Riggs bounces back big after practice crash

FORT WORTH, Texas -- NASCAR Busch Series veteran Scott Riggs used a back-up car with no laps on it to qualify fourth Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway for Saturday's O'Reilly 300.

Riggs and Kevin Grubb were forced to go to back-up cars after separate single car accidents in practice before Bud Pole Qualifying.

	Kevin Grubb's No. 26 Ford back-up car will start 19th on Saturday. Credit: Turner Sports Interactive

Riggs, who was fourth in this event last year, crashed his No. 10 Nestle Nesquik Ford backwards into the Turn 3 wall on the 1.5-mile speedway when he got loose on a run with about five minutes left in practice. The car was third quickest in the pre-qualifying session.

Riggs made just one lap in qualifying and was on the pole for a short time when he ran 28.930 seconds, an average speed of 186.657 mph. Busch regular Jason Keller won the pole with a lap in 28.804 / 187.474 in the Albertson's Ford.

"It was a really good job on Scott's part to suck it up and go make a lap like that," Riggs' crew chief Doug Randolph said. "It's real funny because he said the second lap probably would have been better, but I wasn't gonna let him run a second lap.

"It's a really tough deal to wreck a car like that and not get any practice with it (back-up). The guys on the crew did a heckuva job getting the back-up car out and making sure we got it exactly like the other car."

Riggs' faith in his crew brought up a subject that is understood very little outside a NASCAR garage area but is critical inside it.

"I think today says a lot about what we've achieved in just five races," Randolph said. "People underestimate that chemistry and the ability to work together. There are 20 cars out here that have the same equipment and it's the people that get it done -- and that's chemistry.

"I've been involved with bad chemistry and I've been involved with good chemistry. There's no explanation for it a lot of times -- nobody's right and nobody's wrong. But it's chemistry and the people that make these things go.

"I can't say enough about these guys. They had a wrecked car and just pulled the other one out and went about their business. Scott did what he had to do and it was pretty incredible."

Grubb's qualifying run put his No. 26 Dr Pepper Dodge 19th on the 43-car grid.

While different scenarios caught Riggs and Grubb in practice, Texan Joe Aramendia and Andy Belmont both crashed while trying to qualify. They took provisionals to line up 41st and 43rd, respectively.

"I was out there on stickers just trying to scuff my tires, actually," Riggs said. "I wasn't trying to go too fast. We'd had a little loose feeling getting into the corners the whole time we've been here.

"When we'd get all the way out of the throttle is when it would be loosest, so I was just trying to go slow out there. When I got all the way out of the throttle it got away from me and got into the wall."

O'REILLY 300  •  Lineup  •  1st Practice Speeds  •  Complete Race Coverage  •  Hamilton Jr. getting back on track at Texas  •  Keller cruises to Busch Series Bud Pole at Texas

"I hate it for the Nesquik guys because we felt like we had a shot at the pole."

Grubb's car was 22nd in practice and hit the wall coming off Turn 2 when he apparently cut a tire. He made one run to scuff tires with his back-up car and the team changed engines before qualifying.

"The right front (tire) went down in the middle of (Turns) 1 and 2," Grubb said. "It seems like that happens a lot here at Texas. It hit, but not that hard (because) I was off the gas.

"I was trying to gather it in for a while before it hit."

Practice was also halted twice for debris on the race track. Damon Lusk lightly brushed the wall with his No. 6 Sta-rite Pumps Dodge but did little damage to the car that was 21st best in practice behind Winston Cup driver Joe Nemechek, whose best lap was in 28.945 seconds, an average speed of 186.561 mph.

Riggs said his back-up car was used at the Homestead finale last season, where it finished 17th. He said the wind, which was gusting over the track throughout practice was not a factor.

"You could feel the wind out there, and the car was sort of twitching around because of it," Riggs said, "but I don't think that's what got us."