Rain cancels qualifying at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE

Rain canceled qualifying for today's race at Martinsville Speedway, putting the title contenders together at the front of the field with points leader Carl Edwards on the pole.

"Felt like Christmas morning to me," Edwards said of the starting lineup being set by car owner points.

Edwards had never qualified better than seventh at Martinsville.

Just as beneficial is that Edwards gets the prized pit stall at the exit of pit road. Drivers can shoot out of that stall with no worry of being caught speeding. Pole-sitters have often used that pit stall to gain spots or maintain their lead. With passing challenging, any advantage is helpful.

"Qualifying is important because of pit-stall selection, and I'd rather have qualified and not give Carl the best pit stall selection," said Brad Keselowski, who starts third.

Also benefiting with qualifying being canceled so Cup teams could practice - rain kept Cup cars off the track Friday - is Matt Kenseth. He starts second. Kenseth had never qualified better than 14th at Martinsville.

On-track issues

Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon were involved in an on-track incident that carried over to the garage area during Saturday's lone practice session.

Biffle ran into the back of Harvick on the front-stretch but said the incident actually started half a lap earlier. Later, as Biffle's crew pushed his car to its garage stall, Harvick drove alongside and stopped briefly to prevent the crew from pushing the car into the stall. After Harvick left for his garage stall, Biffle walked to Harvick's stall where they talked briefly.

"(Harvick) had a beef with Jeff Gordon down there in the middle of the corner," Biffle said. "(Harvick) stopped beside Jeff and kind of pulled down on him. I think he was upset because Jeff had pulled out on the track in front of him on new tires.

"So, I'm coming at full speed. Kevin took off right when I got there, so then I was on Harvick's bumper coming down the front-stretch, and he lifted early and you can't blame me for (hitting him). Shoot, I didn't know he was coming out of the gas like that. I don't know what his agenda was. I, naturally, bumped him."

Said Harvick: "I was just on new tires and went out of the garage and got on the marbles outside of Jeff, and (Biffle) just got in the back of me. It's all fine."

Biffle was not pleased with what Harvick did in the garage area.

"I don't know why he stopped in front of the garage stall," Biffle said. "You're involving the crew guys and all kinds of stuff in the garage area when you're doing stuff like that. That's not the thing to do."

Fast time

Michael McDowell was the fastest in Saturday's practice session, but he later admitted on Twitter he did a mock qualifying run instead of focusing on a race setup during the entire 85-minute session as everybody else.

A more accurate gauge is who had the fastest average speed for 10 consecutive laps. Jimmie Johnson had the best average at 95.322 mph. He was followed by Jamie McMurray (95.234 mph), Jeff Gordon (95.174), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (95.065) and Marcos Ambrose (94.898).

Edwards ranked 30th on that list.

"We needed the practice," Edwards said. "We started off terribly. We got better and better and now I feel like we're kind of competitive, but we still have a little bit of a balance issue that we've got to get worked out. We've tried so many different things, we kind of have a catalog of things that don't work and we have yet to hit on that item in the setup that makes us fast."