Ford 200
The Ford 200 was held November 14 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Bobby Hamilton won the pole.
This race saw the possibility of any one of the series' four top drivers in the points standings. Going into the race Brendan Gaughan, who was driving for Orleans Racing at the time in the #62 Orleans Casino Dodge and had won six times during the season, was in the lead. Ted Musgrave, driving the #1 Mopar Dodge for Ultra Motorsports and with three wins to his credit that year, was second. Third place belonged to Dennis Setzer, driver of the #46 Acxiom Chevrolet for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, and fourth was held by Travis Kvapil, driver of the #16 IWX Motor Freight Chevrolet for Xpress Motorsports, the defending series championship team.
Controversy was caused, however, by potential roadblocks caused by drivers' teammates. Setzer's team did not enter a second truck in the race. Xpress was a two truck team, also fielding the #11 IWX truck for Jack Sprague. Gaughan had Scott Lynch as his teammate in the #61 truck that also carried Orleans sponsorship. In order to potentially ensure Musgrave winning the championship, Ultra entered five trucks in the race. In addition to Musgrave's truck and the team's other full-time team, the #2 Team ASE/Carquest Dodge that had been driven by Andy Houston since Ultra released Jason Leffler earlier in the season (Leffler left to join Haas CNC Racing's Winston Cup team), the team entered their part-time #7 Dodge Motorsports truck that Tyler Walker piloted. The #27 Ultra Wheels Dodge was fielded for P.J. Jones while the #10 Team ASE/Carquest Dodge was fielded for Marty Houston, brother of Andy Houston and who had been serving on his brother's pit crew as a tire changer. Jones and Houston were entered as one-time only entrants for the race, which earned a huge amount of criticism from points leader Gaughan as well as from fans and other drivers.
As the race went on, Gaughan's complaints proved to be valid. With thirty-four laps to go in the race Gaughan and Marty Houston got into an accident with the #80 of Bryan Reffner. None of the three trucks were able to continue and the accident cost an angry Gaughan, who railed against Ultra's tactics after the accident, the points lead. He went on to finish in twenty-ninth place, ahead of both Houston and Reffner who finished in the next two positions.
The next contender to run into trouble was Musgrave, who was black flagged for an attempted pass on Kvapil before a restart after a caution period. Musgrave passed him and Dennis Setzer, who suddenly had a chance to win the title after an underwhelming day. When the checkered flag came out, Musgrave was sixth and Kvapil beat Setzer by inches for seventh, but because Musgrave did not respond to the black flag (for being in "the act of passing" to the inside on the restart; not legal in the NASCAR rulebook) he was penalised to 13th, behind all other lead lap finishers. This meant Kvapil was 6th and Setzer 7th. For several minutes, NASCAR held off on making the results official as they reviewed Musgrave's penalty. The black flag was upheld, and Kvapil was declared the series champion. The final margin was nine points, while Musgrave finished eighteen points behind and Gaughan forty (without the black flag, Musgrave would have been the champion over Kvapil by 12 points, with Setzer 21 behind, and Gaughan 52 back). Xpress Motorsports won its second consecutive Truck Series Championship as a team, as Mike Bliss had won the 2002 series championship driving the same truck Kvapil took to the championship.
Almost forgotten on this day was the battle for the win. Daytona 250 winner Rick Crawford led at the white flag, but polesitter Bobby Hamilton passed him in Turn 1 and won the Craftsman $10,000 Win from the Pole bonus. Just before the checkered flag, Tyler Walker crashed yet again in Turn 2.
Top Ten Results (On the track)
- 4-Bobby Hamilton
- 14-Rick Crawford
- 75-David Starr
- 2-Andy Houston
- 11-Jack Sprague
- 1-Ted Musgrave
- 16-Travis Kvapil
- 46-Dennis Setzer
- 50-Jon Wood
- 27-P. J. Jones
Top Ten Results (Official Result)
- 4-Bobby Hamilton
- 14-Rick Crawford
- 75-David Starr
- 2-Andy Houston
- 11-Jack Sprague
- 16-Travis Kvapil
- 46-Dennis Setzer
- 50-Jon Wood
- 27-P. J. Jones
- 18-Chad Chaffin
Failed to qualify: Derrike Cope (#93), Jason Hedlesky (#51), Wayne Edwards (#95), Lance Hooper (#01), Dana White (#25), Jamie Aube (#23), Danny Bagwell (#81), Carl Long (#5)
Read more about this topic: 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Famous quotes containing the word ford:
“All this stuff you heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans, traditionally, love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.... Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost—and will never lose—a war, because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.”
—Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939)