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Saturday, March 17
Musgrave wins the OSH 250
Associated Press
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Ted Musgrave backed up his pole
position with a trip to victory circle Saturday at Mesa Marin
Raceway, becoming the first two-time winner this season in the
NASCAR truck series.
Musgrave, who led a race-high 119 of 250 laps in a Dodge, passed
Brendan Gaughan on the 218th lap around the half-mile track. He
survived four caution-flag restarts to win by .858 seconds -- about
three truck lengths -- over Jack Sprague's Chevrolet.
|  | | Ted Musgrave has dominated the Craftsman Truck Series in March. |
The 45-year-old driver from Wisconsin also won the most recent
event, March 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Musgrave, whose second win was worth $34,510, averaged 61.618
mph in the Osh 250. The race was slowed a track record 15 times by
caution for 72 laps.
Despite the spate of cautions, only four of the 36 starters
failed to finish the 125-mile race.
Eight drivers swapped the lead 14 times.
NASCAR Winston West series champion Gaughan, making his first
Craftsman Series start of the year, finished third in a Chevy after
starting 27th. Rick Carelli, the 1999 winner of the event, was
fourth in a Chevy, followed by Musgrave's teammate, points leader
Scott Riggs.
Joe Ruttman, Terry Cook, Ricky Hendrick, Billy Bigley and Randy
Tolsma completed the top 10. An event record 16 drivers completed
all 250 laps.
Musgrave, who led the race's first 42 laps, elected to pit out
of sequence early. Later, on lap 122, he was forced to pit twice --
the second time after his pit crew failed to tighten lugnuts during
a tire change.
That left Musgrave 19th in the field but he was back in the lead
on the 164th lap -- after three more cautions -- then made the
deciding pass of Gaughan who ran the final 90 laps without a pit
stop.
"My truck was loose. It wasn't really right all day," said
Musgrave. "Brendan was my friend, racing them (Sprague and several
others) back there."
Sprague's bid for his first Mesa Marin victory was foiled by the
continuing stream of cautions.
"I need a long green-flag run," he said. "He (Musgrave) was
faster in short spurts."
Gaughan, a former Georgetown University basketball player, was
ecstatic over his best career finish on the series.
"On those old tires we were running as fast as we did all
day," he said. "I went back to my old road-course roots. I wasn't
going to let them get by me on those last restarts."
Riggs retained the series championship lead by 12 points over
Ruttman and 23 over Musgrave, Sprague and Hendrick.
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