10/5/03……….. Dennis Setzer took the checkers Saturday in the John Boy and Billy 250 at the .4 mile South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia. Setzer has lived up to his handle of “Short Track King” by winning his third race of the season on a short track.

You don’t have to have the best racer to win one of these events as we’ve seen in recent weeks, and as we saw yesterday in the Busch Series race. All you have to do is to be up there in contention to assume the lead when there is a screw-up. Travis Kvapil spun his tires on the final restart, and Setzer shot out around Kvapil for the lead and the victory.

Travis Kvapil finished second, followed by Ted Musgrave, Jon Wood, Rick Crawford, Andy Houston, rookie Carl Edwards, Bobby Hamilton, David Starr, and Robert Pressley. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Brendan Gaughan -- No. 62 Dodge – finished 15th
2. Jon Wood -- No. 50 Ford – finished 4th
3. Ted Musgrave -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 3rd
4. Travis Kvapil -- No. 16 Chevy -- finished 2nd
5. Dennis Setzer -- No. 46 Chevy – finished 1st
6. Carl Edwards* -- No. 99 Ford—finished 7th
7. Bobby Hamilton -- No. 4 Dodge – finished 8th
8. Bobby Dotter -- No. 7 Chevy – finished 11th
9. Matt Crafton -- No. 88 Chevy – finished 16th
10. Rick Crawford -- No. 14 Ford – finished 5th

The top eleven positions in the driver’s point’s standings remain the same in the Truck Series. Brendan Gaughan still remains on top of the heap with 3274 points, but Travis Kvapil cut his lead down to a mere 20 points. Ted Musgrave in third in now listed with a -58, followed by race winner Dennis Setzer listed with a -74. Jon wood rounds out the top five with a -243. Points positions six thru ten are: Bobby Hamilton, -276; Rick Crawford, -304; rookie Carl Edwards, -445; Terry Cook, -559; Chad Chaffin, -613.

With only four races remaining, it appears that the 2003 Truck Series Championship will be decided amongst the top four. Jon Wood seems to be out of the picture with his listing of -243. It isn’t very probable that he can advance to the top spot at this point in time, given the tightness of the competition in the series. You can go back through my 2003 Truck Series articles and see that the majority of the top ten starters finish in the top ten, the Truck Series competitors have more consistency than that found in the Cup or Busch Series.

Next week the Truck Series travels to the Texas Motor Speedway to compete in the Silverado 350K. Race No. 22 on the 25 race 2003 Truck Series schedule is slated to be aired live by the SPEED channel on Saturday, October 11th at 3 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the Silverado 350K was rookie Brendan Gaughan. He was followed across the finish line by Coy Gibbs, David Starr, Rick Crawford, Travis Kvapil, Ted Musgrave, Robert Pressley, Jason Leffler, Mike Bliss, and Dennis Setzer.

Championship winner Mike Bliss won the Bud pole with a speed of 179.695 miles per hour. There were three caution periods for a total of 19 laps out of the 219 mile 146 lap event on the 1.5 mile oval.

10/11/03……….. Brendan Gaughan is the name that’s on everybody’s lips associated with the Craftsman Truck Series. The sophomore superstar won his eighth career race, and sixth race of the 2003 season, while setting Truck Series history by winning four consecutive races at the Texas Motor Speedway facility. Gaughan broke a tie with Jack Sprague, who won three straight races at Phoenix International Raceway, 1996-97.

The 28 year old 2002 Raybestos Rookie of the Year, driver of the No. 62 Orleans Hotel sponsored Dodge, has 14 top five finishes, 17 top ten finishes, three poles, and six wins in 22 races this season.

Travis Kvapil followed Gaughan across the finish line, along with Ted Musgrave, rookie Carl Edwards, Andy Houston, Jon Wood, Terry Cook, Dennis Setzer, and Rick Crawford. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Andy Houston -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 5th
2. David Starr -- No. 75 Chevy – finished 31st
3. Carl Edwards* -- No. 99 Ford – finished 4th
4. Tracy Hines -- No. 2-7 Ford -- finished 11th
5. Jon Wood -- No. 50 Ford – finished 6th
6. Terry Cook -- No. 29 Ford – finished 7th
7. Brendan Gaughan -- No. 62 Dodge – finished 1st
8. Rick Crawford -- No. 14 Ford – finished 9th
9. Chad Chaffin -- No. 18 Dodge – finished 15th
10. Ted Musgrave -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 3rd

The top 20 positions in the Truck Series driver’s points remain in tact. Brendan Gaughan is still sitting atop of the heap with 3459 points, just 30 points ahead of second place driver Travis Kvapil. Ted Musgrave is listed in third with a -73 followed by Dennis Setzer with a -117. Jon Wood rounds out the top five with a -273, a fair piece away from the lead. With only three races left this season, it’s doubtful that Setzer has a mathematical chance to catch and pass leader Gaughan. The other three in the top five, however, have a good chance of grabbing the brass ring.

