Musgrave hungry for more after winless streak ends

One word describes the thoughts of Ted Musgrave this week -- finally.

After 66 races, Musgrave finally got the monkey off his back and visited Victory Lane thanks to a solid run last week in the Silverado 350K at Texas Motor Speedway which saw Musgrave's No. 9 Toyota start third and lead 32 laps for his first victory with Germain Racing.

By the Numbers

In 1995, Mike Skinner won the inaugural Truck Series championship at Phoenix and Hornaday finished third. Thirteen years later, all eyes are on Skinner and Hornaday as they return to the desert.

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"It's a sweet victory to come back and have something like that fall in my hands where I had a little luck," Musgrave said. "Now I can finally say I won at Texas after so many tries. I was just hoping for a top-five [near the end], but if you play your cards right, sometimes it comes to you."

It wasn't supposed to be this difficult for the 2005 Truck Series champion. In each of his first five full-time seasons in the Truck Series, Musgrave finished no worse than third with Ultra Motorsports and won the one championship.

With Ultra closing up shop after the '05 season, Musgrave moved into a Germain Racing Toyota and was expected to challenge for titles immediately -- and at first it seemed he would.

After six races, Musgrave logged six top-fives and was 17 points behind points leader and eventual champion Todd Bodine. In the final 19 races, Musgrave would earn just four top-fives and finish outside the top 15 in 10 of them, finishing sixth in points at the end of the season.

This year, Musgrave was hanging around the top-five in points until his temper got the best of him at Milwaukee and he used his truck to vent his frustration with Kelly Bires. Musgrave was parked the remainder of the race and was suspended the next week at Kentucky. It was the first time a driver was suspended a race in the Truck Series and it gave Musgrave a points deficit impossible to overcome.

But none of that matters now, as the focus is on wins, evidenced by a recent crew chief change for the No. 9 team. Rick Gay left as crew chief for Musgrave before the Atlanta race and Mike Abner took control of the team. In two races, Musgrave has two top-10s, a ninth at Atlanta and the win at Texas, and says the camaraderie between driver and crew chief is strong two races in.

"Mike and I seem to be on the same page. I think everything is going well," Musgrave said. "We're both looking forward to getting to Phoenix to test out what we think we've been able to learn about one another in these last two races. We are both hoping the team carries some momentum from our Texas win to Phoenix so we all have another strong race."

With Musgrave's past history at the 1-mile Phoenix tri-oval, a strong race seems well within reason. He has never won at Phoenix, but in eight races he has four top-fives and six top-10s with an average finish of 7.9.

"I really do love that racetrack. I've been racing at Phoenix International Raceway pretty much every year since about 1986 when I started running some Southwest Tour races there," Musgrave said. "The drivers really like the track because it's very fun to race, with multiple grooves."

While Musgrave enjoys the track, there has been one thorn in his side at Phoenix -- Nextel Cup driver Kevin Harvick.

Two of Musgrave's four top-fives were second-place finishes in 2002 and 2003. The winner of both of those races was Harvick, who is entered in Friday's running of the Casino Arizona 150 (7:30 p.m. ET, SPEED) and paced both of Thursday's practices.

In the first practice, Harvick led with a speed of 129.375 mph while Musgrave was 13th-fastest on the gird at 128.558. In Happy Hour, Harvick found more speed and was the only driver to eclipse the 131-mph barrier with a lap of 131.262. Musgrave found some speed as well, moving up to fourth on the chart with a lap of 129.936.

Still, Musgrave hopes this is the year he can finally keep Harvick in his rear-view mirror.

"I've had some good races against Kevin at Phoenix. Hopefully he and I can have a rematch," he said.

With the championship battle down to two, Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday, the focus for the No. 9 team is to run the best they can and try to bring home wins. It took 66 races for Musgrave to end the drought and hoist a trophy. After winning at Texas, you can't blame Musgrave for thinking six days is too long to get another win, let alone two years.

"I get two more shots at it," Musgrave said. "Mike is doing a heck of a job and the guys are pumped up. We're running good and hopefully we'll be able to get them again in Phoenix.

"After what this team was able to do in Texas, we are hopeful that we can have a good run in Friday's Casino Arizona 150 with the Team ASE/Germain Tundra."