NASCAR at Watkins Glen 2016 Qualifying Results: Race Order, Times and Reaction

Carl Edwards has never won a Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International, but he put himself in ideal position to do so Saturday by capturing the pole for the Cheez-It 355.

Edwards beat out Kyle Larson for the top spot by nearly two-tenths of a second. Here is a look at how the entire 40-car field will look when drivers cross the start-finish line to begin Sunday's race

Position	Driver	Best Time (Seconds)
1	Carl Edwards	69.689
2	Kyle Larson	69.871
3	Tony Stewart	69.902
4	Matt Kenseth	69.942
5	Kyle Busch	69.945
6	Denny Hamlin	69.999
7	Joey Logano	70.042
8	Ryan Newman	70.094
9	AJ Allmendinger	70.210
10	Jamie McMurray	70.259
11	Michael McDowell	70.352
12	Brad Keselowski	70.571
Round 1 Cutoff
13	Jimmie Johnson	70.571
14	Martin Truex Jr.	70.578
15	Kevin Harvick	70.652
16	Chase Elliott	70.747
17	Kurt Busch	70.795
18	Austin Dillon	70.804
19	Ryan Blaney	70.810
20	Casey Mears	70.825
21	Jeff Gordon	70.866
22	Cole Whitt	70.975
23	Kasey Kahne	70.987
24	Greg Biffle	71.038
25	Chris Buescher	71.060
26	David Ragan	71.220
27	Brian Scott	71.340
28	Clint Bowyer	71.438
29	Regan Smith	71.443
30	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	71.448
31	Danica Patrick	71.481
32	Trevor Bayne	71.502
33	Paul Menard	71.616
34	Aric Almirola	71.643
35	Matt DiBenedetto	71.927
36	Alex Kennedy	72.181
37	Boris Said	72.202
38	Michael Annett	72.771
39	Josh Wise	73.965
40	Landon Cassill	0.000

As NASCAR's Holly Cain pointed out, Edwards has been masterful in qualifying at road courses this season:

Here's a look at the lap that earned him the opportunity to lead the field in the Cheez-It 355, courtesy of Fox Sports NASCAR:

No active driver with at least three career Sprint Cup starts at Watkins Glen has a better average finish than Edwards' 8.4, according to Racing-Reference.info. But he has struggled to seal the deal and take the checkered flag, leading just four laps in 11 career starts at the Glen.

The same can't be said for Tony Stewart, who leads all active drivers with five career victories at Watkins Glen. Stewart also won at Sonoma this year, which ostensibly locked him in to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Smoke qualified third, and based on his success on road courses both this season and over the entirety of his career, he could be the favorite Sunday.

Stewart is most likely competing in his final race at Watkins Glen since he is retiring from full-time competition at the end of the season. As Jeff Gordon has proved, though, that is far from a guarantee.

Gordon has filled in for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 car in each of the past two races, and he will be behind the wheel once again Sunday. The future Hall of Famer has four career wins at the Glen to his credit, but he failed to reach the second round of qualifying and will start 21st.

Despite the mediocre showing, Gordon is seemingly in a great state of mind ahead of the race, as evidenced by his comments courtesy of Watkins Glen International on Twitter:

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the qualifying session was Michael McDowell, who made the second round and will start in the 11th spot.

Per Nick DeGroot of Motorsport.com, it was a significant performance for the unheralded driver of the No. 95 car:

Qualifying was fairly clean in terms of avoiding wrecks or dust-ups, but Paul Menard was the exception to that rule.

As seen in this video from NASCAR, Menard lost control and got sideways after hitting the grass, which forced him to settle for the 33rd starting position:

Joey Logano is the defending winner at Watkins Glen; he will start seventh. AJ Allmendinger won two years ago, and this may represent his best chance to qualify for the Chase, as the road-course specialist will begin the race in ninth.

Road courses tend to bring about unexpected results because of how different they are from traditional tracks, and that could make for an exciting and unpredictable race Sunday.

One week after Chris Buescher shockingly won a rain-shortened race at Pocono and potentially turned the playoff standings upside down, drivers like Allmendinger and McDowell have a golden opportunity to do the same at the Glen.

Post-Qualifying Reaction

Edwards turned in a great performance in taking the pole Saturday, but he is unsure of what to expect in the race itself due to the fact that Watkins Glen was repaved prior to the season, according to Reid Spencer of NASCAR.com:

"

I think [Sunday] is going to be a little bit of an adventure. The new pavement, nobody knows how that's going to go along deep into the runs with tire build-up. I think the braking zones are pretty tough, and it's going to be nice and warm.

So, just got to stay upfront, can't make any mistakes. I love road races. They're so much fun. I got to talk to Boris Said, who's basically my road racing coach to start, so that was cool today. Hopefully, tonight I'll get me some good rest and hopefully be very competitive tomorrow.

"

Edwards beat out Larson for the top spot, but the No. 2 starter is happy with taking the outside position in the front row considering his struggles in practice, per Tom Jensen of FoxSports.com: "We changed just about everything yesterday and finally got some grip late in practice. You still could use some more, but it was fun. I didn't think I'd end up second. I didn't even think I ran that good of a lap in the first round."

Larson has enjoyed a great deal of success at Watkins Glen in the limited number of races he has run there as a Sprint Cup driver, and he will be a big-time threat to take the checkered flag much like Edwards now that he has a car capable of handling the track.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.