7/10/02………

Mike Bliss gets win #2 of the 2002 season at Kansas 200…

Musgrave reverses paint job to save his engine…

David Starr DNF's…

Mike Bliss gets second win of the 2002 season at Kansas…

Right before the start of the race on ESPN Dr. Jerry Punch said that this race could have a 1st time winner like it did last year. That wasn’t the case this year as David Starr fell to the back, Bill Lester had problems, and so did Brian Rose. That led to Mike Bliss and Ted Musgrave to battle it out to see who would win the race. Mike had one win in the #16 IWX Freight Chevy this year at Pikes Peak. Then after leading a good bit of the race Mike finally got the checker flag, winning the race.

The points lead is as follows: Ted Musgrave has a 62-point lead over Mike Bliss and David Starr. Coming into Kansas the top 7 could have left Kansas with the points lead. A tight match appears again in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Not only was the race good the heat was horrible. It was 91 degrees in the air and it was like 145 degrees inside a NASCAR Craftsman Truck at the track. But the hot weather caused a lot of teams to change from black hoods to white hoods. The black hoods were 126 degrees and the white hoods were 106 degrees. Twenty degrees different and they kept the engines cool.

Musgrave to change paint job to save engine…

Last year, Ted Musgrave's engine was overheating in the Kansas 200. The team knew this year was going to be hot, and even if it wasn’t they were going to change the hood color anyway. They changed the hood from black to white and the back from white to black. So really the reversed the paint scheme for the race. I don’t know if they will stay with the paint scheme if the weather gets hot for any other races. Also, I don’t know if any of the other teams will change colors so their engines will get cooler.

David Starr DNF's…

David Starr who was the point's leader before the Milwaukee had a problem with his #75 Spears Chevy and couldn’t finish the race. When that happened, Ted Musgrave and Mike Bliss took advantage of the trouble from Starr, and moved ahead of him in the points standings.

7/15/02.

Mike Bliss wins third race of season, and gets first night win of 2002…

Leffler again comes close and looses again…

Mike Bliss gets hurt in the ESPN vs. Truck Series driver's softball game…

Mike Bliss wins third race of season, and gets first night win of 2002…

Under the lights no problem for Mike Bliss and the #16 IWX Freight Chevy team got their third win of the 2002 season. Mike won last week at Kansas and now has won at Kentucky. Those two tracks are similar in design but are different. Every time that Mike got the lead the drivers behind him seemed to be the same. Although Mike was doing well many thought David Starr was going to get that first win. Again Jason Leffler was there to get the win. Not only did Mike win, he showed off his band aids after his accident (please see story below).

Leffler again comes close and looses again… Another race that Jason Leffler looked like he was finally going to get that first truck win. Someday I will be writing an article about his first win. Hopefully next week so I don’t have to keep writing about how close he was and how he messed up. I have tallied there was about 4 races he could have won. So really we could be talking about Jason Leffler keeps winning but as we all know constancy will win you the championship. It was just like yesterday when Jason got the word that he was leaving the #01 at the end of the 2001 season. What he didn't know was how good he was in the truck series.

Mike Bliss gets hurt in ESPN vs. Craftsman Truck Series driver's softball game…

In a charity event, the ESPN crew led by the ESPN camera crew, played the best NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers. The coach Robert Pressley saw Mike go up against the chain fence and hit it and came down hard. Mike ended up with some cuts and scars but nothing major. Mike climbed into his #16 Chevy for the race with his Band-Aid on his forehead, and some cuts also on his head. Mike wasn’t the only one last week that hit the wall in a baseball game, the New York Yankees right fielder Raul Modesi hit the wall the same way that Bliss did. Unlike Modesi, Bliss hit a chain fence not a hard wall.

7/23/02

Terry Cook wins at NHIS…

After being in the shadow of Mike Bliss winning 2 weeks in a row Terry Cook finally got another win in the 2002 season. The win wasn’t that easy for Terry Cook because if it wasn’t for his buddy Jason Leffler hitting the wall at the end of the race we would be talking about how Jason had his first win. If you remember back to Milwaukee it was Jason Leffler who was in the lead and Terry Cook passed him on the restart for the win. This time Jason got up into the marbles and wrecked the truck. Ted Musgrave still leads the points over Mike Bliss and David Starr.

