Spencer

Jimmy Spencer, driver of the No. 41 Target Dodge, also races the No. 1 Yellow Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series. He competed in both the Winston Cup and Busch races last weekend at Darlington Raceway.

Sometimes I wonder why I drive Busch cars, but with a team like Team Yellow, it's fun. Driving in the Busch Series is obviously something I don't have to do. I just love to race.

When I joined on with this team a year ago, I came here expecting to win races. That's what the team was expecting, too -- no top-10s, no top-fives, just wins. I see why Mark Martin quit driving Busch cars, and why Dale Earnhardt quit doing it. From some aspects of it, there's nothing really to be gained. But I just love to race, and I love to win. I get the chance to do both with this Yellow Racing team. I drive in the Busch Series for the fun of it. It does allow me to gain some experience for Sundays, like what the track is going to do.

Darlington was where it all started with me and the race team and Yellow last year. I remember we had a good car there that day. We got into an accident and got the bumper knocked off, but we were running in the top five when that happened. We were a top-five car right out of the blocks. I left there thinking, 'Yeah, this is a pretty darn good race team.' We produced three wins last year, so it was a pretty good year for Team Yellow.

Of all the tracks I go to, I respect Ol' Lady Darlington the most. She can be your worst nightmare, and she hands out those Darlington Stripes on a regular basis. That's why they call her The Lady In Black. It's just a treacherous place to race. The fans get their money's worth, no question about it. It's a race track the drivers either come out saying, 'I'm really, really happy' or saying 'Boy, I just had a terrible day. I'm glad we're out of here.'

Of all the tracks, Darlington is the one that you can get in trouble the quickest. When I say trouble, you run three inches from the wall all around the track, and the moment you take your mind off of the wall, that's when you run into it. The track just wasn't designed for our type of racing. But on the other side of it, when you watch a race at Darlington, you'll see better races there than at any other track.

On Friday, we qualified 15th with the Team Yellow car. We were a little snug on the qualifying run. If the car is loose or pushing, it's going to hurt you more here than any other track.

During the race Saturday, a mechanical mishap killed our chances for a possible top-five finish. We had a broken rear-end gear when I was in third place and trying to catch the leaders. I had to bring the car in with only 12 laps to go and ended up finishing 24th. Obviously, it's disappointing, but that's life sometimes. I don't know if we could have caught the leader, but we would have had a nice finish. I've got to hand it to this Yellow Racing team; we had a good car all day. We just got unlucky in the end.

On the Winston Cup side, we qualified the Target Dodge in seventh place Friday. I have to thank the Target guys for giving me a great car Sunday. We quickly moved into the top-five and I was in second around lap 100. We stayed up front all day. Unfortunately, up front is where all of the accidents happened.

When Tony Stewart was leading and he was getting ready to pass Buckshot Jones, the two got together and started a chain reaction at the front of the pack. We all slowed down as much as we could, but that track is so narrow, there's no room there. We were just too close to avoid it.

I had a top-five car here at Darlington and it's just too bad what happened. That's as hard as I've hit in a long time. I want to thank my guys at the shop for the head restraints and the way they mount everything. I'm a little sore from stepping on the brake pedal so hard.

We had a good car today. We were flying on new tires. I'm very upset by it, but at least nobody got seriously injured.

The Target Dodge was damaged too much to put it back on the track. So, we packed up and headed home with a 36th-place finish.

Jimmy Spencer is the driver of the No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T. He will be providing a regular diary to ESPN.com throughout the Winston Cup season.