Bobby Hamilton Jr. qualified 24th in his backup car after slamming his primary No. 32 Chevy into the fence in practice. Credit: Autostock

Notebook: Johnson blows engine in practice

Jimmie Johnson blew an engine in the final minutes of the second practice Thursday, and the No. 48 Chevrolet will have to go to the rear of the field in the UAW-GM 500.

Inside the Numbers Lowe's Motor Speedway 1st Practice Speeds Driver Speed Time E. Sadler 190.779 28.305 T. Stewart 190.449 28.354 J. Johnson 189.980 28.424 M. Martin 189.294 28.527 S. Riggs 189.202 28.541 2nd Practice Speeds Driver Speed Time J. Johnson 193.216 27.948 R. Newman 192.678 28.026 M. Martin 191.829 28.150 E. Sadler 191.483 28.201 T. Stewart 191.462 28.204 Speeds: 1st Practice | 2nd Practice Qualifying Results Driver Speed Time E. Sadler 193.216 27.948 R. Newman 193.126 27.961 J. Johnson 192.850 28.001 T. Stewart 192.706 28.022 B. Labonte 192.671 28.027 UAW-GM Quality 500: Race Lineup Highs and Lowe'sJohnson qualifies 3rd at LMS, but will start at the back Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Despite the setback, Johnson qualified third Thursday night to secure a good pit-stall selection for Saturday night's 500-mile event. Johnson has won the past three Nextel Cup races at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Johnson was third in the first practice and backed that up by running a lap of 193.216 mph in the second practice. That speed was better than Ryan Newman's track record of 192.988, set here in May.

Speeds were up sharply in Thursday's second practice, with Johnson unofficially becoming the second driver to break the 28-second barrier at Lowe's.

Tony Stewart had predicted such high speeds earlier in the day before the cars hit the track.

"The speeds we are going to run [Thursday], you guys are going to shake your heads," said Stewart, who was fifth-best in the second practice.

Two cars had trouble in the first practice session. Bobby Hamilton Jr. hit the fence early in the session and will have to go to a backup. Stuart Kirby brushed the wall with the right side of his car, but his team elected to fix the damage.

Biffle: I'll let you lead a lap -- if you're close enough

There was a lot of talk after Kansas about teammates letting each other lead a single lap and getting five bonus points.

Roush Racing has all five of its cars in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, and the issue came to a head at Kansas, when Matt Kenseth did not allow Kurt Busch to lead a lap.

Greg Biffle said that Kenseth made the right decision because Busch couldn't get to Kenseth's Ford.

"If you want to lead a lap, you better have a good enough car to lead a lap," Biffle said. "We will give up four or five car lengths to let a guy lead a lap."

Evernham changes Crocker's schedule for 2006

Erin Crocker was slated to run full time in the Busch Series in 2006, but team owner Ray Evernham said Thursday that Crocker would instead run the full Craftsman Truck Series schedule.

Crocker also will run six Busch races and six ARCA races, giving her a schedule of nearly 40 races. Crocker has raced sporadically this season, including two Busch starts, both of which ended in accidents. She suffered a cracked rib in the Dover wreck.

Evernham said that Crocker needs seasoning in racing situations.

Erin Crocker has completed just 133 out of a possible 453 laps in two Busch starts for Ray Evernham. Credit: Autostock

"I would put Erin in a Cup car tomorrow, if it was purely qualifying and speed," Evernham said. "Without having raced that much on pavement and without racing in traffic a lot, we feel that this is going to be a much better way to get more experience racing, without having all the pressure."

Evernham Motorsports has never fielded a full-time Craftsman Truck team, but Evernham says the pieces are already in place to get the program up and running. The team has already scheduled Crocker to run in the Craftsman Truck Series' events at Phoenix and Homestead later this year.

"Even though Dodge is backing away from their factory support in the Truck series, there still is a lot of knowledge there," Evernham said. "We just need to hire the right people, and you don't need as many trucks as you would Busch cars. It will actually be a little easier to put together than the Busch team would have been."

Crocker said she's looking forward to running in more than 40 races next season, but admits she is disappointed it won't be in the Busch series.

"I am not going to lie, I was a little disappointed when we first talked about it because I am a competitive person and we had plans,'' she said. "But in the long run, this is better for me.''

Track is much better than in test, Stewart says

	ALSO •   Stewart crashes at Lowe's test •   'Levigation' key word at Lowe's Second rowPoints leader Tony Stewart qualifies fourth at Lowe's Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Tony Stewart crashed twice in two days at the annual fall test session at Lowe's Motor Speedway, but the Nextel Cup points leader says the track has improved "1,000 percent" since then.

The track has been under fire for using a grinding technique called "levigating." The different surface made its debut here in May, when 22 caution flags marred the Coca-Cola 600.

The track dragged tires on the surface in preparation for this weekend's Busch-Nextel Cup doubleheader, and Stewart says it helped.

"There weren't very many options to do. The option was to take and drag tires around the track," Stewart said. "We came back the next week with the Busch car and it was 1,000 percent better."

Hall of Fame Racing tryout

Texas Instruments is using Friday night's Busch Series race as a tryout for its entry into full-time Nextel Cup racing next season.

Texas Instruments will sponsor the Hall of Fame Racing car scheduled to debut next season under ownership of Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach. To gain experience, the company is fielding a Busch car for Tony Stewart to test everything from the viability of the paint scheme to learning what kind of commitments the company will have during a race weekend.

"This is a one-race sponsorship because we are big believers in learning as much as we can for the future,'' spokesman Jon Van Scoter said. "Tony wants to use this race as a tune up to the Cup race and we as a company want to do the same for what we're going to be doing next year.''

Hall of Fame Racing has yet to name a driver for the 2006 season, but Texas Instruments said the team should have one in place before the year is over. The team is running with support from Joe Gibbs Racing and recently began assembling its management crew.

Bowyer expected to replace Blaney on Cup circuit

Richard Childress Racing is expected to replace Dave Blaney in the No. 07 Chevrolet next season with Clint Bowyer.

Bowyer currently drives in the Busch Series for Childress, and will continue to do so next season as he attempts to run both a full Nextel Cup and Busch schedule. The official announcement is scheduled for Saturday.

Bowyer is currently second in the Busch series points with one win and 25 top-10 finishes. He trails leader Martin Truex Jr. by 49 points entering Friday night's event.

Blaney, in his first full season with Childress, is currently 31st in points with one top-10 finish.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.