{"id":1920,"date":"2016-04-08T22:21:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T03:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=1920"},"modified":"2016-04-08T22:21:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T03:21:19","slug":"carl-edwards-earns-pole-for-duck-commander-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/08\/carl-edwards-earns-pole-for-duck-commander-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Edwards earns pole for Duck Commander 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH – Carl Edwards<\/strong> earned the pole during qualifying on Friday afternoon for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500<\/a> NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Edwards recorded a lap timed at 27.748 seconds, 194.609 mph in his\u00a0No. 19 Stanley Tools Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry.<\/p>\n

\"Carl

Carl Edwards celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Coors Light Pole Award for Saturday’s Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

This was Edwards’ 17th \u00a0pole in 416 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. \u00a0It was also his second pole in 23 races at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

Below are a few things that Carl had to say about his qualifying effort today.<\/p>\n

How did the track feel during qualifying?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is fun, guys. Each time we went out there, even in qualifying trim when usually the car is just nailed down and stuck like glue, the car was sliding around. If I missed the corner a little bit, I could adjust and get the car to kind of turn where I wanted to, that\u2019s really fun. I think Goodyear has done a really good job, I applaud NASCAR for taking downforce away. We haven\u2019t raced yet, but it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun to drive these cars here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Carl

Carl Edwards applies the Coors Light Pole Award sticker to his No. 19 Stanley Toyota race car after he won the pole for Saturday’s Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

Were you nervous when Joey Logano went out for a final late qualifying lap?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was, it was so easy to make a mistake. Each one of my laps I made a mistake and I assumed when he went out again, he made a mistake and he knows what it was and he\u2019s going to go address it. I wasn\u2019t sure, because the tires wasn\u2019t falling off much and I wasn\u2019t sure because the tires weren\u2019t falling off too much, I wasn\u2019t sure if he was going to be able to do it. He had me nervous. That\u2019s really cool. Those guys have been so fast in practice and it was cool to be able to qualify in front of them. That was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were you confident ahead of qualifying that you would be the pole sitter for Saturday\u2019s race?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure. The condition surprised me. I thought it was going to be sunny and the track temp would be high and that we\u2019d be going that fast. I just wasn\u2019t sure. Dave Rogers (crew chief) and those guys do such a good job predicting what the balance is going to be, that was really the key for me. They gave me a car, the first run surprised me how good it was. I wasn\u2019t certain and didn\u2019t know what to expect. Honestly the car was better than I was. It was fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Carl

Carl Edwards celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Coors Light Pole Award for Saturday’s Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

How would you assess the Joe Gibbs Racing intermediate program this year?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s no one thing we\u2019re trying as a group. Everyone has just been progressively working on these cars and trying to get them better and better and I think it really shows. We were really fast last week at Martinsville. We\u2019re pretty fast here and just overall the JGR Toyotas, they\u2019ve just been getting better and better. I wouldn\u2019t trade cars with anyone in the field. It\u2019s really cool to be driving this 19. To answer your question, no one thing, it\u2019s just a steady progression to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has parenthood changed you as a person and a driver?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, I think it changes anyone. The biggest thing for me is, as I spend more time in this sport, and as I go along and compete every year, it really narrows down my focus. I know for me personally, I have some very specific goals. I want to be a champion, I want to represent my team and my sponsors. I think for me personally, if anything, over time my goals have narrowed down and my specific goal is to finish first there at Homestead and be the champion. That\u2019s it. The going to new places, the new people \u2013 all the stuff you start in this sport that is crazy, the atmosphere of it, I kind of have whittled some of it down and been able to focus on the racing and that\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Carl

Carl Edwards talks to the media in the infield media center after winning the Coors Light Pole Award for Saturday’s Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

What do you think racing at night for the first time this season be like?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what to expect. I think this track is going to be extremely temperature sensitive. I think we saw it yesterday at the end of practice, I have a feeling it\u2019s going to swing hugely throughout the event. I think tonight, with the cloud cover it will be a little bit deceptive, but the temperature swing won\u2019t be as much. From the beginning of the race, to night, it\u2019s going to change a lot, I think. I\u2019m not sure exactly, we\u2019ll have to figure out what we\u2019re going to plan for, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does your confidence raise when you go to a track like Texas that you enjoy racing and have been successful at?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy confidence level is pretty decent, but now it\u2019s really up there. To have a fast race car is huge. I like this place and I like a few specific things. First of all, Texas is a really cool place. A lot of good people here and they know how to have fun. Eddie Gossage (track president) makes this thing \u2013 the riffle for getting the pole, and all the stuff that goes on around the event is really cool. Second, the track is fast, but I think it was paved in 2001. The pavement is old, so that\u2019s good. Really the key to me is the lower downforce and the tire. To me it feels like it\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

How is the tire fall off so far this weekend?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t remember exactly how many seconds at Atlanta, but we\u2019ll see here when we get 15 laps into a race, we\u2019ll know. The coolest thing for me is it seems when it took rubber, it visually appeared much darker where everyone is running. That really is a bigger factor from the driver seat because as the race goes on, people will rubber up different places and the track won\u2019t be the same at lap 200 to 220, it will change. For a driver, that is fun to be searching around out there. It\u2019s like dirt racing, you really have to go out and try to make the car go faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you flat foot this track on new tires?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was no where near flat footed there. You still have to lift out of the throttle, slide the car down in the corner. I think we\u2019ll learn a lot from the XFINITY race tonight, to watch and see how much they fall off. See what the advantages are off of new tires. It\u2019s a pretty good package right now. Definitely this direction is the direction to go. When you drive down in there, you\u2019re going really fast. You have to decide how much you want to abuse those tires and how much you\u2019re going to slide. That\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH – Carl Edwards earned the pole during qualifying on Friday afternoon for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Edwards recorded a lap timed at 27.748 seconds, 194.609 mph in his\u00a0No. 19 Stanley Tools Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry. This was Edwards’ 17th \u00a0pole in 416 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[150,16,21],"class_list":["post-1920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-duck-commander-500","tag-nascar","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2800a.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-uY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}