Edwards would love a Sprint Cup win at ‘home’ track

Carl Edwards would give just about anything to reach victory lane in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race in Kansas City, Kansas.

The native of Columbia, Missouri, considers Kansas Speedway his home track, yet Edwards has never won here in a Sprint Cup race. His best result was second in 2008, despite finishing every race he’s started, and he’s led laps on 11 occasions with six top-five results.

“This would be as big as the Daytona 500 or the Brickyard 400 for me, and we have a team to do it,” said Edwards, who has already won this season at Bristol and Richmond. “I feel like I have a lot of support here.”

He vividly remembers the Truck Series race in 2004, when he held off Bobby Hamilton to win.

“That truck win here was so spectacular,” Edwards said, breaking into a wide grin. “That’s the only time I’ve ever heard the crowd roaring before I shut off the engine.”

Tony Stewart gave up his seat to Ty Dillon after the first caution at Talladega to protect his back, which he hurt in an off-road accident in January. Stewart is back in the No. 14 full time beginning this weekend, and the former Kansas winner will spend the rest of the season trying to race his way into the Chase.

Martin Truex Jr. will start on the pole. Truex turned a lap of 190.921 mph in the final round of qualifying Friday night, earning his first pole since April 2012 at Texas.

Teen notches first Trucks victory

Eighteen-year-old William Byron raced to his first Trucks Series victory Friday night when Ben Rhodes got into race leader Johnny Sauter and spun both of them on the final lap at Kansas Speedway.

Byron had built a nearly five-second lead before Tyler Reddick spun with four laps to go, bunching the field up for a green-white-checkered finish. Byron got shuffled to third behind Sauter and Rhodes on the restart, but he was ready to pounce when the two ahead of him got together in Turn 4.

Matt Crafton rallied after his own spin and wound up second.

NASCAR revises format

for All-Star Race

NASCAR announced a new format for the May 21 All-Star Race at Charlotte. It will feature two 50-lap segments followed by a 13-lap shootout in which a portion of the field will be on fresh tires, an idea dreamed up by driver Brad Keselowski that is intended to spice up what had become a lame $1 million dash for cash.

Drivers will be required to pit for at least two tires in each of the 50-lap segments, with the stop in the second segment coming with at least 15 laps to go. Then, a random draw will decide whether the first nine, 10 or 11 cars will have to do a mandatory four-tire stop for the final segment.

The seemingly bizarre twist has a purpose: In past years, where four 25-lap segments were followed by a 10-lap dash, the driver who won the race into Turn 1 for the final 10 laps always wound up winning.

With modern tires and aerodynamics, it was too difficult for anyone to make a pass.