Carl Edwards wins pole for Sprint Cup race at Phoenix

Carl Edwards admitted that he still is replaying in his mind last weekend’s Daytona 500 finish in which 20-year-old upstart Trevor Bayne blocked Edwards’ hopes of winning NASCAR’s premier race.

“Of course I’m still bothered by that,” he said. But it did not stop Edwards or his Roush Fenway Racing team from looking ahead as well, as Edwards won the pole position in record time Saturday for the Sprint Cup race Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.

Edwards, who won the most recent race at Phoenix International from the pole in November, ran a lap of 137.279 mph in his No. 99 Ford on the one-mile oval, breaking the record of 136.389 mph that he set before the November race.

Kurt Busch qualified second and will start alongside Edwards in the front row. Kasey Kahne was third and Kyle Busch, Kurt’s younger brother, was fourth.

Bayne, running another Cup race as part of a limited schedule in stock car racing’s top series this year with the Wood Brothers team, qualified 33rd in the 43-car field. Dale Earnhardt Jr., a two-time winner here, was 35th.

Edwards, 31, said he had “watched the [Daytona 500] replay a couple of times.” As the race wound down, Edwards, with a strong push from David Gilliland, got to Bayne’s rear bumper but could not pass him at the checkered flag.

“There are a lot of things I could have done differently,” Edwards said, without being specific.

Regardless, Edwards is on a roll. He won the final two races last season, including the Phoenix race, before his second-place finish at Daytona.

Before that, Edwards struggled through a seesaw performance in the last three years. He won a series-high nine times in 2008 and finished second in the standings to champion Jimmie Johnson.

Then Edwards went winless in 2009 and finished 11th in points. He rebounded last year, earning 19 top-10 finishes and finishing fourth in the Cup standings.

Given his record, he is thrilled to be back at Phoenix International.

“I don’t feel like there’s a track — in the first half of the season, at least — that we have a better chance at winning,” Edwards said. “I have a lot of confidence here.”

Free fallin’

Edwards recently tried the attraction at the Stratosphere hotel-casino in Las Vegas that allows one to jump off a launching pad near the top of the complex’s 1,149-foot tower — attached to a cable, of course — and drop 855 feet to the ground.

Jeff Gordon, 39, was asked if he would be interested in copying Edwards’ leap.

“With two young kids, man, that’s about as much as I can handle,” said Gordon, who qualified 20th for Sunday’s race.

james.peltz@latimes.com