When the 2007 edition of the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown got its green flag on October 20th, Scott Bouley was not in the starting line-up. He was the only Busch East Series driver to attempt the race but not qualify for the feature event.

"We didn't plan on coming out here," he said before contemplating his car making a 2,850-mile ride back to Thomaston, Connecticut. "But [East Series director] Lee Roy was straight-up with me: there was no guarantee, and we knew it was a gamble."

In Friday night’s last-chance qualifying race, Bouley may have been moving in the right direction towards making the big show. But a brush with the first turn wall did enough damage to his purple No. 26 Spyville.com Chevrolet to force its retirement, and his weekend was over on Friday night.

"We got close to getting in, but I pushed a little over the edge and got in the wall," he said. "I don't know if we would have made it, but you never know, we might have got pretty close."

Bouley's been involved in the Busch East Series for over ten years now, and has run the full season in each of the last four years. The former Riverside Park Speedway Pro Stock standout has racing in his blood, and quitting, or going back to weekly racing, has never been an option.

"I've tried lower classes, but this is where it's at for me," he said. "There's something about Busch East where you get to go to tracks like Dover and New Hampshire, and you get TV coverage. I can't see moving down and going back to running the same track every week. I've won a lot of races at that level, and I know that thrill just wouldn't be there again.”

Driving a car that he admits was already considered old when he bought it, Bouley's scratched and clawed to stay on a tour that's threatened to drive him away many times. Even after the disappointment of not making the forty-car Showdown starting field, he vowed to return.

"We're going to come back. This might be the last race today, but tomorrow will be another day and we'll be that much closer to the start of next season," he said.

"I know I'm going to be back. I can't quit this. I just wish that we made this race. That would have been great."

While some teams set Victory Lane visits among their season goals, Bouley's family team can’t aim as high. The economic realities of the sport, where top teams may be spending more than half a million dollars a year, mean he has to be more realistic.

"We survived the year in the top twenty, and that just thrilled me to death because we're going to go to the banquet and get some NASCAR point money. That was my goal. I knew when we pulled into Greenville and saw Cup haulers that we had our work cut out for us," he said.

One thing that Bouley thinks could help his cause significantly would be the addition of a crew chief that could take the driver's feedback and translate that into competitive setup adjustments.

"I'm not a crew chief. I know how to get the car ready, how to fix it, but I can't make it go fast," he said. "I need that crew chief to help me go fast. When we have a problem it's me and my dad guessing.

"Once we get someone who can help us get faster, or the sponsorship to help us get there, we'll be good. I know that because I've still got it right here,” he continued, pointing at his heart. “Believe me, when I get this thing going, I'm going to be competitive because I can still run. I know that.”

Even with the latest disappointment, Bouley’s already thinking about starting the 2008 East Series strongly.

“We're definitely coming back, and I'm looking forward to it already,” he said. “This series is awesome, I love it. We keep saying we're not going to go to the next race, but as long as I've got a car, we're going. We try to do what we can for our sponsors, though we don't really get a lot of money, and we go out and race against Cup teams.

“We'll go to the banquet, get our little trophy and have a party afterwards,” Bouley continued. “I've been doing this 23 years non-stop, and I hope I get better. When I finish in the top fifteen here, it feels like a win to us and it's just awesome. That keeps me going. Tonight was a rough night, but I've been through this many times.”