Talladega qualifying rained out, Carl Edwards on pole

Carl Edwards will start on the pole position for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway after rain washed out Saturday’s qualifying session for the Sprint Cup Series.

Edwards will start on the pole based on the NASCAR rule book which states that in the event qualifying is cancelled, the starting lineup will be determined based off practice speeds from the first session on track.

With no lap of record being turned, Edwards’s pole position will not count as a qualifier for the 2014 Sprint Unlimted race at Daytona International Speedway.

Starting alongside Edwards on the front row will be Martin Truex Jr who was second-fastest in Friday’s opening practice.

Marcos Ambrose, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Kasey Kahne round out the top-10 starters for Sunday’s race.

Danica Patrick, who is racing the same car that carried her to an eighth-place finish in the Daytona 500, will start in twenty-second.

Defending race winner and 2012 Sprint Cup champion, Brad Keselowski, will start in eleventh.

Forty-four cars attempted to make the starting field which meant one car would fail to qualify.

Elliott Sadler, who despite posting the thirty-sixth and eleventh-fastest times in the practice sessions on Friday, missed the starting field in a fourth Joe Gibbs Racing entry.

Sadler failed to make the starting field due to the fact his No.81 had the least amount of qualifying attempts in 2013 of the drivers that were not locked into Sunday’s starting field.

Scattered rain showers are in the forecast for Sunday. NASCAR has access  this weekend to the newly developed Air Titan which decreases the amount of time it takes to dry the racing surface.

Aaron’s 499 Starting Lineup 

1. Carl Edwards 
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Marcos Ambrose
4. Joey Logano
5. Ryan Newman
6. Matt Kenseth
7. Denny Hamlin
8. Jimmie Johnson
9. Jeff Gordon
10. Kasey Kahne
11. Brad Keselowski
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
13. Kyle Busch
14. Michael Waltrip
15. Paul Menard
16. Greg Biffle
17. Aric Almirola
18. David Ragan
19. Clint Bowyer
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
21. Casey Mears
22. Danica Patrick
23. Kevin Harvick
24. Tony Stewart
25. David Stremme
26. Jamie McMurray
27. Jeff Burton
28. Juan Pablo Montoya
29. David Gilliland
30. Kurt Busch
31. Regan Smith
32. David Reutimann
33. Bobby Labonte
34. Dave Blaney
35. Landon Cassill
36. JJ Yeley
37. Trevor Bayne
38. Josh Wise
39. Travis Kvapil
40. Terry Labonte
41. Michael McDowell
42. Joe Nemechek
43. Scott Speed