TRUCK RACE AN OPEN INVITE.

Byline: LOUIS BREWSTER

Staff Writer

FONTANA -- There is no clear-cut favorite for tonight's San Bernardino County 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at California Speedway.

Like the country's largest county, the 100-lap race (6 p.m., Speed Channel) is wide-open. In 10 previous Truck events at Fontana, there have been seven winners, and half of those races have margins of victory less than a second.

Five of those winners will be in the field for tonight's race, which kicks off the NASCAR weekend at the track.

Leading the list is Ted Musgrave, who won three straight races from 2001-03; last year's winner Mark Martin; last week's Daytona truck winner Jack Sprague; Mike Bliss; and Todd Bodine.

Musgrave's track record at Fontana is most impressive. In six starts, he has three wins and six top-five finishes.

If that wasn't enough, a record-matching seven former series champions -- who have combined for 10 of 11 titles and 120 victories -- also are in the 43-truck field. Todd Bodine won the title in 2006; Musgrave in 2005; two-time Fontana winner Sprague (1997, 99, 01); Ontario native Mike Skinner (1995); former Palmdale resident Ron Hornaday Jr.; Mike Bliss (2002) and Travis Kvapil.

Skinner won the Nextel Cup Auto Club 500 pole in 2000, but has not finished better than fifth in four Truck starts.

"I absolutely love going to California Speedway," Skinner said. "Even though we have struggled there, I still think it is the best place in the world.

"We are not going in thinking we must win, or any of the next few races for that matter. Last year we dug ourselves such a big hole in the beginning (17th at Fontana) that it took us awhile to dig ourselves out of it. We are being a little more conversative than years past."

By virtue of his victory over Kvapil in the opener, Sprague leads the points for the first time since November 2001.

Martin is also part of a Nextel Cup invasion of sorts. Martin, who edged Bodine at the wire last year by 0.331 seconds, has jumped to a Ford F-150 owned by Wood Brothers/JTG Racing. Carl Edwards and Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick also are in the field and both racers will compete in all three Fontana events this weekend.

A.J. Allmendinger, who has yet to qualify for a Cup race, will get some track time in a Red Bull Toyota.

Harvick will make his first Truck start since the fall 2005 Richmond race, where he finished third. He'll be racing a Chevrolet Silverado from his Kevin Harvick Inc., shop, which will also supply the Chevy for Hornaday.

Chevy has not won at the track since 1999 with Sprague, the last of his two straight wins. In fact, after Martin's Ford, the next five trucks were all Toyotas.

In the season-opener, four of the first five were Toyotas. Toyota drivers Sprague and Johnny Benson sneaked past Kvapil's Ford in the last 200 yards for a 0.0 31 margin of victory.

"That last little bit of the race, we gave it up," Kvapil said. "If I had to redo it, obviously if I knew what was going to come I would have blocked (Sprague) harder earlier. I didn't react fast enough, and I didn't anticipate him having that much of a run on me."

Perhaps no driver is hungier at Fontana than Brandon Gaughn, the Las Vegas resident who considers California Speedway his home track.

In five previous Truck starts at Fontana, Gaughan has onepole and two top-10 finishes. Also, his team has one victory (Steve Park, 2005).

That victory was an emotional one for Gaughan racing.

"In 2005, when this team was probably at its lowest, Steve Park came through with a huge win," Gaughan said. "California Speedway has always been a great track for me."

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