David Starr took advantage of Ted Musgrave’s bad luck to win the Chevy Silverado 150 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Phoenix International Raceway on Friday.  Starr took over the lead with 28 laps remaining when then-leader Musgrave pulled to pit road with a flat right front tire.  Starr held off pole sitter and three-time Phoenix winner Jack Sprague on two late race restarts to drive to the win.

Jack Sprague jumped to the lead from his sixth Bud Pole of the season, and pulled away from the pack on the start.  But just six laps later, he was feeling the pressure from second-place Carl Edwards.  Edwards continued to keep the pressure on until fate brought him down pit road on lap 17.

A cut tire brought Edwards to his pit for a four tire change and dropped him from second to 35th, one lap down. 

With Edwards out of the picture, at least temporarily, Sprague continued to set sail.  By lap 30, he had pulled away to a 1.5 second lead over a great battle for second involving championship contender Ted Musgrave, Todd Bodine, David Starr, and Shane Hmiel.

Sprague had caught the tail of the field and sliced through the lapped traffic like a warn knife through butter.  He had lapped up to the 27th position on lap 42 when trouble struck right on front of him.

Heading through the dogleg on the backstretch, Chase Montgomery had trouble right in front of the leader.  His damaged truck slid across the track just in front of Sprague, bringing out the first caution of the day.

Rookie Sean Murphy stayed out to lead lap 44, but Sprague won the race off pit road and reclaimed the lead when Murphy came to pit road.  Musgrave lined up second on the restart, with Bodine, Starr, and Crafton rounding out the top-5.

Musgrave had a great jump on the restart and took the lead on lap 50.  Hornaday also made the move to take over fifth on lap 51 before caution slowed the field for the second time on lap 54.

Exiting turn two, Murphy and Hank Parker, Jr. came together with Murphy nosing into the fence and Parker scraping the right side of his truck against the wall.  Some debris was spotted, forcing the caution.

The green waved on lap 60, and Musgrave dropped the hammer and stretched his lead over Sprague.  Before Musgrave could get back into his rhythm, the third caution of the day waved when Murphy again had trouble in turns one and two.  This was the break that Edwards was looking for as he received the “free pass” and regained his position at the tail end of the lead lap.

On lap 72, Jon Wood and David Reutimann brushed going into turn one.  Wood became the second Roush driver to be forced down pit road with a flat tire, and to make matters worse, he missed the commitment line entering the pits and was forced to make a pass-thru penalty.

At the halfway point, Musgrave had a 1-second lead over Sprague, with Bodine, Starr and a strong Johnny Benson rounding out the top-5.  Championship contenders Dennis Setzer and Bobby Hamilton were 12th and ninth, respectively.

On lap 85, Bodine turned up the wick and started putting heavy pressure on Sprague for second.  Bodine cleared him down the backstretch, and with a 2-second gap to make up on the leader, he started his attempt to chase down the leader.

By lap 90, Bodine had chopped a full second off Musgrave’s advantage and continued the chase.  With lapped traffic slowing Musgrave’s pace, Bodine was underneath the leader’s tailgate by lap 100.

With 50 laps remaining, Musgrave held on to a perilous lead with Bodine all over his back bumper.  Sprague was third, with Starr fourth and Benson remaining in fifth.  Hmiel was sixth, Crafton seventh, Reutimann eighth, championship contender Hamilton ninth, while outside front row started Ken Schrader rounded out the top-10.  Setzer had closed in on Hamilton to run 12th.

Once he cleared the heavy lapped traffic, Musgrave was again able to open up a comfortable advantage over Bodine.  By lap 110, it was again back over a second.  That advantage was erased on lap 111 when Skinner and Tracy Hines came together in turn three.  Hines went hard into the outside wall with the tail of his machine, while Skinner had damage to the nose of his machine.  Hines was taken to the infield care center and evaluated before being released; Skinner was able to continue.

Once the field went back to green, Musgrave again kept a comfortable lead until lap 122 when Lady Luck took a bite out of Musrgave’s championship hopes.  He darted high in turn two before a shower of sparks streamed from the right front of his machine.  As he came down pit road, his championship hopes brightened somewhat through the back luck of others.

As he approached his pit, Ken Weaver crashed hard in turn two, collecting Robert Huffman, Deborah Renshaw, Brandon Whitt, and Terry Cook.  Weaver climbed out of the truck under his own power and was evaluated at the care center.  Everyone else was able to drive away and bring their machines to the pits.

With Musgrave’s misfortunes taking him from the lead, Starr took over the top of the leaderboard with Bodine tucked under him for the restart.  With 19 laps to go, the green flag waved and Starr worked to keep Bodine behind him.

Just one lap later, Chad Chaffin was forced into the inside wall, knocking the nose off his truck and bringing out the caution with just 16 laps remaining.

The field came to the green with 10 laps remaining.  On the restart, Bodine had a bite of bad luck as he slowed with a flat tire allowing Sprague to move into second with Crafton keeping the pressure on in third.

Starr was able to keep Sprague at bay over the final 10 laps to pull off his second win of the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.  Sprague came home second, with Crafton equaling his career best in third.  Hmiel was fourth, with Johnny Benson rounding out the top-5 with a last lap pass.