Bad luck keeps Said, others out of the Daytona 500 (cont'd)

"I'd rather give birth to a baby -- it was horrible, an absolute nightmare," said Said, who spent a part of the second race atop Reutimann's pit box. "NASCAR doesn't want guys like us in the show -- it's for the really big teams and not the small independents.

"It's so hard to make it. To be that fast and miss is disheartening. But we'll keep trying. That's the rules, and we know 'em going in [but] the rules aren't conducive to an independent coming down here and trying to make it.

"We won't come again, I don't think, because it's just a waste of money."

As bitter a disappointment it was for Said's team, which has only four full-time employees, it was outshone by the teams of Andretti and Wallace, who are also lesser-light operations.

Phoenix Racing has a strong, full-time Nationwide Series program but Cup racing has always been a sidelight for owner James Finch.

But Marlin raced for a good portion of the first race in a qualified spot, driving for the team that gave Mike Wallace a top-five finish in last year's 500; but it was not to be for the veteran who won the Daytona 500 in 1994 and 1995.

"We tore a tire up -- a right front -- and had to pit early," Marlin said after finishing 21st. "We wore the outside edge [of the tire] out and had to pit under green -- a lot of guys did. We put on two [tires] to keep track position and the left front was wore out and the car got really tight."

New tires, which launched Andretti into his 13th career Daytona 500, didn't help Marlin in the end; after he and a number of other drivers opted for a change with less than five laps left.

"We kind of had a shot at the end to put tires on, but there weren't enough laps left," Marlin said of the final green-white-checkered restart. "The jack dropped and we went out dead last [and] this car just wouldn't accelerate for some reason. It takes two or three laps to get it going [and] we just run out of time -- the race was over."

Schrader also experienced tire troubles, but blamed lack of speed for his success. Villeneuve was philosophical but disappointed when he spun early in the second race and took out Barrett, who ran most of the first 14 laps in a solidly qualified spot (watch video).

Barrett was almost stunned to be taken out in what seemed to be his best shot in six Daytona 500 attempts.

"I definitely had a car to make the Daytona 500 -- I've had a car a few times to make it, and something always happens," Barrett said. "We had a great practice with the car yesterday and Ricky Pearson and I and all the crew really worked on it -- we know what it takes to get the car handling here.

"We had it. We were in the top 10 in the last practice [Wednesday] and had made some adjustments. We worked our way from last to up in the front and there was so much racing to go.

"It just wasn't meant to be, you know? I'm glad everybody was safe. It's a real bummer for us because I think we had a car to make the race [but] I never give up -- you never get anywhere giving up."

Allmendinger summed up the entire group's feelings.

"It flat out sucks to miss the race," said the second-year driver, who missed 19 races last year. "I drove my ass off. Before the race I told my guys that if we give it our all, we can't leave Daytona feeling defeated. And we won't -- we'll hold our heads high and look towards the next race."

Red Bull Racing's new general manager, Jay Frye, said he'd seen plenty of positives from his entire team in their first Speedweeks together.

"A.J. did great," Frye said. "When you look at how well both he and Brian ran -- and Brian, to spin over there [in Turn 2] and not hit anything and recover to make the 500 -- that can be a defining moment for a whole company."

"[Allmendinger] can recover from this."

It's something he, Carpentier, Schrader, Elliott and Villeneuve and their teams -- who all plan to run full seasons -- will also have to start working on recovering from.