Points positions six thru ten are Bobby Hamilton, -327; Rick Crawford, 364; rookie Carl Edwards, -465; Terry Cook, -598; Chad Chaffin, -680.

Next week the Truck Series travels to Martinsville for the last short track truck race of the season. The Advance Auto Parts 200 will be televised live by the SPEED channel on Saturday, October 18th, at 12:30 p.m.

Last season’s winner of the Martinsville event was Dennis Setzer. He was followed across the finish line by Mike Bliss, Rick Crawford, Bobby Dotter, Terry Cook, Jason Leffler, Travis Kvapil, David Starr, rookie Brendan Gaughan, and Jon Wood.

Ted Musgrave won the Bud pole award with a speed of 92.864 miles per hour. There were 14 caution periods for a total of 80 laps out of the 250 lap race on the .526 mile oval.

10/18/03……….. Dodge stepped aside in the wake of Toyota’s emergence into the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series. Well, that’s one way of putting it. As a matter of fact, Dodge is showing its hind side this season by getting too tough with it’s teams, even though it had the 2003 Truck Series Manufacturers title in the bag early.

Dodge has ended its minority diversity program which sponsors a minority driver. The loser in all of this is Bill Lester, currently the driver of the No. 8 Dodge sponsored diversity truck out of the Bobby Hamilton Racing stables.

Dodge Motorsports made the excuse of no help with the program in its decision for shutting it down. They claimed that they had hoped for some other sponsors to jump on the bandwagon and assist in the minority program. I can’t see that as a viable excuse. We’ve all seen how tight Dodge is with its branding and how they oust teams and drivers when they associate with another manufacturer. Dodge’s sharing of minority sponsorship with another major corporation just isn’t feasible, given their past history, Dodge always has to be number one and has to hog the spotlight.

Of course Bobby Hamilton Racing is still a Dodge sponsored and Dodge factory back team, so Hamilton would naturally speak out in Dodges favor, stating that the reason for Dodges withdrawal in the diversity program was mainly due to a “soft” economy. So much for Dodge’s mouthpiece which no one will be paying any attention to anyway, we’ve all heard the Hamilton’s spout off before.

Hopefully Toyota will step up to the plate and take Dodges place with the diversity program, and also with the 2004 manufacturer’s championship. It would serve the whining Dodge Motorsports outfit right! I’d certainly like to see Bill Lester continue with the Truck Series. The accomplished driver was 13th in driver’s point’s going into Martinsville.

Mike Skinner will be back in the Truck Series next season, and he’ll also be back with his old crew chief, Larry McReynolds. This time though, McReynolds will be one of the team owners instead of crew chief. Skinner has been hired to drive for Bang Racing beginning with the 2004 season thru 2006. McReynolds has a lot of confidence in Skinner, the 1995 Truck Series Champion, and states that he knows Skinner can get the job done for Bang Racing. There hasn’t been any announcements which manufacturer the new team will be associated with, but speculation is that Toyota will be backing the new team.

Jon Wood won the Advance Auto parts 250 in front of a home town crowd. It was Wood’s second victory of the season, and the second of his three year career in his 61st Truck Series start for Roush Racing. His teammate, rookie Carl Edwards, who has three wins this season finished second in the event giving Jack Roush a one two finish.

