BUSCH

• Edwards grabs pole for Nationwide race at Texas

  
  

  Ft.

  Worth, TX (Sports Network) - Carl Edwards continued his winning momentum in the Nationwide Series by capturing the pole for Saturday's O'Reilly Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway.

  The No.60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford driver turned in a qualifying lap of 28.708 seconds (188.101 m.p.h.).

  Edwards recorded his fourth pole of the season and the 11th of his Nationwide career.

  "I'm really excited about the race," Edwards said. "We closed some points on Clint (Bowyer) last week, and our car is really good this week. It's going to be a good one." Edwards revived his title defense in the series last Saturday with a victory at Memphis.

  Edwards led 185 of 253 laps and held off a hard-charging David Reutimann in a green-white-checkered finish for his fifth win of the season. He also trimmed Clint Bowyer's lead from 196 points to 116 with three races to go. Bowyer struggled throughout the race, particularly when he spun on lap 125 after making contact with Scott Lagasse, and ended up finishing 16th.

  Starting alongside Edwards will be fellow Sprint Cup regular Kevin Harvick, who posted a time of 28.941 seconds.

  Bobby Hamilton, Jr. and Kyle Busch will start on the second row, while David Stremme and Mark Martin will make up row three.

  Mark Martin, Stephen Leicht, Joey Logano, Jason Leffler and Brian Vickers will start sixth through 10th, respectively.

  Bowyer will roll off 21st.

  Edwards hopes his points momentum will continue at Texas, where he clinched his first series title one year ago. He has yet to win a Nationwide race at the 1.5-mile track, but his best finish in seven starts there is third, coming in 2005 and '07.

  Bowyer, meanwhile, has done well at Texas the past year, scoring top-five finishes in the last two races here.

  Busch leads the series with nine victories this year, and is one win away from tying Sam Ard's 1983 record of 10 victories in a season. He is the defending race winner.

  The green flag is scheduled to drop Saturday around 3:30 p.m. (et).

  10/31 20:43:49 ET