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02-10-2003
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Notables: Daytona
TruckSeries.com Report
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Ninth season opens with Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona International
Speedway
An intriguing mix of new and old will greet fans on Valentine’s Day - Feb. 14 -
when the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona International Speedway kicks off
the ninth season of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
New: SPEED Channel’s all-live coverage of the series that, for the first time,
includes a pre-race show spotlighting current and emerging stars.
Old: Renewal of the 2002 championship battle that ended in the closest,
three-way decision in series history. Two of those involved in that showdown -
Rick Crawford (No. 14 Circle Bar Racing Ford) and Ted Musgrave (No. 1 Mopar
Performance Dodge) - return, along with five other members of last season’s
final top-10 drivers.
New: Travis Kvapil, the 2001 Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year, takes the wheel of
defending champion Xpress Motorsports’ No. 16 IWX Motor Freight Chevrolet.
Old: Two popular short tracks, Bristol Motor Speedway and Mesa Marin Raceway,
rejoin the schedule.
New: For the first time, NASCAR Craftsman Truck competitors will test Lowe’s
Motor Speedway during The Winston weekend in mid-May.
Old: This year’s 25-race schedule likely will identify one or more of NASCAR’s
brightest new stars, as it has in past years. Case in point: former series
champions Greg Biffle (2000) and Jack Sprague (1997,1999, 2001) move to the
NASCAR Winston Cup Series beginning with the Feb. 16 Daytona 500.
It’s hard to say what effect the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 will have on this
year’s championship picture. Three previous winners - Mike Wallace, Joe Ruttman
and Robert Pressley - finished seventh or higher in the standings but didn’t
win.
Mike Bliss, the 2002 champion, left Daytona 33rd in the points standings. But
Bliss never suffered another DNF and made up a 121-point deficit, which bodes
well for Kvapil, who has finished 45 of 46 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts.
Kvapil, who will turn 27 on March 1, finished fourth in the standings in his
rookie season and ninth in 2002 driving for Addington Racing. The Janesville,
Wis. native, with victories at Texas Motor Speedway and Memphis Motorsports
Park, is impressed with his new team.
“Very organized, a great team and a great leader,” he said. “Getting this
opportunity to drive for Dave Fuge and (owner) Steve Coulter is probably the
best opportunity I’ve ever had in my whole career.”
As for Daytona? Kvapil figures he has some catching up to do.
“Daytona is a track where drafting experience can be beneficial. It has showed
itself in the last two years with Joe Ruttman and Robert Pressley winning,” said
Kvapil. “Those are obviously some veteran drivers and they’ve got a lot of
experience to rely on and a lot of knowledge of how to get around one of these
places with the air and the draft playing such a big role.”
A year ago, Kvapil led two laps of the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 before being
involved in a Lap 96 accident that cost him two laps and a high finish.
Veteran drivers again figure to be the ones to beat - starting with defending
Bud Pole winner Musgrave and Bobby Hamilton (No. 4 Square D Dodge), who owns the
2001-02 Daytona winning truck.
Musgrave finished .113-second behind Pressley a year ago. Hamilton, who’ll
compete fulltime on the series after a stellar NASCAR Winston Cup Series career,
posted the fastest speed - 182.419 mph - in single-truck Daytona testing in
mid-January.
“We’ve come close, second last year and we were leading the race the year before
and had a head gasket go,” said Musgrave, whose team, Ultra Motorsports, won
with Wallace in 2000.
Hamilton, meanwhile, will anchor a three-truck effort in the race. Chad Chaffin
(No. 18 Dickies Dodge) will wheel the defending race winner while sophomore Bill
Lester returns in the No. 8 Dodge Motorsports Dodge.
“I never said I was retiring,” said the 45-year-old Hamilton, most recently a
series winner at Darlington Raceway in 2001. “What I said was I wasn’t going to
do anything else but truck racing. I think when you tackle something like this
you need to put all your time and effort into that and not worry about anything
else.”
