"Rocket" Ryan Newman edged Carl Edwards in Friday's qualifying session to claim the pole for Saturday night's Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Newman clocked in at 122.811 mph while Edwards ran 122.670 mph.

"It didn’t feel that we were going that fast, but it was a good lap,” Newman said. “There’s a lot more of Bristol that you can race here now since they resurfaced the track.”

Newman's most recent pole came at New Hampshire where he went on to win the race.

Matt Kenseth starts third followed by Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch.

T. J. Bell, J. J. Yeley and Jeff Green did not make the field.

The Irwin Tools Night Race is scheduled to take the green at 7:43 p.m.

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