Keller wins 10th career Busch Series Bud Pole

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Jason Keller earned his first Busch Series Bud Pole Award and fourth front-row start of the season, running a lap of 187.474 mph at Texas Motor Speedway on Thursday.

Stanton Barrett will start second in Saturday's O'Reilly 300 at the 1.5-mile Texas track after a lap of 186.916 mph.

O'REILLY 300  •  Lineup  •  1st Practice Speeds  •  Grubb, Riggs crash during opening practice  •  Hamilton Jr. getting back on track at Texas

It will be the third time this season Keller and Barrett start their Fords on the front row together. Barrett was the pole-sitter at Las Vegas and Darlington, and Keller qualified second the past three races.

Keller's fast lap was nearly 6 mph slower than Jeff Green's Texas qualifying run of 193.493 mph last April after the track had been resurfaced.

"This place is fast. Last year felt fast and this year felt fast," said Keller, who finished 13th at Texas last year.

Keller is coming off his best finish of the season, a third-place showing last week at Bristol. This is his 10th career Busch pole, the first since last August at Bristol.

Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Scott Riggs, who qualified in a back-up car after crashing in practice, will start 3-4 on Saturday. After the all-Ford front-two rows, the rest of the top-10 starters are in Chevrolets, including series points leader Todd Bodine in sixth.