Carl Edwards Toyota on pole in Loudon

Carl Edwards celebrates his pole. Out of nowhere Toyota is winning everything in NASCAR. Did they threaten to leave NASCAR if they didn't finally win the championship this year.

Posting the fastest lap of Friday's time trials late in the final round of knockout qualifying at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Carl Edwards knocked Kevin Harvick off the pole for Sunday's Sylvania 300, the second race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Edwards covered the 1.058-mile distance in 27.604 seconds (137.980 mph) to earn his third Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his second at New Hampshire — completing a season sweep of the top starting spot at the Magic Mile — and the 16th of his career.

"To be honest, that third round surprised me, how fast we were," said Edwards, who was 11th fastest in the second round. "I think it helped me almost to struggle through the second round, 'cause I thought, 'Aw, heck with it,' and I just kind of went for it in the third round.

"The car has a ton of speed. I hate to admit how poorly I drove it the first and second rounds, but I think it really says a lot about how fast the car is."

Needing a victory or an extremely high finish to restore his hopes of repeating as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Harvick (137.845 mph) posted a lap .027 seconds slower than that the pole winner to earn the second-place starting spot.

"I felt like I probably left those few hundredths of a second not being aggressive enough off the exit of Turn 2, and as good as the car was off of Turn 4," Harvick said. "Small crumbs. It's hard to balance that here, because if you push the car too much, you wind up giving up two or three tenths (of a second) instead of two or three hundredths."

Harvick, however, declined to address his confrontation with Jimmie Johnson after last Sunday's Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway. Side-to-side contact with Johnson's Chevrolet ultimately flattened the left rear tire of Harvick's No. 4 Chevy, sending him spinning into the Turn 3 wall and relegating him to a 42nd-place finish.

That result left Harvick last in the 16-driver Chase standings and incensed at the six-time champion. When Johnson approached the reigning champ in the motor coach lot after the race, Harvick responded with a blow to Johnson's chest, as one of Harvick's handlers tried to keep the drivers apart.

Asked whether Johnson might have something to worry about in Sunday's race, Harvick replied, "I don't look back. I just do what we have to do to focus on what we need to do looking forward. I'm not going to use you guys (the press) to make threats. I can do that myself."

Kurt Busch, Harvick's Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, qualified third at 137.800 mph, followed by Brad Keselowski (137.671 mph) and Johnson (137.621 mph), as Chase drivers claimed the top five positions on the grid.

Non-Chaser Kyle Larson was sixth fastest, while Chase drivers Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified seventh through 11th, respectively.

Other Chase competitors will start as follows: Matt Kenseth, 13th; Kyle Busch, 17th; Paul Menard, 20th; Martin Truex Jr., 21st; Jamie McMurray, 23rd and Clint Bowyer, 26th. Bowyer was the only Chase driver who failed to advance past the first round.

Travis Kvapil failed to make the 43-car field.

CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Starting Position: 1st

How was your qualifying effort?

"The car was super-fast in practice and I can't thank Sport Clips enough for coming on board to be on the car here and in Kansas – two really big races for me. We got a great start to the Chase and we've just keeping that rolling. We knew qualifying here'd be important, so we worked on that a lot today. The guys have been working really hard. The cars are good. TRD (Toyota Racing Development) helped me a lot. I'm starting to really enjoy coming to New Hampshire."

Is it difficult to advance the final qualifying round?

"It is tough and this place is simple, so it's pretty straightforward, but one little mistake here or there can cost you a lot. I really had to step it up. I almost didn't make the third round and had to actually kind of get myself going there that last round like, ‘Man, you've got to do this and it's a tough place to decide where to be aggressive, but our car was easy to drive and that's what made it – put us up front."

How is your Camry for Sunday?

"To be honest, that third round surprised me how fast we were and I really – I think it helped me almost to struggled through the second round because I was like, ‘To heck with it,' and I just kind of went for it the third round and the car has a ton of speed, so I hate to admit how poorly I drove it the first and second round, but I think it really says a lot about how fast the car is. Now we work on race trim and we we're in the same position in the first race here and we didn't really – we didn't execute during the race. We were kind of off and I think we learned a bunch from that, so hopefully we can be a lot better here."

