RUSTY INVOLVED IN CRASH IN 125-MILE QUALIFIER;
STARTS 37TH IN SUNDAY'S DAYTONA 500

Rusty starts from the 37th position here in Sunday's Daytona 500 as he was forced to fall back on a points provisional starting spot. He started 16th in the second 125-mile qualifier and never had the opportunity to show any muscle after getting caught up in an accident on the 10th lap. The team worked gallantly to repair the car and get it back into action. Rusty actually took his wrecked car back up into the top 10 with seven laps remaining in his race, but fell back to finish 16th. Only the top 14 finishers in each qualifying race earned Daytona 500 spots by their finishes. The remainder of the field was filled by a
combination of qualifying speeds and the car owner points from last season. Rusty's speed from last Saturday was not fast enough to pick up one of six spots allocated by that basis and he was forced to go the points route to make the field. Michael Waltrip won the second qualifier, with Tony Stewart second, Jerry Nadeau third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Bobby Labonte fifth.

"The (No.) 4 car (Mike Skinner) must have had an ignition problem or something because he bogged down really bad in the turn," Rusty said after the race. "The 44 car (Buckshot Jones) got into the back of him and somebody got into the back of the 44. I was up on the high side and the 44 veered right up into me and that sent my right rear fish-tailing into the outside wall. The boys patched here up as good as they could and we got back out there. But the damage down to the right rear
spoiler area just took all the stability out of the thing. We decided to go to the backup car.the (PC-) 28 car that we used here for the Shoot-out last Sunday. When we decided to use the other car, it really didn't matter where we finished here today because we were gonna have to start in the back anyhow. The Chevys are the class of the field right now and we've got our work cut out for us. But that's be a helluva' story for us to pull the backup out and win this thing and that's exactly what we're gonna' be trying to do."

Sunday's Daytona 500 has a 12:30 p.m. starting time and features live coverage by NBC-TV and MRN Radio.