Kraig Kinser posted the 20th fastest speed among 38 drivers, but the former sprint car racer failed to qualify for tonight's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at California Speedway.

The top 30 trucks in owner points from 2005 automatically qualify while six slots are left open for drivers to qualifying on speed. Since Kinser is part of a new team for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, he falls into the second category. And of the eight drivers entered who needed to qualify on speed, six of them were faster than Kinser in Friday morning's qualifying session.

"I am disappointed that our CENTRIX Auto Finance Silverado won't be in the race but we did qualify 20th out of the 38 trucks here," said Kinser, who made his debut in the NCTS last week in Daytona. "It's just the way the system works for getting into a race. It is an extremely competitive series and there are so many good trucks, it just doesn't give any of us any room to be off even a little bit."

Kinser, who is part of MB2 Motorsports' developmental driver program, was two hundredths of a second shy of making the 36-truck starting lineup. He covered the two-mile oval in 41.206 seconds at 175.319 miles per hour.

In Thursday's final practice session, Kinser had the fifth-fastest speed at 175.798.

"We turned a few really good laps late in practice yesterday but when I went out to qualify today, we were just too tight and I couldn't get through the corners like I needed to," explained Kinser. "I feel bad for everyone at Morgan-Dollar Motorsports and MB2. They have worked hard to put this program together for me and have given me great equipment with Randy Goss as the crew chief. But I am a rookie and we knew going into to the season that we faced this challenge of having to qualify every week."

Kinser and the No. 47 CENTRIX Auto Financial Morgan Dollar Motorsports Silverado team will be back in action at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 17 for round number three of the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.