Notes: Kyle Busch trying to solve Turns 3 and 4 at AMS

HAMPTON, Ga. -- If Kyle Busch is to repeat as the winner of the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday, he knows he'll have to solve the third and fourth corners at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Busch, who will do double duty in the Cup race and Saturday's American Commercial Lines 200 Camping World Truck Series race, struggled with the new tire combination at AMS during Friday's practice, as did many other drivers.

"The tire here they chose again is pretty difficult to handle," Busch said. "We're not sure what's going on with it. It's very inconsistent.

"The truck seemed to be pretty good this morning -- we weren't bad there. But the car's not been to our liking. We've been all over the place with it. A lot of guys are saying the same things about it. We felt like we hit on something in Turns 1 and 2, but we've missed 3 and 4. We haven't been able to hit it down there yet."

Busch qualified ninth at 185.891 mph (29.824 seconds).

Busch's victory in last year's race was the first for Toyota in the Cup series. In 35 races since then, he has won eight times.

Liking it slick

Carl Edwards, ninth in points, hasn't had the start he would have liked this season, but he's looking forward to Sunday's race, even if it means slipping and sliding for 500 miles.

"The track is real slippery," Edwards acknowledged between practice and qualifying. "It's pretty wild. That's fun, though. I like this place when it's like that. It's a track that you can run three-wide on, but, at the same time the car moves around quite a bit.

"It's totally different from a place like Charlotte or Vegas, where the car is really nailed down. You can get a little aggressive with the wheel here. It's fun."

Edwards was 29th in qualifying at 183.881 mph (30.150 seconds).

Edwards has three wins at Atlanta, including the last race run at the 1.54-mile speedway (Oct. 26, 2008). (Continued)