Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Musgrave hopes for change of luck in LV

Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2002 | 9:43 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Alate-race mistake in the pits relegated Ted Musgrave to a 14th-place finish Saturday in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at South Boston Speedway and robbed the veteran driver of the chance to keep pace with race winner and points leader Mike Bliss.

But with the Truck Series finishing the season with races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, California Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, Musgrave isn't overly concerned.

"We lost some points (to Bliss) but we're coming up on three tracks where I won last year," Musgrave said. "We're going back to Las Vegas in a few weeks so hopefully our luck will change."

Musgrave, who finished second to Jack Sprague in NCTS points last season, earned three of his seven wins at Homestead, Las Vegas and California.

Musgrave entered last weekend's race 23 points behind second-place Rick Crawford and 63 points behind Bliss and will go into the Oct. 13 Orleans 350 at LVMS -- where he is the defending race winner -- trailing Crawford by 57 and Bliss by 112.

Musgrave appeared to be headed for a top-five finish Saturday when his tires went away in the closing laps. After he had faded from third to 11th, Musgrave pitted under caution, overshot his pit box and was penalized a lap.

"I guess I made a mistake and got over the line of our pit box by a couple of inches and that put us a lap down," Musgrave said. "We were going to try and put on four tires and see if we could make up a few spots under the green-white-checkered (finish). Unfortunately, with the penalty, it didn't work out."

Bliss, who won his fifth race of the season, increased his lead over Crawford (who took third) by 55 points with four races remaining.

The series' television contract with ESPN runs through the 2003 season, but the SBJ reported that the sides are negotiating a buyout of the final year of the contract.