FORT WORTH, Texas – Carl Edwards isn’t going to have to look far to find out where Tony Stewart is at the start Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Edwards, whose NASCAR Sprint Cup lead is a mere eight points with three races left, will start directly behind his closest chaser.

“Five hundred miles, we’ll see what happens,” Edwards said after qualifying seventh Friday, when his teammates at Roush Fenway Racing claimed the top three spots. “You couldn’t pick a better place to just race it out. This is gonna be a good one. I love this place.”

Stewart will start fifth, in the row ahead of Edwards.

This race is being billed as a “Texas Title Fight” after Stewart got out of his car in Victory Lane at Martinsville last weekend and said Edwards “better be worried.”

While some people thought Stewart might have just been caught up in his emotions with those immediate comments after his third victory in seven Chase races, he reiterated that sentiment Friday in a calm, straightforward manner.

“No, I just stated a fact that we’re ready for this,” Stewart said. “We’re ready for these three weeks. After a race like we had last Sunday, I’m ready to go for these weeks. If anybody counts us out, they’re making a mistake.”

No one has won more Cup races at Texas than Edwards, who has three wins at the 1 1/2 -mile, high-banked track. He was third at the track in April and isn’t bothered by Stewart’s verbal challenge.

“No, it’s in good fun,” Edwards said. “We get along real well and, for me, this week I’ve thought a little bit about who my real competition is and, no offense to Tony or anything, but I think the guys that are behind him are truly the guys who have the biggest chance of doing well over the next three weeks.

“It would be foolish of me to just focus on him and not pay attention to these other guys who have been very, very fast.”

Greg Biffle took the pole with a lap of 193.736 mph. Biffle was the last to run a qualifying lap Friday and just beat out David Ragan (193.729).