Atlanta Leaves Musgrave Wanting More After 24th-Place Finish; Remains 4th in Championship Standings

Ted Musgrave (David M. Vaughn Photo)

Ted Musgrave was en route to a top-five run in the Easy Care Vehicle Service Contracts 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway when a flat tire, with only a handful of laps remaining, forced him to pit road.  Quick service by the Germain Racing crew got the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota back on track, but with no time left to make up lost ground, Musgrave was saddled with 24th place at the finish.

"Ever since Rick Gay joined the team, we have had great trucks each and every week," Musgrave said.  "We just haven't had any luck at all.  We got crashed at Loudon.  We got black flagged while leading at Martinsville.  We have this tire problem in Atlanta.  Every time we had a truck that was capable of running in the top five.  On one hand it's very disappointing to not get the finishes, but on the other hand the Team ASE crew is pumped up because we're running so well.  We're doing everything we need to do; we just need a little luck."

For much of the 130-lap race at Atlanta, Musgrave appeared to have a top-five truck.  Musgrave was racing for the fifth position on lap 126 when a persistent vibration suddenly gave way to a flat right front tire.

"We must have run over some debris under that final caution for the 75 truck," Musgrave said.  "We picked up a very slow leak in the right front.  I called into the guys and said the truck was getting tighter and tighter.  It's like the truck just started going away. We got passed by a couple of guys but I thought we would be okay to make it to the end but then the right front just started chunking.  We had no choice but to bring it to pit road."

With problems for the top two in the series Championship standings, Musgrave was looking to make up some ground and make it a four-way run for the title.

"With the problems that Todd (Bodine) and Johnny (Benson) had, if we could have come out of there with a top five run we could have really closed the gap in the points," Musgrave said.  "Just when you start to let yourself think that you're going to get a good finish you have problems and it ruins a good day.  But we'll keep looking forward, and we know we'll run just as good at Texas next week.  All we need is a little luck on our side."

Musgrave sits fourth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings, 271 points behind his Germain Racing teammate and series leader Todd Bodine.  Musgrave is just 86 points behind David Reutimann for the third position.