High Banks, High Times

August 22, 2008 6:46pm CDT

Carl Edwards has put himself in position to win even before the green flag waves. While no one has won from the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway since Matt Kenseth did so in August 2005, five of the last six races have been won by drivers who began the day in the top-10.

It was a tight day in qualifying. First and 10th-place on the starting grid were separated by only 0.174 mph, while Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola, who qualified 21st, 22nd and 23rd respectively, tied each other to the thousandth of a second.

Speaking of tight, it remains a tight race for the precious qualifying positions for those outside the top-35 in owners’ points. This week, Jeff Green, Patrick Carpentier and Johnny Sauter were all onboard the “trouble train” and missed out on the weekend festivities. This is the first time this year that Carpentier missed a race with traditional qualification.

Pole
#99 Carl Edwards
121.86 mph

“Concrete Carl” has quickly moved to the top of the fantasy wish list with his strong qualifying effort. A week after earning his fifth win of the season at Michigan International Speedway he rockets to the pole at Bristol. He won last year’s Sharpie 500 after starting sixth and his other top-five there came after a third-place start. In other words, fantasy owners have good reason to think highly of him this weekend.

Outside Pole
#44 David Reutimann
121.18 mph

Reutimann came close to winning his first career pole. Instead, he’ll have to settle for his career-best starting position in a Sprint Cup series race. It was a particularly good qualifying run at Bristol, where he started 39th in the spring. He managed to climb all the way to 20th by day’s end, so there is a chance that he will stay inside the top-20 again this weekend.

Third
#24 Jeff Gordon
121.12 mph

Rick Hendrick knows it. Jeff Gordon knows it. Fantasy owners know it. Gordon cannot afford another bad week. After being predicted to finish in the top-10 at Michigan, he had an awful car and finished the race sitting in the garage. That, combined with his 29th at Watkins Glen International, has put him in danger of failing to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the second time in his career. He has started two of the last three Bristol races from inside the top-five and has a third and 11th in those events.

Fourth
#01 Regan Smith
121.08 mph

The rookie is getting the hang of this qualifying business. This marks his first top-10 and third consecutive top-20 start on the high-banked half-mile. His former mentor Mark Martin still needs to work with him in terms of his finishes. Smith has yet to earn a top-20 in Tennessee, though he was 25th and 26th in his first two starts, which was modestly better than where he was predicted to finish.

Fifth
#21 Bill Elliott
120.74 mph

Still excited about the best finish of the year at Watkins Glen International (scored by Marcos Ambrose), the Wood Brothers gave “Wild Bill from Dawsonville” a fast car Friday afternoon. The veteran proceeded to earn the team its best starting spot of the season on a round track; prior to that, the No. 21 Ford had not been qualified higher than 12th on an oval. This will be only the second time in five years that Elliott has driven at Bristol, so don’t expect too him to stay up front.

Sixth
#29 Kevin Harvick
120.65 mph

“Happy” has been just that lately. When he needed to, he has hit his stride, picking up two top-fives and four top-10s in the last five races. With the playoff race heating up, he cannot afford to keep finishing in the middle of the pack. Now comes Bristol, which has been good to him in the past. Although he has not had a top-10 in the August race in five years, he does have a win and seven consecutive top-10s in the spring event.

Seventh
#96 Ken Schrader
120.63 mph

“Out with the new” was the phrase of the day at Bristol. Schrader, taking over for Brad Coleman who in turn replaced J.J. Yeley, left nothing to chance as far as getting into the race. Schrader is a good choice for Bristol. While he is not flashy and likely will not finish in the top-10, he typically keeps the car off the wall and makes it to the end of the race. Four of his last six starts have ended with him 24th or better.

Eighth
#84 A.J. Allmendinger
120.59 mph

Starting eighth on a track like Bristol is strange for Allmendinger. In 2007, he started both races in 43rd. What should have fantasy owners a bit pessimistic about his chances is that he has never finished a Bristol race higher than 35th. Overall, his best finish on either high-banked track is 33rd.

Ninth
#18 Kyle Busch
120.55 mph

It has been an amazing year for Busch, and the playoffs have not even started. The points’ leader has eight wins and likely will get more before November. He kept things rolling right along with his best career start at Bristol. Prior to Friday, his best qualifying run was 11th in 2005. Not that qualification mattered much to him in the past. In his two top-fives, which includes a win in March 2007 and four top-10s overall, he did not start higher than 19th.

10th
#19 Elliott Sadler
120.53 mph

Things are going well for Sadler at the moment. He was a season-high fourth at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and then was ninth at Michigan just last week. Now he carries that momentum into Bristol, where he won his first race in 2001. Things are working for him so far; this is his best start at the half-mile since March 2007. He was a respectable 19th at Bristol this past March, so it is not unreasonable to pencil him in for a top-20 and possibly a top-10.

Starting Grid
(Averages based on two or more starts)