Edwards won his first pole position of the season Friday, turning a lap at 121.860 mph in qualifying for Saturday night's Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Edwards, who trails only the dominating Busch in the point standings, is 222 points behind, but followed up his victory last weekend in Michigan with his fourth career pole.
"That's as fast as I could go," Edwards said. "The pole is huge for us. This track, obviously track position, pit stall selection, those things are really important."
Busch, with eight wins and two poles this season, will start ninth.
David Reutimann put his Toyota on the outside of Edwards' Ford on the front row, turning a lap at 121.175 mph, with the Chevrolets of Jeff Gordon and rookie Regan Smith in Row 2.
Reutimann's effort was the best of his Cup career.
"I had to pedal it pretty hard coming off of turn two because I got back to the gas pretty quick and it shoved the front end a little bit," he said. "All in all, it ended up being a pretty good lap. It gave us a good pit selection and good starting position."
Gordon, a four-time series champion but non-winner through 23 races this season, is among the nine drivers battling for the final seven spots in the Chase for the championship.
Other drivers battling to stay in, or move into, the 12-driver playoff included Kevin Harvick (8th), who will start sixth; Kasey Kahne (11th), who qualified 13th; Greg Biffle (7th), who will start 14th; and Denny Hamlin (12th), who will start 21st.
Matt Kenseth (10th) starts 25th.
Clint Bowyer and David Ragan, the drivers tied for 13th and only 26 points behind the struggling Hamlin for the final spot, qualified 22nd and 27th, respectively, but Ragan will have to start at the back of the field after trying too hard and crashing during his lap.
"I just got a little free and I felt like I would have enough track to chase it and just didn't get out of the throttle," he said.
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