How strong is the Camry?

"It's really amazing how this JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) group is working together. I can't thank Sport Clips for coming on board enough. They'll be on the car here and at Kansas. All the guys at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) – we worked really hard this week and we're giving 100 percent for the Chase. It's a good way to start the race."

Will you have to wait for practice tomorrow to know how strong the car is for the race?

"We'll have to wait until tomorrow. It's like Groundhog Day, we did this in the spring and we didn't get the car right for the race and I think we learned a bunch from that. Now we'll work on it. This place is tough and once the sun comes out, you get a little rubber on the track tomorrow then we'll be good."

Results

Pos.	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Sponsor	Speed	Time	Behind
1	19	Carl Edwards	Toyota	Sport Clips	137.980	27.604	+0.000s
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Ditech	137.845	27.631	+0.027
3	41	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	137.800	27.640	+0.036
4	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	Miller Lite	137.671	27.666	+0.062
5	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	LOWE'S PRO SERVICES	137.621	27.676	+0.072
6	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	Target Plaid	137.517	27.697	+0.093
7	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Freight	137.457	27.709	+0.105
8	22	Joey Logano	Ford	Shell Pennzoil	137.378	27.725	+0.121
9	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	137.022	27.797	+0.193
10	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	136.580	27.887	+0.283
11	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr	Chevrolet	Nationwide	136.560	27.891	+0.287
12	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Farmers Insurance	136.365	27.931	+0.327
13	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	Dollar General	136.943	27.813	+0.209
14	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Ford	Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion	136.825	27.837	+0.233
15	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	Smithfield	136.697	27.863	+0.259
16	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	Cheerios	136.516	27.900	+0.296
17	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Pedigree	136.409	27.922	+0.318
18	55	David Ragan	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	136.360	27.932	+0.328
19	13	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS	136.306	27.943	+0.339
20	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Sylvania / Menards	136.082	27.989	+0.385
21	78	Martin Truex Jr	Chevrolet	Furniture Row/Visser Precision	136.048	27.996	+0.392
22	10	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	GoDaddy	135.951	28.016	+0.412
23	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	FLIR	135.516	28.106	+0.502
24	51	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	AccuDoc Solutions	135.333	28.144	+0.540
25	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	Kleen Performance Products Ford Fusion	135.796	28.048	+0.444
26	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5+Hour Energy	135.772	28.053	+0.449
27	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Code 3 Associates / Mobil 1	135.651	28.078	+0.474
28	35	Cole Whitt	Ford	Taco Bell	135.607	28.087	+0.483
29	9	Sam Hornish Jr	Ford	Shaws/Smithfield	135.554	28.098	+0.494
30	47	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	Bush's Chili Beans	135.448	28.120	+0.516
31	34	Brett Moffitt	Ford	Dockside Logistics LLC	135.333	28.144	+0.540
32	40	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	Interstate Moving Services	135.121	28.188	+0.584
33	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	Advocare Ford Fusion	135.021	28.209	+0.605
34	38	David Gilliland	Ford	MDS Transportation	134.620	28.293	+0.689
35	83	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	Cosmo Motors	134.411	28.337	+0.733
36	7	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	Nikko RC/Toy State Car	134.292	28.362	+0.758
37	98	Ryan Preece	Ford	Mohawk Northeast, Inc.	134.117	28.399	+0.795
38	46	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	Switch Hitch	133.553	28.519	+0.915
39	33	B J McLeod	Chevrolet	TBA	132.526	28.740	+1.136
40	26	Josh Wise	Toyota	Maxim	132.213	28.808	+1.204
41	23	Jeb Burton	Toyota	Bullhorn	132.177	28.816	+1.212
42	32	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Ford	ARUNDEL FORD/ WEIRS GMC/ BANGOR TRUCK EQUIPMENT	131.948	28.866	+1.262
43	62	Timmy Hill	Chevrolet	TBA	129.878	29.326	+1.722