Crawford wins Truck pole in Texas
Cale Gale qualified second at 178.778 mph. Series points leader Johnny Benson qualified 20th, 13 spots behind Ron Hornaday Jr., who trails him by only 31 points.
Kyle Busch qualified third Thursday for the NASCAR race at Texas in a truck that was salvaged two nights earlier from a hauler fire that destroyed the team's primary truck and a lot of equipment.
"I'll put a car freshener in it, hang it from the mirror."
"With the black soot, you couldn't read the number on the side of it this morning," Busch said after his lap of 178.183 mph.
The hauler for Billy Ballew Motorsports was destroyed by fire late Tuesday night near Shreveport, La., when it was en route to Texas for Friday night's Chevy Silverado 350K. Busch said the backup truck and a scarred pit box were the only things that were salvaged.
"Everything else is gone. It's unfortunate for Billy," Busch said. "I'm sure the $1 million in insurance won't cover all that was lost."
Busch, the runner-up to Hornaday at Texas in June, said the salvaged truck was full of water after firefighters put out the fire. The crew worked overnight Wednesday pumping the engine and making sure everything ran OK.
"It seems like everything is just normal with it," Busch said. "I'll put a car freshener in it, hang it from the mirror."
Italian Max Papis, will be starting the Chevy Silverado 350K from the 3rd row. “Mad Max" has earned an impressive 5th starting position with best lap time of 30.341 and speed of 177.98 MPH.
This will be Max’ first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race, and also his debut with Germain Racing, driving the # 07 GEICO Toyota Tundra. Max has recently announced his association with GEICO and Germain Racing, to compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the next four years.
“It’s a great beginning for my first ever qualifying for Germain Racing. It will give us a big boost for today, attempting to qualify for the Sprint Cup Race and hopefully giving the team a good result in the Craftsman Truck Series Race," Papis said.
Lineup
| POS | CAR | DRIVER | MAKE | SPONSOR | SPEED | TIME | BEHIND |
| 1 | 14 | Rick Crawford | Ford | Circle Bar Truck Corral / Power Stroke Diesel | 178.826 | 30.197 | Leader |
| 2 | 2 | Cale Gale | Chevrolet | American Commercial Lines | 178.778 | 30.205 | -0.008 |
| 3 | 51 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | Miccosukee Resort & Gaming / NOS Energy Drink | 178.183 | 30.306 | -0.109 |
| 4 | 09 | Travis Kvapil | Ford | Zaxby's | 178.071 | 30.325 | -0.128 |
| 5 | 07 | Max Papis | Toyota | GEICO / Construct Corps | 177.977 | 30.341 | -0.144 |
| 6 | 21 | Jon Wood | Ford | U.S. Air Force | 177.789 | 30.373 | -0.176 |
| 7 | 33 | Ron Hornaday | Chevrolet | VFW | 177.661 | 30.395 | -0.198 |
| 8 | 7 | T.J. Bell | Chevrolet | Home4TheHolidays.org | 177.643 | 30.398 | -0.201 |
| 9 | 6 | Colin Braun* | Ford | Con-way Freight | 177.328 | 30.452 | -0.255 |
| 10 | 30 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | Lumber Liquidators | 177.165 | 30.480 | -0.283 |
| 11 | 18 | Dennis Setzer | Dodge | Carter County Dodge | 177.043 | 30.501 | -0.304 |
| 12 | 99 | Erik Darnell | Ford | Northern Tool + Equipment | 176.962 | 30.515 | -0.318 |
| 13 | 13 | Shelby Howard | Chevrolet | FarmPaint.com | 176.875 | 30.530 | -0.333 |
| 14 | 15 | Ryan Lawler | Toyota | Ergon Hyprene | 176.777 | 30.547 | -0.350 |
| 15 | 81 | Donny Lia* | Chevrolet | Randy Moss Motorsports / NationRides.com | 176.765 | 30.549 | -0.352 |
| 16 | 8 | Chad McCumbee | Chevrolet | Malcolmson Construction | 176.748 | 30.552 | -0.355 |
| 17 | 5 | Mike Skinner | Toyota | XM Satellite Radio / Toyota Tundra | 176.678 | 30.564 | -0.367 |
| 18 | 22 | Scott Speed* | Toyota | Red Bull | 176.424 | 30.608 | -0.411 |
| 19 | 60 | Jack Sprague | Toyota | wyler.com | 175.901 | 30.699 | -0.502 |
| 20 | 23 | Johnny Benson | Toyota | Toyota Certified Used Vehicles | 175.884 | 30.702 | -0.505 |
| 21 | 10 | Brendan Gaughan | Ford | International Maxx Force Diesel | 175.873 | 30.704 | -0.507 |
| 22 | 9 | Paul Tracy | Toyota | Bombardier Learjet / Sport Clips | 175.724 | 30.730 | -0.533 |
| 23 | 63 | Jack Smith | Ford | Dave Porter Truck Sales | 175.570 | 30.757 | -0.560 |
| 24 | 11 | David Starr | Toyota | Zachry | 175.501 | 30.769 | -0.572 |
| 25 | 16 | Brian Scott* | Toyota | Albertson's | 175.313 | 30.802 | -0.605 |
| 26 | 59 | Terry Cook | Toyota | Team ASE / Harris Trucking | 174.933 | 30.869 | -0.672 |
| 27 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Chevrolet | McGuire-Nicho-las / Menards | 174.210 | 30.997 | -0.800 |
| 28 | 08 | Jason White | Dodge | Gunbroker.com | 172.900 | 31.232 | -1.035 |
| 29 | 40 | Jeff Green | Chevrolet | Key Motorsports | 172.894 | 31.233 | -1.036 |
| 30 | 0 | Butch Miller | Chevrolet | ASI Limited | 171.969 | 31.401 | -1.204 |
| 31 | 136 | J C Stout | Ford | Mittler Bros. Machine | 166.394 | 32.453 | -2.256 |
| 32 | 157 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | Benning Racing | 147.255 | 36.671 | -6.474 |
| 33 | 189 | Mike Harmon | Chevrolet | Lafferty Performance | – | – | – |
| 34 | 41 | Ryan Mathews | Dodge | CHS Motorsports | – | – | – |