Spencer heads Daytona non-starters list.

This 44th annual Daytona 500 will lack that little extra element of 'Excitement' this year with Jimmy Spencer's No.41 Target Chip Ganassi Racing team heading a list of ten non-qualifiers for the season-opening NASCAR Winston Cup event.

After his most consistent NASCAR Winston Cup season to date, Jimmy Spencer was a man tipped to surprise in 2002 after snatching the second Chip Ganassi Racing berth alongside Sterling Marlin in the revamped No.41 Target sponsored Dodge Intrepid. Spencer however started the 36-race NASCAR Winston Cup season with a surprise neither he nor the team bargained for, a DNQ for the Daytona 500.

No less than two wrecks in his Gatorade 125-mile qualifying races pretty much summed up Spencer's fortunes during what has been a miserable, (and short) Speedweeks 2002.

After dropping the No.01 tag the team used with Jason Leffler in 2001 and assuming the No.41 plate last seen on Larry Hedrick's car in early 2000, the team were left to rue their decision not to make a second round qualifying attempt on Monday morning. After qualifying a dismal 44th in Bud Pole qualifying with a car visibly unhappy around the high banks of the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, Spencer dropped to 46th before the Gatorade 125's on Thursday, and his luck was still nowhere to be found.

Tipped as a dark horse to win Sunday's Bud Shootout, Spencer's hopes of adding a Main event victory to his Shootout qualifier victory of 1998 were dashed before he entered turn one on the very first lap. When Ricky Rudd experienced transmission problems as the field took the green flag in the 70-lap event, Ryan Newman and Spencer, the two cars directly behind Rudd's No.28 Texaco/Havoline machine, both found themselves running into one another, damaging Spencer's front end and putting him out of contention.

One factor that had the potential to work in Spencer's favour was that he was in the second, somewhat weaker, 125-miler on Thursday. Knowing that he had to finish inside the top 14 or face a calamitous DNQ in the biggest race of the year, Spencer's lowly grid position worked against him in the early going of his 50-lap qualifier. Having to bide his time and thread his way through the slower machinery, Spencer was still mid-pack when Mike Skinner's Morgan McClure Motorsports Chevrolet slowed suddenly coming off turn two on the tenth lap triggering the inevitable chain reaction. Somehow the bumping and boring didn't result in a wild, 2001-type melee, but for Spencer even his superficial damage was another unneeded headache.

Still able to fight on, Spencer's efforts finally came to nought shortly after half distance when his battle hardened right front tyre cried enough sending the red and white machine into the wall with enough force to end a brave, but futile qualifying effort.

The lap ten fracas also saw the demise of Buckshot Jones' qualifying attempt when his No.44 Georgia Pacific Dodge was damaged beyond immediate repair. Shawna Robinson's day also ended in the crash but her 31st fastest qualifying time was just enough to get her into the field as the last qualifying-speed starter. Hut Stricklin's 32nd fastest qualifying time was not fast enough to get him in his first race for Bill Davis Racing after he struggled to 19th place in the opening 125.

Rick Mast was the other Winston Cup regular to miss the cut in the all-Virginia Junie Donlavey owned Ford as the team's languid Superspeedway form showed no signs of abating. A distant 22nd in the first 125 matched an equally distant 43rd fastest time in qualifying and new team sponsors Duke's Mayonnaise must be praying to themselves that Mast's short-track form will keep things respectable.

Of the non-regulars who failed to make the cut, most surprising is Greg Biffle who found no better fortune with Jack Roush's No.16 plate than its previous occupants over the years. An engine failure in the second race accounted for the promising 2003 Raybestos Rookie-to-be.

The remaining five non-qualifiers were, in truth, as to be expected with Kirk Shelmerdine, Norm Benning, Hermie Sadler, Bobby Gerhart and Carl Long never looking like posing a threat. Of the five, Long's performance was most disappointing after much off-season encouragement and apparent improvement that has led to an official run as a Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate.