Ted Musgrave pits the No. 9 Tundra at The Sam's Town 400. (Ronda Greer Photo)

Ted Musgrave drove the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota to a seventh-place finish in the Sam's Town 400 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. After two consecutive finishes outside the top-10, Musgrave recovered from a frustrating weekend to not only pick up his seventh top-10 finish of the season, but challenge for a top-5 finish late in the going.

Musgrave credited hard work by his Tom Ackerman-led crew for bringing the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota to life in the race.

"It was nothing short of a miracle," Musgrave said. "The guys never gave up and that's what this Germain Racing team is all about. There are some demons in this truck and we need to take it back to the shop and figure out what exactly is wrong with it. Before the race I said I would have been happy to come out of here 15th. We were never able to find the comfort level in the truck that I wanted here. We talked about it and we know where to look, it's going to need some serious changes to A-frames and front suspension to get the camber travel we need. After all that, to finish seventh is just icing on the cake."

While Musgrave was able to come out of Texas with a top ten finish, his Germain Racing teammate Todd Bodine was able to add to his points lead by virtue of his third win of the 2006 season.

"It's a good finish, but all of the guys behind me in points finished in front of me," Musgrave said. "We lost some ground to Todd, and the guys behind us closed in a little bit too. It wasn't as bad a points day as it could have been, but we need to get back up at the front next week at Michigan to close the gap on Todd and stay ahead of those guys behind us."

Next up for Musgrave and the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota is the Con-way Freight 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday June 17.

"We plan on taking the same truck we ran here in Texas to Michigan," Musgrave said. "We'll get it back to the shop and exorcise those demons and take it up to Michigan. The guys have some work to do this week, but we'll get it done and give them a run for their money."