Riggs paces first NBS practice at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR Busch Series teams practiced for two hours at Daytona International Speedway in mid-summer for the first time Wednesday without incident, preparing for the evening's Bud Pole Qualifying session for Friday night's Stacker 2/GNC Live Well 250.

	Scott Riggs

And Raybestos Rookie of the Year leader Scott Riggs proved race cars could potentially have more lives than cats as he was quickest of 43 entries in a No. 10 Nesquik Ford that has been wrecked twice already this season.

Riggs turned a lap of the 2.5-mile speedway in 48.860 seconds, an average speed of 184.200 mph. It was in the same primary car that he wrecked in practice here in February, and then had re-skinned only to get it wiped out again in a 29-car accident at Talladega Superspeedway in April.

Harold Holly and the ppc Racing crew proved their body hangers are among the best with the car's performance Wednesday, which placed it .015 seconds clear of second fastest Bobby Hamilton Jr. in another Ford, the No. 25 U.S. Marines Taurus (184.143 mph).

Jason Keller's No. 57 Albertson's Ford (184.087 mph) gave the blue ovals the top-three on the chart, but departing Busch Series driver Scott Wimmer was the surprise of the day in fourth. Wimmer, who next week will drive a Bill Davis Racing Dodge in the Winston Cup Series Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, borrowed a Dodge from BDR crew chief Tommy Baldwin's race team and placed it fourth on the list in No. 23 Siemens colors.

The car and engine combination is the same that former Busch Series champion David Green placed on the front row here in February's EAS/GNC Live Well 300. With Davis deciding to abandon the Busch Series unless he can find sponsorship and enter Wimmer in seven Winston Cup races backed by Siemens, it gives the 26-year-old Wausau, Wis., driver a taste of a Dodge a week early.

"This is a really good car," Wimmer said. "It was just sitting in the shop and Bill decided to bring it for us. They worked on the body some and Terry Elledge really worked on the motor and it's showing -- the car is really good. It's hard to say who's showing what but our car really feels good.

"For me, being here in the summer is a lot of difference because I've been in a Pontiac and now I'm in a Dodge. The Dodge drives a lot better than our Pontiacs did, but we weren't real fast in our Pontiacs, either -- we were pretty slow.

	Ricky Hendrick

"The track feels the same as it always does -- rough and old."

One of few problems experienced in practice was Ricky Hendrick's broken rear end in his No. 5 GMAC Chevrolet. He still ended up 15th on the time sheet despite missing more than an hour of practice.

"We only made two runs -- the one on which the rear end failed and one other," Hendrick said. "The car is pretty good, though it's not as good as we were earlier in the year. I almost feel like this is one place where I don't really care about qualifying up front. It seems like when you qualify good, you race bad and I'd much rather race good."

As usual at Daytona and Talladega, five teams that entered Chevrolets actually showed up with Pontiacs and two other teams that usually run Chevrolets actually entered Pontiacs and brought them.

"You have got to have a really good Monte Carlo, that you can take to the wind tunnel, to be able to run at the front here," rookie Shane Hmiel, who finished fifth in his first Busch superspeedway race in February, said. "Whereas if you have a half-ass Pontiac you should be able to run with the Chevrolets."

The day started off with Hmiel and Kerry Earnhardt burying the hatchet, so to speak, with a meeting with officials in NASCAR's Busch Series office trailer. The pair was involved in a racing accident last weekend at The Milwaukee Mile that saw Earnhardt end up in the wall, after which Earnhardt disparaged Hmiel's driving ability in a television interview.

Such meetings are a common practice to defuse any potential continuation of bad blood at future events.