NASCAR NOTEBOOK: CRASH COSTS MILLER SPOT IN KING TACO.

Byline: Louis Brewster Staff Writer

FONTANA - Clint Bowyer will start on the pole for this morning's NASCAR Grand National West King Taco 200. The green flag for the 100-lap race will fall at 9:30.

The race will start without Brandon Miller, who qualified second but was involved in a crash during the final practice session Thursday afternoon. Miller, without a backup, withdrew from the third race in the 13-race West schedule.

``It's tough to accept,'' said Miller, ``but it happens, and we have to move on.''

Miller collided with Sean Woodside in the crash, who tested the new soft walls when his Pontiac hit the turn one wall. Neither driver was hurt in the incident.

Mira Loma's David Gilliand will start third, with Tim Woods of Chino Hills 15th, inside of the eighth row. David Eschelan of Fontana is 19th and Gene Woods of Ontario 27th.

--Green finds home: Jeff Green has driven for seven owners in his Cup career that started in 1994, and that includes two stints each with Teresa Earnhardt and Richard Childress.

These days, the 2000 Busch Series champion thinks he might have found a home with Richard Petty Enterprises. On Friday, he qualified the familiar No. 43 Dodge in the second row for Sunday's Auto Club 500 with a time of 38.644 seconds at 1186.316 mph.

``When I got in that car in Dover last year, I'd heard a lot of rumors and a lot of horror stories about Petty Enterprises,'' said Green. ``They've got as good of stuff as any car I've sat in. I think the difference for me driving the car and maybe for them letting me drive the car is that we believe in each other. Everything I say they believe.

``The couple of opportunities I had before, 75 percent of it they might have believed,'' said Green, whose 19th-place finish last week at Talladega equaled his season's best. ``Everybody associated with Petty Enterprises believes in Jeff Green, and I believe in them.''

Green said there is room for improvement with the team.

``We've had some races where we had top-15 and top-10 cars, but our results don't show that,'' said Green. ``Our main goal is to come here and get some results. If we can come out of here with a top-10 finish, that would be great for us.

``We could build on that and go on to the next race.''

--Orange show: Nextel Cup driver Morgan Shepard will sign autographs tonight at Orange Show Speedway prior to the ASA Speed Truck Challenge feature.

Upland-based Lee Hatch leads the truck series in points following his second-place finish last week at Bakersfield, the first of four races he did not win. Hatch, who is expected to land a major sponsor within the week, leads Kevin Fedderson by 18 points.

Louis Brewster, [phone]

l-brewster(at)dailybulletin.com