Spencer

We've had two top-10 finishes in a row and I was hoping to turn it up a notch this weekend at Martinsville Speedway and come home with a win but we had typical short-track trouble.

On Friday, we qualified the Target Dodge in ninth position. It was a good lap, but I really slowed the car down way too much. I've got a bad habit here at Martinsville. I kind of slow down in the corners and get back in the throttle real quick. It was my fault. I just got in the corners and stopped it really. I thought we had a good chance to sit on the pole. We've been qualifying really well this year.

Sunday morning before the race I found out Kevin Harvick had been "parked" by NASCAR and Kenny Wallace was going to compete in his car. I was really surprised at the outcome of Kevin's actions on Saturday in the truck race. The worst penalty is not being able to drive a race car.

NASCAR felt he went to far so they penalized him. NASCAR makes the decisions so you have to respect them. Being "parked" for a race is a stiff penalty for drivers. Kevin will be a champion one day, but NASCAR thought he wasn't driving like a champion. I think they are trying to teach him how a champion drives. He is racing under their rules; we all are. This deal surprised everyone. It shows you that NASCAR doesn't play favorites in this sport.

You know, it's kind of like The Masters golf tournament this weekend. If a player picked up a ball and cleaned it and officials let it go. It just doesn't work that way. We will all learn from this one. We have to be aggressive on the track, but we have to watch how we handle our aggressiveness. As drivers, we keep pushing to the limits until NASCAR stops it. I'm not sure how I would handle it if I was him. I really feel bad for him; it's a tough situation.

We had a good run going at the start of the race. We had one of the fastest cars on the track and we were competing in the top-10 until we came into pit. They said we had a man over the wall too quick. We were held in the pits for 15 seconds and that cost us a lap.

We cut a left rear tire down, and that cost us two more laps. We made two of them back up and never did get the other one back.

Ricky Craven says I was holding him up, so he spun me out. I didn't see it that way. Then afterwards I passed him on the outside and he got me again. We still ended up the first car one lap down, but I really feel like we had an opportunity to win.

Track position was critical and we never could get track position back. That's just short-track racing. We'll see what we can do at Talladega this weekend.

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.