Spencer

The Charlotte race weekend was full of ups and downs for my Busch team and my Winston Cup guys. We hit the track in the Winston Cup cars Thursday and the Target team had a pretty rough start. We had some problems bottoming out in practice and then toward the end of the practice session we got into the wall and tore up the back end.

We decided to transfer the engine into our backup car and go with that one. The guys did a good job. They did a lot of work in three hours, having to change the motor in the car. Sterling (Marlin) and the Coors Light team helped out on the shocks we were going to use for qualifying and the setup. It's great to have a teammate in those situations.

We only got in two laps in the backup car during the end of practice, so we really didn't have it set-up the way we wanted it for qualifying. Later that evening we ran a 29.427-second lap and qualified the Target Dodge in 30th. Of course, it's disappointing starting from the back, but overall we did OK considering all the problems we had in practice.

Friday we had Busch practice and qualifying. The car was a lot better for qualifying than it was during the morning practice. We made some changes because I had no rear grip in the turns. That was really our only problem. We got it dialed in pretty well and we qualified 14th in the Yellow Chevrolet. We almost got caught in another practice accident when the No. 90 car spun in front of us in Turn 2. I dove down to the apron, which gave us a little damage to the left-front part of the nose. At those speeds, there's not a lot of time to think. I was looking for smoke from his tires to decide which way I was going to avoid him.

The car was pretty good during the first part of the Busch race. I was a little tight off, but I was having a hard time getting into rhythm. I figured the longer we went, the car would come to me, and we would be OK. We were running with the leaders through the first 50 laps. The car was awesome, and I was really starting to get into a groove.

But then I just drove it into the corner too hard, and I couldn't save it. We hit the wall in Turn 2 when the back end of the car broke loose. The right side was all messed up and it created a severe vibration that only got worse. We brought the car in twice under the caution to work on it. The car looked drivable, but the more I drove it the worse the vibration got. We decided to park it for the day and finished 38th. I want to win so badly for this team and for Yellow. I hate that I wrecked their car like this. It's been a tough year so far for this team.

Sunday night, the Target Dodge was real loose getting into the corners at the start of the Coca-Cola 600. From the first caution on, we were making adjustments on the car. We moved up the field quite a bit until I felt a vibration in the car that kept getting worse. I tried to ride it out, but in order to be safe we brought it in under green and looked at it. On the first pit stop the guys didn't find anything unusual. I went back out and the vibration continued. Luckily, about that time we had another caution and I was able to bring it in for a longer period of time. The team found that the screws that hold the wheel spacer on backed out on the left rear tire. I'm glad we brought it in and fixed it because it was only going to get worse.

We went two laps down by doing that and we spent the rest of the evening tightening the car and catching as many lapped cars as possible. On the last lap, we were able to catch the No. 26 car and move up one position to finish 25th. We'll just see what we can do next weekend at Dover, Del.

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.