Former champ Musgrave searching for first victory

Ted Musgrave is a man who knows how to run up front. Currently eighth in the points standings despite a 50-point penalty and missing the Memphis race due to a one-race suspension, the 2005 Truck Series champion has seen his truck up front at almost every venue he's raced.

Almost.

By the Numbers

Dennis Setzer has owned the last two races at ORP with a win and a second-place finish.

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There are two tracks on the schedule Musgrave has yet to lead a lap, Atlanta and O'Reilly Raceway Park, site of Friday night's Power Stroke Diesel 200 (7:30 p.m. ET, SPEED) and Musgrave says you can never predict what is going to happen on the .686-mile surface.

"O'Reilly Raceway Park is one of the wildcard races on the Truck Series schedule -- it's a track where anything can happen and it happens in a hurry," Musgrave said. "The crew chief ends up with a lot of the race in his hands with making the right calls, picking the right strategy. As the driver, you have to keep your truck in good shape."

Despite his success in the Truck Series -- he's finished in the top three in the points standings five of his six full-time seasons -- short-track wins have avoided him.

In the five current short tracks on the schedule, Musgrave has a lone win at Memphis and an average finish of 12.0. This week, he would love nothing more than to get an elusive short-track victory.

"With the runs we've had in the Team ASE/Germain Tundra at short tracks, I'm sure we'd all feel a win at O'Reilly was well earned."

Musgrave is 637 points behind leader Mike Skinner, who is coming off his fourth win of the season two weeks ago at Kentucky. The 1995 Truck Series champion is the opposite of Musgrave when it comes to leading at ORP.

Skinner not only led, but he led wire-to-wire in the first race at ORP back in '95. As if that wasn't enough, the next year he did it again. 350 laps, 350 laps led by Skinner in the first two races at O'Reilly.

Since then, Skinner has found hard times at the track. In the last five races he has an average finish of 20.8 with his best finish a 13th back in 2004. Ironically, the man who has led a lap in each race this season hasn't led a lap at ORP since his win in '96. With his recent struggles, Skinner isn't striving for perfection a decade later.

"Every time I go to Indy I want to win, probably because of the way we dominated in '95 and '96 when we sat on the pole, led every lap and won the race," Skinner said. "I would love to win this weekend, but if we could get out of ORP with all our fenders on and a top-10, I would feel like I had hit the lottery."

So would 2003 champion Travis Kvapil, who is chasing Skinner in the points standings, currently sitting fourth, 313 points back.

Kvapil hasn't won at ORP in his four NCTS attempts but he certainly knows how to finish well. Four races, four top-fives with a second, third, fourth and fifth -- all that's left is a victory, and Kvapil says track position is key for him to achieve his goal.

"O'Reilly Raceway Park is a fun, fun racetrack. It's one of my favorite places to race, it's good short track racing," Kvapil said. "Track position is important, but this is one of the places where you can pull off some passes as well. I came close to winning here a few years ago, and we'd love to finish that off this time around."

Musgrave, who battled Kvapil until the very end for second in last week's race at Kentucky with Kvapil winning that battle in the end, hopes to keep Kvapil from that victory. Musgrave says to win, the race requires perfection, good team work and a little bit of luck.

"The guy who can get back in the gas the fastest on Friday night will be the guy who wins the race," Musgrave said. "To do that, your truck has to be perfect. We will need to be loose enough to turn through the corners, but tight enough to jump back in the throttle in a hurry coming off the corners. You really can't have the truck loose or tight -- it's just got to be balanced.

"There's one racing groove at O'Reilly that goes from the top of the track to the bottom, so your truck has to handle very well. To come out of Friday night with a top-five and all four fenders on our Tundra would be a big accomplishment. I've won at that track, not in a NASCAR series, but a win there is usually an almost perfect team effort."