No Homestead joy for Petty.

Saturday was not a good day for NASCAR's lesser-fancied teams as the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway proved slower to drive than it had on Friday meaning only Andy Houston improved on his time as the massive 51 car field was whittled down to 43.

Houston clipped two tenths of a second off his Friday time as he placed the #96 McDonalds Ford in 29th spot on the grid, demoting Winston Cup debutant Bobby Hamilton Jr down to 30th and forcing Dale Earnhardt to take another Provisional starting slot.

Saturday was not a good day for NASCAR's lesser-fancied teams as the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway proved slower to drive than it had on Friday meaning only Andy Houston improved on his time as the massive 51 car field was whittled down to 43.

Houston clipped two tenths of a second off his Friday time as he placed the #96 McDonalds Ford in 29th spot on the grid, demoting Winston Cup debutant Bobby Hamilton Jr down to 30th and forcing Dale Earnhardt to take another Provisional starting slot.

However Houston and his PPI crew were amongst the only one's celebrating at the conclusion of second round qualifying as no other driver improved on their Bud Pole time.

Leading the eight non-qualifiers was Kyle Petty in the #45 Sprint PCS Pontiac who could manage no better than 35.556 seconds, a full three tenths slower than his previous best. Petty, who had hoped to put on a strong showing at a track where he finished seventh last year, headed Hut Stricklin, Ricky Craven, Dave Marcis, Steve Grissom, Norm Benning, Hermie Sadler and Ted Musgrave as those who will watch the race on TV tomorrow.

Despite qualifying outside the top 43 on Friday, both Matt Kenseth and Bobby Hamilton resorted to taking provisionals and they will start at the expense of Petty and Musgrave who were 43rd and 39th respectively after Bud Pole Qualifying.

Musgrave was fastest of all in Saturday practice but sadly made a mistake on his qualifying run and failed to record a time as did Sadler who will not make his Winston Cup debut for the Joe Bessey team just yet.

Joining Earnhardt (37th), Kenseth (38th) and Hamilton (43rd) in taking provisionals are Terry Labonte, Ken Schrader, Michael Waltrip and Kenny Wallace, none of whom attempted a second run on Saturday.

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