NCTS contenders have plenty to consider at PIR

All that remains on the 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule are a pair of races: one on the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway and one on the reconfigured 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway.

	Dennis Setzer is 72 points behind series leader Brendan Gaughan heading to Phoenix. Credit: Autostock

So the short track specialists, if you please, will have a hard time making up ground on points leader Brendan Gaughan.

Or will they?

Phoenix isn't exactly Daytona or Talladega, you know. Yes, it's 1 mile in length, but its turns are banked 11 degrees at one end of the track and nine degrees at the other.

"Phoenix can trick you because it's like a big short track," said Dennis Setzer, one of the guys chasing Gaughan for the championship. "You have to set your truck up for short track corners, but you exit them so fast and flat that you feel like you are on a bigger speedway."

So Phoenix really isn't a short track and really isn't a speedway. But no matter what you call it, this week's race -- Friday at 5:45 p.m. ET -- is crucial to deciding the 2003 champion.

Gaughan leads Travis Kvapil by 45 points, with Ted Musgrave 69 out of the lead and Setzer 72 back. With two races to go, those are the only four with a realistic shot at the title -- and that makes Phoenix the most important race of the season. Lose ground this weekend, and you are probably done. Make up points at Phoenix, and you at least have a chance at Homestead in two weeks.

"Every race is pivotal," Gaughan said. "You can't afford to mess up."

Gaughan hasn't messed up much this season, finishing in the top five in nine of the last 12 races. But he has left the door open, even if it's a crack, with his last two short-track finishes. Gaughan was 15th at South Boston and 11th at Martinsville last weekend.

That gives some hope to his pursuers.

"We gained a lot on these guys in two of the last three races," Setzer said. "Now we have to do it in two straight, and it can be done."

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Setzer, who hasn't finished outside the top 10 in 18 consecutive races, will have to overcome some of the misfortune that plagued him the last two years at Phoenix.

Last year, Setzer had fought his way back from handling problems to run third but dropped a cylinder and finished eighth. In 2001, Setzer was in third and closing on the leaders when a tire went down, sending him into the wall and out of the race.

"We feel like this is a good track for (us)," Setzer said. "Our team has run well here the past two years, but we just don't have the finishes to show it. Crew chief Danny Gill and the crew have been on their game this season, and we all know that this is a crucial race for our season."

Phoenix is a unique racetrack, and not only because it sits in the middle of the desert. Its relatively flat corners make chassis setup critical, but none of the four turns are exactly alike because the backstretch is curved slightly.

Plus, track officials changed the exit of Turn 2, moving the wall further out to create a wider exit.

"The new configuration could be a challenge since they have expanded the wall off of Turn 2," Setzer said. "We'll also have to see what kind of grip issues that we will face in between Turns 3 and 4 where a new patch in the asphalt is."

Setzer and his fellow championship contenders will have a lot to think about this weekend, from the new exit to Turn 2 to the patch in Turns 3 and 4 to getting their trucks to handle to overcoming possible obstacles to chasing points to beating each other ... to trying to win.

But no one said winning a championship was easy.