Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gaughan has pick of 3 Dodges for truck season finale

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003 | 9:59 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.

Brendan Gaughan is faced with an enviable dilemma as he prepares for the Nov. 14 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Gaughan, who holds a 26-point lead in the championship, has three Dodge trucks at his disposal and each one, seemingly, is better than the next.

"The reason we love Dodge is all three of those trucks are in the wind tunnel right now," Gaughan said. "We're going to take the best one and try to go win that race.

"We've got the Texas winner, the Michigan-Vegas winner and I've got the best Dodge ever blown in the wind tunnel back. We're not sure which one we're going to take yet. We're going to test all three and take the best one."

Gaughan and Orleans Racing teammate Scott Lynch will test all three cars next Monday at the newly reconfigured Homestead track as part of NASCAR's open test. Although he has not yet tested at Homestead, he said he believes the banking added to the 1.5-mile oval will be to his liking.

"It's an Orleans Racing-style oval," Gaughan said. "We definitely are looking at that as an opportunity to have a strong finish to the year."

Four of Gaughan's series-leading six victories this season have come on tracks 1.5-mile in length or longer.

Gaughan, who finished 12th in Friday's Truck Series race at Phoenix International Raceway, leads Ted Musgrave by 26 points going into the final race, but Travis Kvapil (34 points back) and Dennis Setzer (39 back) also remain in contention. Gaughan can clinch the championship by finishing fourth or better in the season finale -- regardless of what the other contenders do in the race.

Gaughan was running in the top five when he ran over a piece of debris that bounced into the engine compartment and knocked off a spark-plug wire.

Smith said Musgrave nearly missed a few races because the treatments made him "quite tired," and added that Musgrave now is "100-percent OK."

"A lot of people don't know Ted was fighting cancer at the beginning of the year," Smith said a day after Musgrave finished second to Kevin Harvick in the Truck Series race in Phoenix. "We were winning races while he was going to the doctor on Monday getting chemotherapy. I think if anybody's deserving of (the championship), it's Ted Musgrave."

Musgrave, 47, has three victories and 18 top-10 finishes in 24 races this season. His wife, Debi, was diagnosed with leukemia three years ago.

Martin retired from the Busch Series following the 2000 season, is the series' all-time winningest driver with 45 victories.

"I've been wanting to get back out in the Busch car for a while," Martin said. "I'm excited about it, but I know we've got a lot of work in front of us. I've had some really great success in the Busch Series, and it has meant an awful lot to my career."

Martin will compete in the 2004 Busch Series opener at Daytona International Speedway, but his other two races have not yet been determined. Martin's Roush Racing teammates Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth also will make three Busch Series starts each.

The three-year deal includes sponsorship from Menards Home Improvement, which is owned by Paul's father, John.

Menard ran a combination of ARCA, Busch, Truck Series and Winston Cup races this season for Petree.