Musgrave Recovers From Mistake

Veteran driver Ted Musgrave won his seventh race in NASCAR’s Craftsman truck series Saturday at California Speedway, but nothing came easy for him in the season finale.

In fact, a miscalculation by his crew on how much fuel he had--and needed--took him from the front to the back after a precautionary pit stop and Musgrave, with less than half of the race to do it, threaded his Dodge through the field to regain his lost position.

He made it, finally, with 13 laps remaining in the 100-lap Auto Club 200 race, holding off Rick Crawford and rookie Jon Wood, who were driving Fords.

The thinking, when Musgrave took the lead on the 57th lap, was that he had enough fuel to go the rest of the way. Then the thinking changed.

“At one point, they said, ‘Sure, we can make it,”’ Musgrave said. “Then all of a sudden they weren’t so sure. When you go to the back, anything can happen; you can get hit by another car....I was pretty upset to lose the lead.”

At least he got a second chance. Chevy driver Jack Sprague didn’t.

Sprague, who won the season championship, his third, when his truck took the green flag at the start, wanted to finish on a winning note. He was battling Scott Riggs in a Dodge and Wood when Riggs made an inside move early in the race. After passing Wood, Riggs moved back up the track, tagging Wood’s truck, then spinning into Sprague’s. Both of their trucks hit the outside wall.

When the smoke had settled and Sprague and Riggs were headed down pit road, Sprague vented his frustration, bumping Riggs from behind. Then Riggs returned the favor, sending both their crews scrambling for a possible rumble in the garage area, where cooler heads prevailed.

“He had a good truck, I don’t know why he did that,” a frustrated Sprague said of Riggs’ maneuver. “I don’t know what he was doing.”

Said Riggs, “I thought I was clear. I don’t know whose fault it was.”

Musgrave beat Crawford by about three truck lengths, averaging 113.330 mph in a race interrupted by eight caution flags for 32 laps.

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Townsend Bell, the San Luis Obispo driver who already clinched the championship, won the pole for today’s 100-mile Dayton Indy Lights race, the last in CART’s longtime development series.

Bell, winning his eighth pole of the season, qualified at 186.823 mph for the race that traditionally is the most competitive of the season.

“It’s a fitting way to celebrate the championship,” Bell said. “And it’s nice to come into this race with the championship won, because anything can happen here.”

Indy Lights customarily race three and four abreast on the California Speedway, swapping leads three and four times a lap with drivers shooting from the back of the pack to the front on the high-speed two-mile track. Today’s field, however, consists of only 10 cars, since Toyota Atlantics will replace the Lights in the development series next year.

Mexican drivers Rolando Quintanilla and Rudy Junco qualified behind Bell, rumored headed for Pat Patrick’s CART team next season. Quintanilla qualified at 185.494. Junco at 185.349.