BRISTOL, Tenn. — Carl Edwards is looking for Sprint Cup gold, and there are few more successful spots for him this season than Bristol Motor Speedway.

Edwards won the pole at the track in April, and on Friday led Joe Gibbs Racing’s 1-2-3 sweep of the top three spots in qualifying for the Saturday night race.

“Hopefully, we’ll be sitting here tomorrow night at the end of this deal talking about how we did it in the race,” Edwards said. “That’d be pretty neat.”

Edwards had a fast lap of 131.407 mph on the concrete surface of the half-mile track in the final segment of the three-round knockout qualifying. He bested teammates Denny Hamlin in second and Kyle Busch in third.

Hamlin set the Bristol qualifying record of 131.668 mph in the first round of NASCAR’s three rounds of knockout qualifications.

Ryan Blaney was fourth, his Ford disrupting a quartet of JGR racers as he finished a tick in front of Matt Kenseth.

Chase Elliott was sixth, followed by Martin Truex Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.

Jeff Gordon was 11th, his best showing in the four races he has subbed for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Chris Buescher, the winner at Pocono last month, rounded out the top 12.

It looks difficult for anyone to crack what appears to be JGR’s dominance. While most of the garage is scrambling for position to make the championship Chase, Gibbs’ four drivers are already locked into the 16-driver field with a combined 10 victories in the season’s first 22 races.

Edwards claimed his 21st career Sprint Cup pole and fourth at Bristol. Hamlin will start in the top 10 for the 21st time this season, while Busch will make his 16th top-10 start of the year.

n Delaware’s Dover International Speedway is adding more than 500 feet of SAFER barriers in time for the Sprint Cup race in October.

XFINITY: Austin Dillon figured fourth place was about all he could get until the old Brad Keselowski-Kyle Busch rivalry reared up at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Keselowski hit the back of Busch’s car as the defending Sprint Cup champ tried to clear him from the lead, cutting down a tire and sending Busch into the wall four laps from the scheduled end. Then, just as suddenly, Keselowski ran out of gas during the caution – leaving a happily surprised Dillon out front to win the race in overtime.