Stricklin misses 'home' race.

Hut Stricklin missed the cut for Saturday's Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 after posting 43rd fastest time in Bud Pole Qualifying at Richmond International Raceway. Stricklin's second DNQ in three races was especially hard to swallow as his Junie Donlavey team is based at RIR and were looking forward to a successful 'home' event.

In a bitter twist of irony, Hut Stricklin and the No.90 Junie Donlavey owned Hills Bros. Ford Taurus team failed to qualify for Saturday night's Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 at the Richmond International Raceway, the track that has been the home of Donlavey's team for more than 50 years.

Prior to the Chevy Monte Carlo 400 weekend, Donlavey's team were the envy of the Winston Cup garage as they would be able to prepare for the event from home thereby ensuring some valuable rest and time with families. Most teams are anxious for any type of break, and for most, that first break does not come until the circuit hits Lowe's Motor Speedway, which is located near the hub of stock-car racing in Charlotte, N.C.

Often criticized for refusing to move his team from Richmond to Charlotte, Donlavey and the team were seen to be the luckiest in the garage this week before racing fate intervened.

Come Friday's Bud Pole qualifying session, Stricklin and the team were still searching for a comfortable set-up as throughout first practice the No.90 Ford was not handling well and was somewhat unpredictable. It seemed as though the problems that resulted in the team's failure to qualify for the Spring race at RIR had not been resolved but nonetheless Stricklin tried to force every last rpm out of the car on his two lap qualifying run.

Sadly, his time of 22.277-seconds was two tenths of a second slower than the standard required to secure a place in the top 36 on the grid. With no Provisional starting place to fall back on, Stricklin and the team will still be able to spend the weekend at home, but not in the way they had planned.