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 coming away with the championship. Going into the race Brendan Gaughan, driving the #62 Orleans Casino Dodge Ram for Orleans Racing, was leading the standings. Ted Musgrave, driving the #1 Mopar Dodge Ram for Ultra Motorsports, was sitting second. Third place was Dennis Setzer, in the #46 Acxiom Chevrolet Silverado for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, and fourth was held by Travis Kvapil, driving the #16 IWX Motor Freight Chevrolet Silverado that Mike Bliss had won the series championship driving one year earlier for Xpress Motorsports.
Controversy was caused, however, by potential roadblocks caused by drivers' teammates. Setzer's team did not enter a second truck in the race. Kvapil's team was fielding the #11 IWX Silverado for Jack Sprague, who had joined the team after being fired by Haas CNC Racing in the Winston Cup Series. Gaughan's team was fielding the #61 Orleans Casino Ram driven by Scott Lynch, the team's developmental driver.
Ultra Motorsports, meanwhile, fielded a total of five trucks, two of which were cobbled together specifically for the event. In addition to Musgrave’s #1 Mopar Ram, Ultra fielded its other full time truck, the #2 Team ASE Ram driven by Andy Houston, and its usual part time #7 Dodge Motorsports Ram that was its driver development truck and was driven in this race by Tyler Walker. These trucks were joined by the #10 Team ASE Ram, which Smith tabbed Houston’s brother Marty to drive, and the #27 Ultra Wheels Ram that would be driven by former IndyCar driver P.J. Jones.
Among the critics of the move was the points leader, who felt that by fielding five trucks that Smith was trying to give Musgrave an unfair advantage; Marty Houston, who had been working on his brother’s pit crew at the time, had not raced in over two years and Jones, who ran primarily as a road course ringer in NASCAR, had not raced in the Truck Series since its inaugural season in 1995. Gaughan's complaints proved to be valid, as with thirty-four laps to go in the race, his day came to an end. The #62 made contact with the #10, who was running a lap down, and in the process Bryan Reffner in the #80 Emerson Electronics Ford F-150 was collected in the wreck. None of the three trucks were able to continue and the accident cost Gaughan his chance at the championship. An angry Gaughan blasted Houston for causing the accident and Smith for his tactics in an interview following the accident.
The next contender to run into trouble was Musgrave. With two laps to go in the race, the race restarted and Musgrave attempted to make a pass on Kvapil's inside before the cars reached the start/finish line. Musgrave completed the pass and then passed Setzer, but NASCAR threw the black flag as Musgrave was judged to have been in violation of race rules. Musgrave never answered the black flag, and when the checkered flag fell on the next lap he crossed it in sixth place behind Sprague and in front of Kvapil, who passed Setzer for seventh. With the penalty, however, Musgrave was listed as the last car on the lead lap in thirteenth place.
For several minutes, NASCAR held off on making the results official as they reviewed Musgrave's penalty. After a 23-minute delay, 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).
In a post-race interview, an obviously angry Musgrave, while acknowledging his infraction, blamed it on Kvapil putting the brakes on him and responded with, "That figures. Screw them. All I can say is that next year, you're going to see a whole new Ted Musgrave. He's going to be the dirtiest son of a gun going out there on the racetrack and you might as well throw that rulebook away. I ain't going by it no more."
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.
Polesitter Bobby Hamilton won the race. Of the additional drivers that the Xpress, Ultra, and Orleans teams entered, Jack Sprague and P. J. Jones finished in the top ten, with Sprague fifth and Jones ninth. Scott Lynch finished twelfth, Tyler Walker twenty-third, and Marty Houston thirtieth. Gaughan finished the race in twenty-ninth.
IndyCar Series driver and future Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice made his NASCAR debut in this race driving SealMaster Racing's #88 Chevrolet Silverado normally driven by Matt Crafton. Crafton drove the team's #98 entry for this race. Rice would finish 20th.
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), Carl Long (#5), Danny Bagwell (#81)
