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."

Jeff Gordon, who'll start from the pole Sunday, was 26th in the morning practice and 27th in Happy Hour. He battled a car that was somewhat twitchy in the corners at the track which he's never won -- one of only three on the circuit at which he can make that dubious claim.

Edwards said the reason for no repeat winners at Texas is simple, to him.

"I think that the biggest reason you see so many different winners here is this isn't a track where the racecar driver can really make a huge difference, you know what I mean?" Edwards said. "If you get the track right, it's a track where the car and the setup and the crew chiefs, like my crew chief, Bob Osborne, really shine.

"If they can do the job and get things right, it makes the driver look really good. So, I think every time you come back, everybody has a little bit different setup and everybody has some new technology or whatever, so it seems like there's always one guy that's fast every different race."

The Busch brothers, Kyle and older brother Kurt have a history of being fast at Texas, but separate crashes in practice on Friday for Kurt and Saturday morning for Kyle will send them to the rear of the field in backup cars Sunday.

Kyle, who'll line up fifth and Kurt, who'll line his No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge up in 17th position, will both drop to the rear of that line after rolling off pit road.

Kurt crashed when a lower control arm failed on the right front of his car, in the opening moments of practice Friday afternoon when it resumed after a several-hour rain delay. His team took out its backup car and Busch was seventh in the Saturday morning practice and 21st in the afternoon.

Kyle crashed only five minutes into the Saturday morning session in the entrance of Turn 2, where he backed hard into the outside wall on his 10th lap of the track. Within four minutes his crew had the backup car coming down off the lift-gate of the transporter.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson instructed his men by radio to begin changing the primary car's engine into the backup car to enable it to practice in the afternoon session. Kyle came out a little more than 15 minutes into the final session, made 14 laps and was listed in 22nd on the time sheet.