Edwards, Sorenson lead Cup Happy Hour at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Tony Stewart is the most recent Nextel Cup winner at Texas Motor Speedway and Carl Edwards and Mark Martin have each won at the fast, 1.5-mile oval.

The trio's performance in two Saturday practices preparing for Sunday's Samsung 500 made them co-favorites to break a skein of 12 consecutive different winners at Texas.

Edwards was fastest in Happy Hour in his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Mercurial sophomore Reed Sorenson, who needs a good finish to keep him on his march back towards the front of the standings, was second, followed by Martin, Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.

For Edwards, a win here would break a 44-race winless streak stretching back to November 2005. But it doesn't have him overly concerned, considering he's ninth in points coming into Sunday's seventh race of the season.

"A win is a win," Edwards said. "I don't think it matters if it's your first win or your last win -- they're all really fun, and I'm excited that hopefully we'll win this race on Sunday."

Stewart was quickest in the 50-minute Saturday morning practice, which like the afternoon practice was held in conditions between 20-30 degrees cooler than Friday's three-segment, one-hour practice that was paced by Kyle Busch's No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

In the first session, Stewart was followed by Edwards' teammate Greg Biffle, Edwards, and DEI teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr.

Martin, who won here in 1998 while driving for Jack Roush, was 17th in the first practice in his No. 01 Ginn Racing Chevrolet. Martin led the points after four races before he took a planned two-race hiatus -- skipping Car of Tomorrow races at Bristol and Martinsville.

Edwards (10th), Stewart (ninth) and Martin (sixth) will all start in the top 10 based on their respective positions in the Nextel Cup owner standings, which were used to determine the starting lineup when Bud Pole Qualifying was rained out on Friday.

"No qualifying is not a big deal," Edwards said. "We got a lot of race practice in, so [no qualifying didn't] really upset our race-practice schedule.

"The only thing is the weather changed a lot [so] we'll have to decide what it's going to be like tomorrow to determine whether or not we're going to take our notes from today or yesterday." (Continued)