'Excitement' builds at Indy.

Jimmy Spencer will lead the field away from the green flag in the eighth annual Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after taking his first NASCAR Winston Cup pole position since 1994 and continuing Travis Carter's recent hot streak in qualifying.

Slowly but surely the two car Travis Carter owned Winston Cup operation are building themselves into week to week contenders on the NASCAR Winston Cup tour as Jimmy 'Mr Excitement' Spencer scored the team's third pole position in the last four races by setting the standard in Saturday's sole Bud Pole Qualifying session at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

A number of factors contributed to Spencer's second career pole position although the result isn't as big a surprise as one would have thought considering his and team-mate Todd Bodine's recent form in qualifying.

An early qualifying draw proved to be a major advantage as the notoriously fickle IMS lost grip as the temperature increased during the session with the early session cloud cover largely dissipating and thus thwarting almost everyone with a qualifying draw higher than 30.

Spencer rolled off sixth out of 54 drivers and used the prodigious power of his Robert Yates engine to rip off a lap of 50.093-seconds to displace early session pole-sitter Kevin Harvick who was the first man off pit-road.

Despite a major wiggle in turn three Spencer still expressed delight with his performance, as he has never previously started in the top 20 at Indianapolis. "I can't say enough about the Yates guys," announced a jubilant Spencer before adding ominously; "this is the best car I've ever had at Indy."

Joining Spencer on the front row will be the Ray Evernham Dodge of Bill Elliott who enjoyed a clean, tidy run of 50.121-seconds from 28th qualifying position while rookie Casey Atwood raised several eyebrows concerning the controversial two inch front spoiler extension given to the Dodge teams prior to this race by placing the second Evernham prepared Intrepid third on the grid with a lap of 50.178-seconds.

Ricky Rudd was the only driver with a qualifying draw higher than 30 to trouble the top men on the grid as he flung his Robert Yates Ford around the 2.5-mile track in a time of 50.214-seconds before announcing that he had a further four tenths under the hood which the track conditions prevented him from exploiting. On this form the intimidating black Texaco machine could be the car to beat on Sunday.

"That's a very good lap," exclaimed Rudd. "We just happened to have a bad qualifying draw (50th)."

Ryan Newman, fastest in Friday's opening practice session was the best of the three Penske Racing Ford's in fifth spot overall despite being the first of several cars to brush the wall coming off turn four and losing valuable tenths. Newman's team-mates Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield were both hindered by a bad qualifying draw and will start37th (Wallace) and 16th (Mayfield) although Wallace looked massively out of sorts throughout his lap and was over a second off Spencer's pace as he claimed the first provisional starting position.

Dale Jarrett confirmed Yates' strong form by placing sixth overall after developing a push coming off turn four which required him to momentarily lift out of the throttle while the impressive Ricky Craven lines up seventh despite rolling off pit-road in 30th place.

Completing the top ten on the grid are Sterling Marlin, Tony Stewart who was a hot tip or pole until track conditions changed and Todd Bodine in the second Travis Carter owned machine.

Rookie Kevin Harvick put in his usual stellar performance despite being the first car off pit-road and he will bring the No.29 RCR Chevrolet to the grid in 11th place as the quickest Chevrolet driver while Andy Houston put in just the kind of performance both he and the No.96 PPI Motorsports team needed with 12th spot fastest time.

Defending Brickyard 400 Champion Bobby Labonte rolled off pit-road last car but one and yet still hauled his Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac into 15th place ahead of Mayfield and the astounding Rich Bickle who automatically gave the financially strapped Midwest Transit team their best pay-day of the year by simply qualifying for this prestigious event in a praiseworthy 17th position.

Ward Burton looked sharp en-route to 19th fastest time and his qualifying spot belied the speed of the No.22 Bill Davis Dodge while Robert Pressley was another driver to brush the turn four wall as he placed the Jasper Engines Ford in 21st position.

Jeff Burton (22nd), Matt Kenseth (23rd), Mark Martin (25th), and Johnny Benson (26th) all disappointed but none was more disappointing than Jeff Gordon who rolled off pit-road 54th and last and could only manage 27th fastest time on his single qualifying lap to edge out Ron Hornaday who produced a good run when he needed to as his AJ Foyt team were one of three Winston Cup regulars to have no provisional starting slots left. The other two teams, Ultra Motorsports (Mike Wallace) and Morgan McClure Motorsports (Kevin Lepage), failed to make the 43 car field.

Non qualification was particularly hard on Lepage who held 36th position (the last spot guaranteed on speed) as Gordon bumped him from the field at the last second and despite being 37th fastest, the No.4 Kodak Chevrolet misses its first Brickyard 400 in eight years.

Jeff Green (31st), Hut Stricklin (32nd), Stacy Compton (33rd), and Kurt Busch (34th) all scraped into the field on speed, as did the hugely disappointing Dale Earnhardt Jr who ran 38th in line and survived a major wiggle in turn two on his hot lap to take 36th starting position.

In addition to Rusty Wallace, Elliott Sadler, Bobby Hamilton, Ken Schrader, Jerry Nadeau, Robby Gordon and Buckshot Jones relied on Provisionals to get them into the starting field while of the eleven drivers leaving IMS a day early, Derrike Cope and Mike Wallace can be most aggrieved as they both ended qualification inside the top 43 only to be booted out by Nadeau and Hamilton respectively whose respective qualifying efforts left them outside the top 43.

The other nine non-qualifiers, Hermie Sadler, Ed Berrier, David Keith, Rick Mast, Dave Marcis, Kyle Petty, Shawna Robinson and Andy Hillenburg simply didn't look like qualifying from the moment they took the green flag. And they did not exceed expectations in a situation that gave them a good chance of making the filed with just one timed lap counting for grid positions.