Continued: Sore Gordon comes back from crash with pole-winning effort

Edwards fell from first to seventh in the standings after NASCAR docked him 100 points and suspended crew chief Bob Osborne after a postrace inspection in Las Vegas found there was no lid on his car's oil tank.

"It's great for me to be able to get in the race car, get out here and do what I love to do and I'm just real proud of my guys for keeping their heads up this week in spite of everything that's gone on," Edwards said. "We've got a fast race car. It was really good in race trim, so I'm ready to race."

Seven-time Atlanta pole-winner Ryan Newman didn't come close to the top spot Friday, posting a 182.135 that left him 12th, just behind the 182.207 of two-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

Joe Nemechek and rookie Patrick Carpentier were fastest of the drivers who had to qualify on speed, making the field along with Michael Waltrip, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann, Mike Skinner and Brian Vickers. Dale Jarrett got the past champion's provisional.

Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, Johnny Benson, Burney Lamar and John Andretti failed to make the 43-car lineup.

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