Waltrip's car, manifold confiscated at quals (cont'd)

"NASCAR won't give us a clear answer on what they're doing right now," said Michael Waltrip Racing vice president and director of competition Bobby Kennedy, who got the call informing him of the move right before the end of qualifying. "Basically when I went over [to the car after qualifying] they asked everybody to stand back.

"They can't see where the oil is coming from and they want to figure it out, so right now they've said they're going to take the car, they already have the manifold and they'll get back to us.

"They said they're going to hold the car until they figure it out. Right now they won't tell us anything [and] we kind of look stupid because we don't know what's going on."

Waltrip, who has two Daytona 500 victories on his resume, is attempting his first Speedweeks as the registered owner of his own Nextel Cup car, one of three in Daytona from MWR.

The events might put a crimp in his hopes of making his 21st start in the "Great American Race." Waltrip needs to finish either first or second among the cars in his Duel outside the top 35 in 2006 Nextel Cup owner points to make the 500.

If he fails to qualify it would break a streak of 20 consecutive Daytona 500s, which includes victories in 2001 and 2003.

Before Waltrip went out in his scheduled 44th position in the 61-car qualifying order, he explained what he knew at the time.

"When they felt down inside [the manifold] they felt some oil that wasn't supposed to be there," Waltrip said after his car cleared the engine inspection area. "They couldn't see why the oil was there, so they took the intake.

"Quite simply, there's oil in a couple places where it doesn't belong, there's something wrong and we don't know why.

"We haven't done anything wrong. I really don't understand what's going on, but before it's all over we'll figure it out."

Speaking confidentially, another noted Cup engine builder said it "wasn't possible" under normal operation for lubricating oil to leak into an engine's manifold.