Rick Crawford, making his 22nd start at Texas, earned his first pole at the 1 1/2 -mile Texas Motor Speedway track with a qualifying lap of 178.826 mph. It is only his fifth pole in 295 career races.

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	-	-	-