The team and I headed into Daytona this year with all the confidence in the world. We felt really good about our program. We tested really well last month and we had a year of experience under our belt and a fourth-place finish to build on from last year. Our goal was to win or finish in the top five in this year's race.

	Sauter was making a move toward the front when he got caught up in a crash.

During qualifying Wednesday, we were 13th fastest, which was good for a Chevy Monte Carlo. The top-10 fastest times were dominated by Pontiacs, so we were happy with our starting position.

We ran a pretty conservative race in the beginning. We wanted to get into a rhythm and find a line to race in, so we were fairly patient at the start. It also gave us the opportunity to see which of the other cars were fast for drafting partners for later in the race.

With less than 75 laps to go, I began to make a charge toward the front. I drafted with my brother, Tim, for several laps and we eventually both moved up into the top-10.

Then, on lap 113, while drafting behind Jeff Green in the No. 10 car, and Matt Kenseth in the No. 17 car behind me, a wall of smoke appeared ahead of me between Turns 1 and 2. I shot for an opening and thought I made it through unscathed, but the No. 37 car, Kevin Grubb, just clipped the left rear of my car. I was sent spinning down the banking and picked up some heavy damage to the car. It doesn't take much at Daytona to lose the handle.

The pit crew did a real good job of repairing the damage to the Quality Stores Chevy and keeping me on the lead lap. We went on to post a 25th-place finish. It is not what we had hoped for, but it was still a solid team effort considering the circumstances.

We are pretty excited to get to Rockingham next weekend. We are looking forward to a good race. We qualified real well in both races there last year and had some good runs. And, our testing in the offseason went very well.

I leave Thursday to go to Rockingham. Our goal is to come away with a win or at least a top five finish. Until then, I look forward to spending a few days with my family.

Jay Sauter drives the No. 43 car in the NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division and will be submitting a weekly diary to ESPN.com throughout the season.