on us a little bit”, Truex said. Ty Dillon, already with two races in the No. 14, is expected to be driving it again next week at Bristol. “We’ve done some road-course racing in the infield, and I think I won one race on the Dirt Track out there in a Legends auto”.
“We weren’t necessarily the best vehicle in all those races, but we were in the top-three, top-five; I truly believe if you run there long enough, you’ll have opportunities to win”.
And now that NASCAR is starting to take downforce off these cars, Johnson believes he’s only going to get tougher to pass while racing on aged surfaces like Texas. “The coolest thing for me is it seems when it took rubber, it visually appeared much darker where everyone is running”.
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FORD FIVE: For the first time this season, there were five Fords that made the final round of qualifying: Logano (second), Stenhouse (fifth), Ryan Blaney (seventh), Brad Keselowski (eighth) and Trevor Bayne (12th).
