By Times Staff Writer
Published September 10, 2004
RICHMOND, Va. - Zephyrhills native David Reutimann was knocked out of a top-10 run and into a 30th-place finish late in the NASCAR Truck series race at Richmond International Raceway on Thursday when Hank Parker Jr. lost control of his truck and sent him into a wall.
Reutimann, who was running seventh with 22 laps to go on the 0.75-mile track, had substantial right-front damage to his No. 17 Toyota, including a ruptured tire and restarted 28th.
Ted Musgrave won for the second time this season and 15th in his career, prevailing in a duel with teammate Jamie McMurray when the 11th caution of the race cut a green-white-checker finish a lap short.
Two-time defending race winner Tony Stewart was third.
NEXTEL RULES IROC: In the IROC series' first short-track race, Nextel Cup drivers claimed the top five places and the most adept short-tracker of them all dominated.
Matt Kenseth, the defending Cup champion, led the last 85 laps after taking the lead from pole-sitter and Indy Racing League regular Scott Sharp, then held off a late challenge from Ryan Newman to move into a tie for second in the standings.
"I wanted to get out front quick," said Kenseth, who crashed early in the previous race at Texas. "The points, where we were after Texas, once I got out in front I wanted to make sure we led all the laps and got all the points we could."
Newman leads the series, which pits drivers from stock car and open-wheel series in identically prepared cars, with 50 points.
Kurt Busch was third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.
"He was going to be the car to beat," said Busch, who was second in the first race of the season at Daytona. "He's a short-track racer from the word go."
Sharp was the highest-finishing non-NASCAR driver (sixth), followed by J.J. Yeley (Nextel Cup), Helio Castronevesand Scott Dixon (IRL), Danny Lasoski (World of Outlaws), Travis Kvapil (NASCAR Truck) and Steve Kinser (World of Outlaws).
The series concludes with a 100.5-mile race on Oct. 30 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
NO RIDE: It appears the housecleaning at Richard Childress Racing will continue. Robby Gordon, who has driven the No. 31 Chevrolet since 2002, winning two road course races last season, said his only commitment for next season is 24 races in his Busch car. Gordon, 35, has two top-fives and five top 10s and is 19th in Cup points. Childress replaced rookie Johnny Sauter with Dave Blaney then Jeff Burton permanently in the No. 30 after 13 races.
BUSCH POLE: Kasey Kahne looked oddly stunned when he was awarded a DVD player for winning the pole for tonight's Busch race. He does, after all, earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for racing in Nextel Cup, but he apparently never has found the time to build a home theater. "Cool," he said after covering the 0.75-mile track in 21.147 seconds at 127.678 mph. "I don't have one of these."
