TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Carl Edwards promises he'll try not to make the same mistake twice.

In the last visit to Talladega Superspeedway last fall, Edwards stayed well behind the main pack of cars in an effort to stay out of trouble. But with less than 15 laps to go, Edwards wound up smack dab in the middle of a multi-car accident ignited when he bumped teammate Greg Biffle from behind, sending him out of control at the front of the pack.

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I don't know how I'm gonna run it. If we're running up front, I'll probably run real hard and try to stay up there. If you start falling back, it's just tough to sit there and run in the middle of 30 cars and think that that's safe to do.

”

-- CARL EDWARDS

So what kind of strategy will Edwards implement in Sunday's Aaron's 499?

"I don't know how I'm gonna run it," he admitted. "If we're running up front, I'll probably run real hard and try to stay up there. If you start falling back, it's just tough to sit there and run in the middle of 30 cars and think that that's safe to do.

"It just kind of depends on what everybody does. You can't lose the pack, but if there are four or five guys back there running, you can go back there and kind of catch your breath a little bit and make a run for the front later."

If Friday's final practice is any indication, Edwards should have a pretty good seat up near the front on Sunday. He ran the fastest lap of the session -- 194.904 mph -- as most teams opted to work on qualification setups in the second of two practices. After Saturday's qualifying, the cars will be impounded until race day.

David Gilliland, one of the 10 cars needing to qualify on time to make the field, was second-quickest at 194.820. The rest of the top-five included Tony Stewart, rookie Joey Logano and Ryan Newman, who won the pole for Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

Speeds in the afternoon were almost 3 mph slower than the morning practice, mainly because cars were bunched in packs for most of the first session. Three drivers -- Robby Gordon, David Reutimann and Jeff Burton -- eclipsed 197 mph in the draft.

A.J. Allmendinger's blown engine caused a temporary delay in the first practice, leading Richard Petty Motorsports to replace the power plant in both he and teammate Kasey Kahne's cars. (Continued)