Musgrave muscles to Truck win at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- With the evening sun sinking behind the wall in Turns 3 and 4, Ted Musgrave took the high side to pass Robert Pressley with 12 laps remaining to win the Craftsman Anniversary 200 at Darlington Raceway on Friday.

Starting second in the No. 1 Mopar Dodge, Musgrave then held off a determined Pressley to win his first race of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season and his eighth in 29 career starts. Following Musgrave and Pressley, Mike Bliss passed Kevin Harvick in the No. 16 IWX Motor Freight Chevrolet to finish third.

Musgrave and Pressley, both veterans of the Winston Cup Series, battled back and forth through the caution-filled event which continued the Dodge dominance in the NCTS. The battle spilled over into the points standing as Musgrave and Pressley leave Darlington tied for the lead.

			Ted Musgrave Credit: AP

Musgrave led five times for a race-high 97 laps and in addition to picking up the race trophy, Musgrave also earned a $7,500 bonus from Sears for leading on lap 75 in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Craftsman tools.

"This is just an awesome team," Musgrave said. "The truck just wasn't competitive in lap traffic until I was leading the race. I had a real bad aero push when I got behind Robert (Pressley).

"I knew my truck wasn't as good as his so I had to make it three wide, bounce it off and take stuff. I didn't care if I had to jump over people; I was going to go the front.

"If you're going to follow, you're never going to win. You got to make it happen when the opportunity is there."

Pressley, who won the season opener at Daytona, looked like the man to beat toward the end until Musgrave chased him down. Pressley led only once for 32 laps.

"That Bobby Hamilton Racing crew got us out front there after the last caution-pit stop and into some clean air," Pressley said. "We knew if we lost here it was going to be on that slow track there. Ted got by us and it was as bad behind him as it probably was running behind me.

"We got a little behind there in the middle of the race. But, I'm just happy that we were able to get back up front there for the end."

Bliss' battle at the end with Harvick had his competitive juices going. Something, he said, he hasn't experience in two years.

"I haven't got to race like that in two years," Bliss said. "I missed this track and I had a lot of fun out there. We were real good, then loose, then we got tight at the end.

"When the sun went down we got real tight. What happened with Harvick at the end there was that he checked up when that last wreck occurred with a few laps to go. I just stayed on it and went by him."

Harvick said he thought the caution was going to come out and that's why he slowed. He also felt the race had more bumping and banging than needed.

"It's pretty tough to run against Trucks that lunge in there and still beat our butts," Harvick said. "Maybe we need Johnnie Cochran around here because we're getting the crap beat out of us.

"We need to plead our case a little better here in the Truck Series. I had a good time and it was a lot of fun."

Rounding out the top-ten finishers were Mike Bliss, Rick Crawford, David Starr, Travis Kvapil, Brian Rose, Jon Wood and Ken Schrader.

There were nine lead changes among five drivers and a matching number of cautions for 31 laps. The margin of victory was .481 seconds with an average speed of 109.000 mph.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action at Martinsville on April 13.