Carl Edwards parlayed some fast practice times into the pole position for Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Edwards enters the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale just three points ahead of Tony Stewart, who qualified 15th.

Edwards will have pit position number one on pit exit, a vital place in his quest to secure his first series championship.

“That's huge – it's just one lap but we were good in practice,” he said. “You can't miss (a good) pit selection here.”

"We've still got to run this race and I know how tough [title rival Tony Stewart] can be," added Edwards after claiming his 10th career pole. "I'm not counting anything yet. We're just going to keep our heads down, work on the car, go do the best we can.

"If anything, this is just good for our morale and for everybody to go sleep easy tonight and know we're going to have a good day on pit road, know we'll hopefully be able to run out front and not get caught up in anything."

The pole, his third, also put him in a tie with four other drivers for the most poles this season. While Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and Greg Biffle also had three, Edwards will finish highest in the point standings and secure the $100,000 bonus from pole sponsor Coors Light for the most poles in the year.

“You're kidding me,” he said. “That's definitely a testament to the equipment because I'm not a very good qualifier.”

Stewart will line up 15th on the grid, hoping his long-run pace enables him to be in contention for victory on Sunday. He stressed however that his focus has been on race pace as qualifying has rarely proved key in his previous victories.

"We spent a lot of time trying to find out what the combination was for race trim," said Stewart about his approach to practice on Saturday. "We've got the one-lap deal out of the way, now we have to focus on 400 miles.

"His [Edwards'] lap times fell off pretty hard in the one long run that he did. Looking at that, that's why I'm still really confident that what we did was the right thing today. Our times don't fall off as far as his did."

Beyond the title contenders, Martin Truex Jr. hit the outside pole position, with Phoenix winner Kasey Kahne and Penske Racing teammates Busch and Brad Keselowski completing the top five.

Pos Driver Car/Engine Time Delay
1 Carl Edwards Ford 30.775 -
2 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 30.891 0.116
3 Kasey Kahne Toyota 30.931 0.156
4 Kurt Busch Dodge 30.942 0.167
5 Brad Keselowski Dodge 30.947 0.172
6 Matt Kenseth Ford 30.950 0.175
7 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 30.957 0.182
8 Greg Biffle Ford 31.015 0.240
9 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 31.017 0.242
10 Denny Hamlin Toyota 31.040 0.265
11 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 31.051 0.276
12 A.J. Allmendinger Ford 31.082 0.307
13 David Ragan Ford 31.092 0.317
14 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 31.147 0.372
15 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 31.154 0.379
16 Regan Smith Chevrolet 31.156 0.381
17 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 31.164 0.389
18 Marcos Ambrose Ford 31.165 0.390
19 Kyle Busch Toyota 31.169 0.394
20 Trevor Bayne Ford 31.185 0.410
21 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 31.186 0.411
22 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 31.197 0.422
23 Paul Menard Chevrolet 31.199 0.424
24 Brian Vickers Toyota 31.220 0.445
25 Mark Martin Chevrolet 31.234 0.459
26 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 31.268 0.493
27 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet 31.276 0.501
28 David Reutimann Toyota 31.318 0.543
29 Cole Whitt Toyota 31.324 0.549
30 J.J. Yeley Ford 31.397 0.622
31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 31.428 0.653
32 Joey Logano Toyota 31.453 0.678
33 Michael McDowell Toyota 31.568 0.793
34 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 31.574 0.799
35 Bobby Labonte Toyota 31.601 0.826
36 David Stremme Chevrolet 31.601 0.826
37 Joe Nemechek Toyota 31.657 0.882
38 David Gilliland Ford 31.738 0.963
39 Casey Mears Toyota 31.778 1.003
40 Travis Kvapil Ford 31.919 1.144
41 T.J. Bell Ford 32.199 1.424
42 Geoff Bodine Chevrolet 33.161 2.386
43 Mike Bliss Ford 31.776 1.001
- Scott Speed Ford 31.853 1.078
- Reed Sorenson Dodge 31.885 1.110
- Mike Skinner Ford 32.031 1.256
- Scott Riggs Chevrolet 32.186 1.411
- Grant Enfinger Chevrolet 32.568 1.793