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Roush Fenway Racing sweeps the front row<\/strong><\/p>\n DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 With a fast lap of 194.738 mph \u2013 the fastest qualifying lap at Daytona in over a decade \u2013 Carl Edwards put the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford on the pole for the 54th annual Daytona 500 during Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 Qualifying Presented by Kroger.<\/p>\n Edwards\u2019 time was the fastest since 1999 when Jeff Gordon took the pole for the Daytona 500 at 195.067 mph and Dale Jarrett took the Coke Zero 400 pole at 194.860 mph.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing feeling,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cThis is very special. It\u2019s not a driving accomplishment, this is a team accomplishment. There\u2019s a lot of pride in this for everyone. I\u2019m excited to have all the guys back at the shop this week know they sent the best racecars down to Daytona.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a sign of the strength of your team,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we just have one car up there \u2013 to have that whole front row says a lot about Roush Fenway Racing and Ford.\u201d \u201cI\u2019d run the Gatorade Duel tonight if I could,\u201d Biffle said. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for the 150s. I can\u2019t wait for practice. I want to get in the car and go. I\u2019m just juiced up.\u201d Of the 49 cars that attempted to qualify, 14 were required to qualify on time. Three secured a starting position based on their qualifying speed \u2013 defending Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne (193.615), Tony Raines (192.534) and David Stremme (191.963). Also guaranteed a spot is former series champion Terry Labonte.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s qualifying effort not only set the front row for NASCAR\u2019s biggest, richest and most prestigious race, it also determined the line-ups for Thursday\u2019s Gatorade Duel at Daytona. Edwards will lead the first race and Biffle will lead the drivers in the second race.<\/p>\n Clint Bowyer, who had posted the 22nd-fastest lap, will drop to the back of the field in the second Duel because his car failed to pass inspection.<\/p>\n Speedweeks 2012 resumes at Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday, Feb. 22 with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at noon. Tickets for the 54th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26, as well as other Speedweeks 2012 events can be purchased online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Roush Fenway Racing sweeps the front row DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 With a fast lap of 194.738 mph \u2013 the fastest qualifying lap at Daytona in over a decade \u2013 Carl Edwards put the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford on the pole for the 54th annual Daytona 500 during Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 Qualifying Presented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,21,14972],"tags":[180,14973,15775],"class_list":["post-9155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-sprint-cup","category-touring-series-news","tag-carl-edwards","tag-daytona-500","tag-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nNext Sunday will mark the third-consecutive year that teammates will lead the 43-car field to the green flag, but the first time that Roush Fenway Racing will command the front row for \u201cThe Great American Race\u201d. Edwards will start alongside teammate Greg Biffle.<\/p>\n
\nBiffle, who was the last Roush driver to win the pole for the Daytona 500 (2004), wheeled his No.16 3M Ford to the second-fastest lap of 194.087 mph \u2013 just .155 seconds slower than Edwards. The entire top 10 posted blistering speeds with just .270 seconds separating them.<\/p>\n
\nFord had a strong showing, taking four of the top-five positions. This is the first time that Ford has swept the front row since David Gilliland and Ricky Rudd did it in 2007 \u2013 which is also the last time Ford claimed the pole in the season opener.<\/p>\n