Leffler again comes up short…

I wonder how many times I have said this in my article. I think about 4 times or so. It seems like Jason Leffler could have that first win at any time now. The track I think that he is going to get it done is at IRP because that is the only track that he has experience with a truck and by the way he drove a sister truck to the #2 truck at IRP 2 years ago. Anyway I think next week we should talk about our point's leader or someone else because Jason won't win next week.

Some controversy over who came back to the line first…

No, not the Indy 500 all over again. In the replay from RPM 2Night (my favorite racing show) it looked like Kevin Harvick (driving the #6 Chevy) beat David Starr and Terry Cook to the line. But NASCAR, who's known for making up rules, said that Cook slowed up for safety reasons, yeah right. I don’t know what NASCAR thinks it can make up an excuse so Kevin Harvick wouldn’t win his first CTS race. Even though I am not a Kevin Harvick fan I think NASCAR took away a great chance for Harvick to win. I can not believe NASCAR does such things like the IRL does. Kevin Harvick, I hope you get your act together and file an appeal to the finish of the race.

Green, White, Checkered best rule ever…

Last week I was complaining in my Busch Series article about the red flag. Well in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series we have the Green, White, and Checkered rule. This rule came into effect this weekend again. I like the Truck Series cause of that and I hope those directors of Busch and Cup talk to the director of the Truck Series and see how great this rule is.

7/28/02……… Robert Pressley……… hasn't had a very good season since taking the Craftsman Truck Series by storm at Daytona last February. Pressley's move into the truck series driving the un-sponsored No. 18 Dodge for Bobby Hamilton Racing was thought to be a fluke at first, but after the season opener, the series sat up and took notice.

One of the main reasons that Pressley hasn't had such a great season so far this year is the level of competition he faces. Former Winston Cup driver Ted Musgrave took the series by storm last season, and is vying for the championship leaving no stones unturned. Another former Winston Cup driver, Jason Leffler, is also a factor in this season's truck series battles. Couple them with some of the regular series drivers like Terry Cook, Travis Kvapil, Mike Bliss, David Starr, etc., and you have first race competition.

Speaking of Jason Leffler, the former Cup driver has had a rough time trying to capture a win. He has been denied time and time again, and this race was no exception. Leffler, driving the No. 2 ASE Dodge, lost to Pressley by a mere .102 thousands of a second. Travis Kvapil finished third in the No. 60 CAT Rental Chevrolet followed by Mike Bliss in the No. 16 IWX Freight Chevrolet. David Starr rounded out the top five with the No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet.

Finishing positions six thru ten were; Terry Cook, No. 29 Power Stroke Ford; Coy Gibbs, No. 20 MBNA Chevrolet; Lance Norick, No. 90 Express Services Chevrolet; Rick Crawford, No. 14 Circle Bar Ford; Jon Wood, No. 50 U.S. Navy Ford.

Ted Musgrave's bad luck took him off the top of the points standings charts. He lost an engine on lap 37, causing a loss of valuable driver's points that he needed to stay on top. Mike Bliss moved up one spot to the top with 1961 points. Davis Starr also moved up one spot to take second place, -34 down from the leader. Musgrave was relegated back to third with a -58, still now out of the picture. Also still in the running is fourth place Terry Cook with a -77 followed by Rick Crawford with a -84 to round out the top five.

Driver's points positions six thru ten are; +1 Jason Leffler, -86; +1 Robert Pressley, -015; -2 Dennis Setzer, -119; Travis Kvapil, -213; Coy Gibbs, -237.

Cook's cooked……. because of an infraction at the beginning of the season that has taken him down in the championship point's standings. Cooks former standing of being 77 points down from the leader has him wondering how good it would have felt to have been able to see his name up there at the top of the list. The reason Terry Cook is bitter about his standing is because of the 100 points that NASCAR took away from him due to an engine infraction following his sixth place finish in the season opener at Daytona. If not for that, he would be on top with his three wins and his 11 top ten and 6 top five finishes in 13 races this season.

Next Week……… the truck series travels to Indianapolis Raceway Park for the Power Stroke Diesel 200, which is race number 14 of their 23 race 2002 schedule. The event is scheduled to be broadcast by ESPN at P P.M. eastern on Saturday, August 2nd.