BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Fort Worth — Ford Fusion drivers Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle of Roush Fenway Racing will start sixth and eighth, respectively, in Sunday afternoon’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. They’re two of nine Team Ford Racing drivers to qualify for the third-to-last NASCAR race of the season.

Edwards and Biffle were among the top-10 that featured Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne on Row 1, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart on Row 2, Kyle Busch and Edwards on Row 3, Mark Martin and Biffle on Row 4, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer on Row 5.

A.J. Allmendinger, in his first start in a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports, will start 16th. David Ragan for Roush Fenway will go 17th, followed by teammates Jamie McMurray from 22nd and Matt Kenseth from 30th. Erik Darnell will go from 38th for Yates Racing and teammate Paul Menard will go from 39th. Bill Elliott and the Wood Brothers made the field, using a past champion’s provisional to start 43rd.

Biffle was happy with eighth, but felt he could have been better. “We had a little faster car and I didn’t realize there was gonna be that much grip,” he said. “I didn’t get to the bottom on [Turns] 3 and 4. I backed off because I knew that was a problem last year. I squared the corner, making sure I got to the bottom. That’s backward thinking: you need to arc it to get down there. Then, it’s a little hard to see, intimidating to not feel the car and how it’s turning. I left a little bit out there.”

Allmendinger has been in Dodge cars all year, so his transition to Ford Fusions might take some time. Being a racer, though, he’s impatient and wants to see immediate success in his Fusion. To some, qualifying 16th is more than credible since Richard Petty Motorsports fielded its first Ford last weekend at Talladega.

“I’ve got to keep remembering this is a [growing and learning] process,” the former open-wheel star said. “You want to go out there; you’re excited to be part of Ford and you want to go out right away think, ‘We should be on top of the board,’ but it’s not that easy. We started off practice and struggled a lot because the car is brand-new. There are a lot of things to work through. It just felt like I didn’t get everything out of it. Then you look at the board and half-a-tenth would pick you up five or six spots. Overall, we’re pleased.”