Ted Musgrave was challenging for a top-10 finish in the Con-way Freight 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday afternoon, but once again Lady Luck frowned on the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota, leaving the defending series champion with a damaged truck and relegating him to 23rd at the finish.

Musgrave was running well into the top ten as the race entered its final third; but contact with another competitor sent him sideways in turn three. Despite an impressive save to keep from hitting the wall, the nose of the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota slid into the grass, knocking off the bottom of the front air dam splitter, resulting in an ill-handling truck the rest of the way.

"I don't know what happened over there," Musgrave said. "I don't know who it was and I am certainly not pointing any fingers. All I know is we got caught in the quarter panel and it turned us sideways. I fought it but it still dipped the nose into the grass. We knocked off the nose and we just couldn't run after that. It's a shame, this is the same truck we had in Texas and I think the changes we made to it were working, we just couldn't make it to the end."

Musgrave is looking to a trip to his home state and The Milwaukee Mile to turn his recent string of bad luck around.

"For whatever reason the breaks we were getting to go our way early in the year aren't going our way now," he said. "The guys are working just as hard, but we're not getting the luck. Maybe Milwaukee is what we need to get pointed in the right direction. We've won up there before, and it's always nice to go back home. But I've won here in Michigan before too and that certainly didn't help us today."