IN OTHER NEWS
- Déjà vu for Hamilton and Musgrave … In 1991, Hamilton defeated Musgrave for
NASCAR Winston Cup Series rookie of the year honors, prevailing by only 17
points. “Beating out Ted was tough. We had to come from behind to do it,”
Hamilton said at the time. Fast-forward 12 years and Musgrave gets the
opportunity to return the favor.
- “SPEEDING’’ into Daytona … The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will comprise a
major share of SPEED Channel’s blanket coverage of Speedweeks activities - 60
hours of original programming. All five practice sessions, Tuesday’s (3 p.m. ET)
Bud Pole qualifying and the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 will be aired live by
SPEED. Friday’s pre-race activities will include an in-depth history of the
series. Rick Allen, Barry Dodson and Dorsey Schroeder will man the booth for all
2003 events, assisted by pit road reporters Ray Dunlap and Phil Parsons.
- Raybestos Rookie Class Forming Nicely … Roush Racing will chase an
unprecedented third Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year Award following this week’s
signing of 23-year-old Carl Edwards of Columbia, Mo. to drive its No. 99 Ford.
Edwards would like to follow in the footsteps of Biffle (1998) and Kurt Busch
(2000). Randy Briggs (No. 53 Ford), Tina Gordon (No. 31 Post-It Dodge) and Doug
Keller (No. 27 Chevrolet) also will pursue the $10,000 prize. The competition
counts a candidate’s best 14 finishes.
- Craftsman Truck Alums in IROC field … Four NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
graduates, Biffle and Bliss, Busch and Kevin Harvick will vie for this year’s
International Race of Champions title. The competition begins Feb. 14 at Daytona
International Speedway. Harvick won’t compete in the Florida Dodge Dealers 250
but has entered crew chief Ed Berrier in the KHI No. 6 Chevrolet. “He’s a great
driver that just didn’t get the right breaks at the right time,” Harvick said of
the NASCAR Busch Series veteran. “I feel like we have as good of a shot as
anybody does of winning Daytona.” Rick Carelli drove the truck to a fifth-place
finish at Daytona in 2002.
- Etc. … The Florida Dodge Dealers 250 has been competitive to say the least,
with 31, 27 and 26 lead changes in its three years of existence. … Rick
Crawford’s truck will carry a special paint scheme dedicated to the Strategic
Air Command of the U.S. Air Force. Owner Tom Mitchell served in SAC’s 75th
Bomber Squadron. … Crawford and 2002 Raybestos Rookie of the Year Brendan
Gaughan (No. 62 Orleans Hotel Dodge) recently returned from a week-long tour of
U.S. military installations in Bosnia, Germany, Italy and England. … Terry Cook
(No. 29 Power Stroke Diesel Ford) is the only competitor to finish among the
top-10 in each of the three previous series races at Daytona. Cook and Ruttman
also led each event. “There’s something about racing at Daytona that suits me
and my style of racing,” said Cook, who finished sixth in last year’s race. …
Sealmaster Racing recently acquired the remaining assets of Team Menard. Driver
Matt Crafton (No. 88 Menards Chevrolet) is ticketed for the Silverado in which
Bryan Reffner finished eighth in 2001. … Cook, Jason Leffler (No. 2 Team
ASE/Carquest Dodge), Dennis Setzer (No. 46 ACXIOM Chevrolet) and Jon Wood (No.
50 Navy Ford) will visit young patients in the Speediatrics ward of Halifax
Medical Center in Daytona Beach at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12. Drivers and kids
will try their hand at NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series coloring books provided by
the series sponsor. … Lester and his wife, Cheryl, are anticipating the arrival
of the couple’s first child next month. He recently assisted Dodge in developing
its new Viper SRT-10 sports racer, testing the vehicle for company engineers at
Firebird (Ariz.) Raceway.
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