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The Sports Network
Fort Worth, TX (Sports Network) - Greg Biffle claimed the pole for the AAA
Texas 500 after beating his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, David Ragan, by the
slimmest of margins in Friday's qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway.
Biffle, who was quickest in practice earlier in the day, turned a lap at
193.736 mph around the fast 1.5-mile track for his third pole of the season
and the ninth of his Sprint Cup Series career. He won the spring 2005 race at
Texas.
"Being a former winner here and running good at this racetrack, that gives me
a lot of confidence going into this weekend," Biffle said. "The car was really
fast right off the track."
Biffle's lap, the fastest in all of the Sprint Cup qualifying sessions so far
this year, was only 0.001 seconds quicker than Ragan's lap.
"I didn't really think we would have a shot at the pole going into
qualifying," Ragan said. "That was close. I told Greg that he just barely beat
me. That's cool to be that fast in qualifying."
Biffle and Ragan are not in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship
field.
Matt Kenseth, also from Roush Fenway, was the highest finishing Chase driver
in qualifying with a third-place showing. Kenseth won here in April.
Paul Menard took the fourth spot, while Tony Stewart, who won last Sunday at
Martinsville, qualified fifth.
David Reutimann, Carl Edwards, the current points leader, Brad Keselowski,
Kasey Kahne and Regan Smith completed the top-10.
With three races to go, Edwards holds just an eight-point advantage over
Stewart. Edwards has the most victories at Texas with three.
"We wanted to be a little bit better than that," Edwards said after his
seventh-place finish in qualifying. "It is a good starting spot. We focused
hard on qualifying here. We had an opportunity to go out there and sit on the
pole. And now we just work on the race trim."
Kevin Harvick, who is 21 points behind Edwards, qualified 21st. Keselowski is
27 points out of the lead, while Kenseth trails his teammate by 36 markers.
David Stremme, David Starr and Reed Sorenson failed to qualify.
Sunday's 500-mile race at Texas is scheduled to start just after 3:00 p.m.
(et).
The Sports Network