Spencer

Team Target had a heck of a weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. We qualified fourth, which was the fourth straight time we have started the Target car in the top-10 this season. We made a good pit selection and ran up front all day. We definitely had a chance of getting the win but, unfortunately, Kurt Busch thought otherwise.

I knew my car was good and straight up off the corners. That's what you want at Bristol. With about 50 laps left in the race, I drove up underneath Busch going through Turns 3 and 4. I drove down on the inside of him and never laid a tire on him. I got around him for the lead and on the next lap he just hit me in the back bumper.

I don't know how I saved it. The good Lord helped me save it.

That would have been a pretty bad wreck for me. We probably would have finished back in the pack, but we still came back and salvaged second. After the race some of the guys from Earnhardt Jr.'s team came up and said they couldn't believe I saved that thing. I was shocked myself.

That incident took 20 laps off the tires right there, and I knew that. I just thank the good Lord we didn't blow one out and hit the wall and we came home second. There wasn't really a chance for me to catch Busch after he hit me because the tires got messed up.

There are a lot of things you can and can't do, and one thing you can't do is beat and bang on people and knock them up out of the way, especially racing for the lead. I know a lot of guys who don't do that, and they're Winston Cup champions. Like myself and Jeff Gordon did early in the race.

I admire the way Gordon races me and I race him. Some guys have to learn and have to learn the hard way. Busch shouldn't race that way, but he won it. I just don't forget.

I just look at it as when you start racing for victories and top-fives, you'd better respect your competitors because it'll come back to haunt you pretty quick. I feel like I respected everybody Sunday in the top-five. All in all, I think you should have a little more respect for the guy leading the race.

If you got beat fair and square, there's a way of losing. I got beat Saturday in the Busch race by Jeff Green. I could handle that. I'm a big guy. But I can't handle getting smashed into and knocked up and out of the racetrack. You just don't race that way for victories.

It really frustrates you because it's so hard to win races and so hard to run in the top-five anymore, especially at Bristol. You've got to really be patient. We were patient all day. I'm very upset that it happened, but that's life.

The car was great and I really enjoyed racing with Gordon and Tony Stewart and those guys. Team Target was awesome all day. We kept adjusting on our car and got it real good on long runs and we had good pit stops all day. We just never felt like we were as good as we needed to be on new tires, but on old tires we were really good.

The team is strong, and we'll get wins. There's no question in my mind. The guys do an excellent job of making these cars adjustable. We're getting better every week.

Last weekend we should have had a top-five, too, but we got caught up in that wreck. Our whole team is ready for Texas now.

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.