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 That was Edwards' take on the state of affairs at Joe Gibbs Racing
after he put his No. 19 Toyota on the pole for the 5-Hour ENERGY 301
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1:30
p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN).
"Right now it just feels right," said Edwards, who toured the Magic
Mile in 28.179 seconds (135.164 mph) in the qualifying session
Friday to earn his first pole of the season, his first at New
Hampshire and the 14th of his career.
"It's just cool, man," he said. "My expectation is to do the best we
can. My hope is that we win this thing. ... We've been working very
hard to bring this team together to be the best that we can be. It
just feels right. This is cool. It's a lot of fun."
Last Saturday in Kentucky, JGR teammate Kyle Busch won and the
organization placed all of its drivers in the top five: Denny
Hamlin, Edwards and Matt Kenseth trailed second-place Joey Logano of
Team Penske.
Coincidentally, Logano (135.021 mph) qualified second to Edwards on
Friday, with Michael Waltrip Racing's David Ragan third (also at
135.021 mph), Busch (134.025 mph) fourth and Hamlin (134.601 mph)
fifth.
Edwards, who dramatically improved his average starting position of
14.9 at New Hampshire, didn't believe he had won the pole Friday
until he got reassurance from crew chief Darian Grubb.
On the other hand, Logano wasn't particularly thrilled to run second
to a Gibbs driver for the second time in six days.
"Second: It seems like the story of our week, coming off Kentucky
with a strong second-place run and then qualifying second here as
well," Logano said. "Not that I'm complaining about it, but it's not
much fun finishing second, being so close to getting trophies and
pole flags and all the fun stuff.
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"There's not really much fun that happens when you finish second,
but we're close. We've got speed in our race car once again."
Danica Patrick advanced to the second round of knockout qualifying
and will start 20th, one spot behind Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jeff Gordon, still seeking his first victory in his last season of
full-time Sprint Cup racing, will start 23rd.
"Yeah, it's not been a good day for us with the No. 24 car," Gordon
said. "We've been struggling getting the car to do what we need it
to do. Just real tight through the center. (We) need to get it to
rotate, need some front grip, so we will go to work on it (Saturday
in practice).
"It's disappointing that we didn't qualify better. We typically
qualify well here and perform well here. We'll put this day behind
us and go work on it tomorrow and get it ready for Sunday."
NOTES: Reed Sorenson failed to make the 43-car field. ... Joey
Logano posted the fastest speed in Friday's time trials (135.448
mph) when he paced the second of the three knockout rounds, but the
final round determines the pole winner.
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