Dennis Setzer followed Edwards, finishing in the third position, followed by Rick Crawford, Bobby Hamilton, Jimmy Spencer, Darrell Waltrip, Ken Schrader, David Starr, and Ted Musgrave. Cup driver Spencer has made a couple of other runs in the No. 2 ASE sponsored entry for his Cup team owner Jim Smith. Ken Schrader, the other Cup driver finishing in the top ten, has also made other attempts in the Truck Series. With Schrader, the only thing that matters is the competition; he was leaving the track immediately after the race to prepare for another event before Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville. FOX Sports race announcer Darrell Waltrip was driving a truck owned by himself and sponsored by brother Michael’s Aarons Rents Busch Series sponsor. DW will field his own team in the Truck Series in 2004. It has been speculated that he will field Toyota’s, but there hasn’t been any official word at this point.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Carl Edwards * -- No. 99 Ford – finished 2nd
2. Jon Wood -- No. 50 Ford – finished 1st
3. Dennis Setzer -- No. 46 Chevy – finished 3rd
4. Brendan Gaughan -- No. 62 Dodge -- finished 11th
5. Rich Bickle -- No. 15 Ford – finished 12th
6. Robert Pressley -- No. 59 Dodge – finished 27th
7. Ken Schrader -- No. 52 Chevy – finished 8th
8. Chad Chaffin -- No. 18 Dodge – finished 14th
9. Andy Petree -- No. 33 Chevy – finished 18th
10. Ted Musgrave -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 10th

The championship rests between four drivers with only two races remaining this season. The top fourteen positions are still the same as they were last week. Brendan Gaughan still remains on top of the standings with 3589 points. Travis Kvapil is still in second place with a -45 deficit from leader Gaughan. Ted Musgrave is in third listed with a -69, followed by Dennis Setzer listed with a -72. Jon Wood rounds out the top five with a -223, and is numerically out of the championship picture.

The next event for the Truck Series will be held in nearly two weeks at the Phoenix International Raceway on October 31st. Please check back next week and I’ll have a rundown on the event, including a rundown on last season’s Phoenix event. Be sure to check out the newly released 2004 Craftsman Truck Series Schedule with the link on the home page of the site!

10/31/03……….. Kevin Harvick took the victory in the truck race at Phoenix, and says he’s happy that he didn’t do anything to upset the championship race, but that’s a bunch of crapola. Of course, we all know it isn’t Harvick’s fault that he’s allowed to race in the series, altering the finishes of drivers who are fighting for the series championship. It’s NASCAR’s greed that allows it to happen and nothing that can be done unless they decide to stop it. Don’t look for that to happen any time soon!

Truck Series regular Ted Musgrave finished second by a nose and lamented that he lost the valuable five bonus points for winning. Harvick got the winning bonus points, which I imagine will look good to him on the mantle beside his trophy and $41k check.

Dennis Setzer finished third followed by the top rookie finisher, Carl Edwards. Bobby Hamilton, David Starr, Jon Wood, Robert Pressley, Travis Kvapil, and Andy Houston were the top ten finishers. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ted Musgrave -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 2nd
2. Kevin Harvick -- No. 6 Chevy – finished 1st
3. Andy Houston -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 10th
4. Ken Schrader -- No. 52 Chevy -- finished 17th
5. Rick Crawford -- No. 14 Ford – finished 11th
6. David Starr -- No. 75 Chevy – finished 6th
7. Bobby Hamilton -- No. 4 Dodge – finished 5th
8. Travis Kvapil -- No. 16 Chevy – finished 9th
9. Carl Edwards* -- No. 99 Ford – finished 4th
10. Jon Wood -- No. 50 Ford – finished 7th

Although top rookie Carl Edwards and his teammate Jon Wood, from the Roush Racing organization, have had great finishes throughout the season, they are not in the hunt for the championship going into the final Truck Series event at Miami-Homestead. The top rookie is listed in the eighth position with a 318 point deficit and his teammate Wood is listed in the fifth position with a 209 point deficit.

Sophomore Brendan Gaughan, last season’s top rookie, still leads the pack, but only by a mere 26 points over second place Ted Musgrave. Third place Travis Kvapil dropped down one spot and is now listed with a -34. Dennis Setzer, still in fourth, is now listed with a -39. Any one of these top four drivers can walk away from the next race at Miami-Homestead with the championship. You can rest assured the outcome of the next race will also be altered by the Cup drivers who will be fighting to take the top spots away from the regular series drivers.

The season finale for the truck series is coming up in two weeks at Miami-Homestead, as stated above. The Truck Series doesn’t race at North Carolina Speedway next week with the Cup and Busch Series. The Ford 200 will be aired by the SPEED channel on Friday, November 14th, at 3 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the event was Ron Hornaday. He was followed across the finish line by Ted Musgrave, Jason Leffler, Robert Pressley, Mike Bliss, Dennis Setzer, Rick Crawford, David Starr, Matt Crafton, and Terry Cook.