After early frustration, Spencer, Stewart face uphill battle

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- The Subway 400 is an important race for a lot of people, none more so than Jimmy Spencer, Hut Stricklin and Tony Stewart.

Spencer, who will start 12th in today's 43-car field, dug himself a rather deep hole in the season points standings by failing to qualify for the Daytona 500.

Stricklin, the new teammate of Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton, needed a provisional to get the 39th starting position here after failing to qualify in Daytona.

Stewart, expected to be a title contender, made the season-opening lineup, but ran only two laps before an engine failure relegated last year's Winston Cup runner-up to last place.

The burly, rough-and-tumble Spencer, who earned the nickname "Mr. Excitement" in his days on the short tracks of the Northeast, could hardly believe his fate.

Daytona was to be his first event for Chip Ganassi Racing, a team on the rise in NASCAR's Winston Cup Series, with new teammate Sterling Marlin expected to be a title contender again in 2002 after finishing third last year.

"Daytona is old news now, so you just look at the next week coming up, and that's Rockingham," Spencer said. "We'll come here and run good and come out of here with a solid run."

Remaining positive

Spencer is he is trying hard to remain optimistic.

"If anything, I think it made our race team a lot stronger," Spencer said. "Chip Ganassi Racing has a good superspeedway program. We knew we were going to run good, but you've got to look at luck, too, and we were unlucky."

In much the same situation heading into today's 400-mile event on the 1.017-mile North Carolina Speedway oval is Stewart, one of the stock car sport's biggest stars.

"I have some confidence, more so than any other time I've gone to Rockingham," said Stewart, whose Pontiac will start 19th on Sunday. "Even though it's a totally different race track and a totally different engine package, it's back to a normal, weekly routine."