Jerry Nadeau knew this time was coming. Although he and his No. 01 U.S. Army Pontiac team may have been the only ones.

After being released last season from Hendrick Motorsports, Nadeau put forth a strong showing while moonlighting for Petty Enterprises. Unfortunately, his season cut short by a go-karting accident. Thus, any situation that provided a full-time ride in 2003 would have been considered outstanding.

	After a great effort at Texas, Jerry Nadeau is excited for Sunday's race at Talladega.

But Nadeau took it a step further. He has called MB2 Motorsports his greatest opportunity yet. Little did he know it would take him seven races to start to back that statement up.

"Last year was a tough year," Nadeau said before this season. "I left Hendrick Motorsports, hopped around and helped some teams out. But I don't think I have anything to prove. I've always given all I have. People who know me know that I have the drive to win. I've led a lot of races and could have easily won six times in the last couple of years. But unfortunately Lady Luck bit us all of the time. This year, it's important to get off to a good start."

The start he got off to was this:

Race 1: Nadeau picked up a 28th-place finish at Daytona after running in the top-five late in the race. But, while running with the leaders, Nadeau was blocked by Kurt Busch on pit road and lost his position.

"I backed up and couldn't get it into first (gear)," Nadeau said. "Then he backed up and it was just a whole mess. When I finally got back onto pit road I got into Mike Skinner and tore up a fender. We came back in and fixed it. It was unfortunate."

Race 2: Nadeau got hit twice from the back and battles handling problems, limping home to a 26th-place effort at North Carolina Speedway.

"I'm (was) not happy with the finish, but I (was) happy with how we stuck in there after all of the things that happened to us," Nadeau said.

Race 3: Nadeau stayed out of trouble for the first time all season, but the car was not up to par -- the team could not run with the leaders. Nadeau finished 22nd.

"By no means was it a great finish," he said.

Race 4: With the race winding down, Nadeau pitted under caution and was involved in a pit-road accident that relegated him to a 31st-place finish at Atlanta.

Race 5: While running among the leaders at Darlington, Nadeau's car started smoking and he was forced to pit for what the crew later determined was a broken oil pressure fitting. He finished 35th.

Race 6: Nadeau was hit by another car while running in fourth at Bristol, ruining his day and sending him home 28th.

A 28th, 26th, 22nd, 31st, 35th and 28th. Six races, zero top-10s. Heck, zero top-20s.

Some great start, huh?

"If people have been watching the last four weeks, we've been a top-five car," he said. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to get to the end."

Stuck with his preseason proclamation and a heap of poor fortune, Nadeau headed to the fastest track on the circuit singing a different tune. No longer did he feel that he had nothing to prove.

Sure, he still believed he was a talented driver. And, sure, he still believed in his team. But after steering several strong cars among the leaders before getting bit by bad luck, Nadeau felt he needed a fast showing to prove his team could contend for some victories.

So the crew rolled a brand new chassis -- the first one completely built at the MB2 shop -- off the truck last weekend and Nadeau qualified fifth. He stayed out of trouble, avoided any accidents and came home fourth.

Finally.

"I'm proud of my team," Nadeau said. "They had great pit stops. We worked on the car all day long. We'd been tight all day long. I was good on really short runs. That's why I got by Jeff (Gordon) there with about 40 to go. Then, I got too tight. But, I'm happy ... It's been a good weekend for us."

Nadeau and crew chief Ryan Pemberton said last weekend was more like what competitors and fans should expect from the team. And though it's only one good finish in a season so far filled with bad ones, it's a starting point that has everybody stoked to get to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend.

"This is an ongoing process with this young team," Pemberton said. "We're all still learning. It's certainly a good place to build from. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we can step it up further."

Nadeau is 30th in the standings with 29 races to go, and he's feeling optimistic about climbing his way back up through the pack one event at a time.

"The Texas race was a big morale boost as we head into Talladega," Nadeau said. "Everything came together and right now we're feeling pretty good and looking forward to building on the pace we set in Texas."

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@newsobserver.com.