dodge nascar craftsman truck series quotes from dover. ted musgrave wins

Friday, May 31, 2002					             	                            Golin/Harris International
MBNA America 200.                                                                               803-466-9085


     BRIAN ROSE (No. 4 Perry Connection Dodge Ram)
     "Lance just lost it up off the corner. He tried to chase it, and you know here with the banked straightaways if you chase it, you're going to roll downhill. I tried checking up. He couldn't clear my front end and just drove us both to the inside wall down at the bottom. It's a shame. I had all my sponsors here today. They flew in from Arkansas to watch me race. We just had some bad luck. The 90 truck seemed to be a little loose. He didn't have anywhere to go, and I didn't have much room to work with."

        CARLOS CONTRERAS (No. 43 Hot Wheels Dodge Ram)
    "It's been a bad weekend. The truck was OK today. I think the transmission blew and the truck spun. I hit the wall hard, and I hurt my left ankle. I think it's sprained. We had very bad luck. I'll be ready for the next race."
 
    ROBERT PRESSLEY (No. 18 Bobby Hamilton Racing Dodge Ram)
   "The battery went dead from the start of the race and whenever I went after it, we didn't have nothing. If we'd had a battery, I think we would have been all right. We were missing there the last 30 laps. We're lucky to finish second. All I was doing was waiting on Musgrave to make one mistake. He hit the lapped traffic right, and I hit it wrong. Hats off to all these guys at Bobby Hamilton Racing. The Joey Arrington engines and Dodge do a great job. If we'd had all cylinders working right and enough amps flowing to it, I think we would have been all right. Ted had been good all day. We started in the back and had to work our way through. I knew we had a little left and Ted did, too. We're happy two weeks straight we've had bad luck, and this got us back on track.
     "They were calling out the times and we were right there together. Instead of worrying how I was going to pass Ted, I was worry about which lapped truck I was going to have to dodge to finish second. Ted knew what it was going to take. I tried diamonding in the corner, and he watched what I was doing and got in front. He did what he was supposed to do."
 

     JASON LEFFLER (No. 2 Team ASE Racing Dodge Ram)
     "We had a pit stop out of the box, lost a lap and never got it back. The right front tire was outside of the box. I thought we could get the lap back, but the cautions didn't come out at the right time. That's part of racing. I screwed up in the pit box and that was it. We struggled all weekend, but we had a good truck. It wasn't exactly where we wanted it, but we'll know where to start when we come back next time."
 
     BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 62 NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Ram)
     "Everybody warned me about Darlington, Dover, Martinsville and Richmond. So far every single one they've warned me about I like. I hope they warn me about every track we go to. Our Dodge had great power today. It's a shame we kept going back to loose-tight, loose-tight in spots. I couldn't help the Dodge guys out. Thanks to the Ultra Dodge team. They bailed us out twice and let us get our lap back. I've got to thank them. I owe them more than a seafood buffet."

     BILL LESTER (No. 8 Dodge Motorsports Dodge Rams)
    "We had an air hose going into my helmet. It worked, but it didn't work well. I kept digging. I knew I wasn't going to quite, although I felt like it on lap 140. That last 60 laps was rugged. It's my best finish of the year, and I'm proud of that. We earned this one. I started 22nd and came up and finished 12th. I don't understand why I'm so tired."

     TED MUSGRAVE (No. 1 Mopar Performance Dodge Ram)
     NOTE: Musgrave won his second race of the season and the ninth of his career.
     "I've been coming to Dover for quite awhile. I had a couple of opportunities to win a Cup race. I ran out of gas once and I had really good car and wreck once. When this race started I had a really good feeling about the truck and I really wanted to win one at Dover. The trucks have the 390 carburetor, less carburetor than we had last year, but we still were as fast as we were last year because you could hold it wide open. It was an exciting race for us. We got out and led a lot of laps. Old Robert, I looked back and it was like old times again. Here he comes. At that time, I had been freeing my truck up all day to get ready to run that hard. When I ran that hard I got pretty loose. I knew if he got up to me it could be trouble. I had to keep my distance and get air on the spoiler and I was OK. You come up on trucks real quick. It's the first time here for a lot of guys, but Dover is a wide race track. There's a lot of room out there. There's no excuse for saying a lapped truck is in the way because there are grooves everywhere out there. That's what we did. We passed 'em high, low. I think that makes it more exciting because if a guy does get a lead, everybody just doesn't get out of his way. You have to work your way through and earn it.
       "Where did that Robert Pressley come from? He made me run as hard as I could. I had to take care of the right rear tire, and I had to run hard. Everybody up front ran me clean. Everybody did a good job behind us. A veteran will know not to push the right rear tire. It gets hot and then it gets worse.  How hard can you push it and at what particular time? I kept an eye on Robert in the mirror. When he got close I pushed a little bit, and as soon as I got a little space, I cooled the right rear tire again. If he had pushed me any harder, it would have burned the right rear up."