Red Bull falter in Cup debut.

Brand new Nextel Cup team Red Bull Racing didn't make the NASCAR debut they had hoped for when ex-Cup Series Champion Bill Elliott couldn't get the #83 Dodge past Bud Pole qualifying at the Lowe's Motor Speedway.

1988 Cup Series Champion Elliott and the start-up #83 team fell foul of NASCAR's complex qualification system and even though the semi-retired Elliott was among the 43 fastest drivers in Bud Pole qualifying, he wound up as one of nine drivers who failed to make the cut for Saturday's Bank of America 500.

Red Bull Racing, which will enter the full Nextel Cup Series in 2007 with Toyota, have hired Elliott to drive in three season-ending races this year hoping to utilise Elliott's status as a past champion in order to guarantee the team a place in the starting field.

As a start-up team, Elliott needed to put the #83 machine among the top eight of the 17 teams entered for the race who aren't in the top 35 in owner points or hope that Terry Labonte, another ex-champion entered in a team not in the top 35, successfully qualified on speed.

Agonisingly for Elliott he set 40th quickest time on his Bud Pole qualifying run to be the eighth quickest among the non top 35 teams. However Labonte, whose 1995 championship triumph means he gets first refusal of the past champions provisional, went even slower in his #44 Hendrick Motorsports entry.

That situation meant that Labonte 'bumped' Elliott for the eighth and final transfer spot, giving 'Awesome Bill' one of his first ever 'DNQ's.'

Red Bull Racing and Elliott will return for another crack at the whip in Atlanta and then in Texas in an effort to get vital race experience ahead of next season.