#62-Brendan Gaughan held off #2-Jason Leffler by a truck length Saturday night in the Dodge Ram Tough 200 NASCAR Truck series race at Gateway International Raceway. Gaughan, who pushed his Dodge to the front for the final time on the 50th of 160 laps, led the rest of the 200-mile race for his third victory of the season. Leffler, also driving a Dodge, closed the gap to 0.222 seconds at the checkered flag but his final challenge – in Turn 3 of the 1.25-mile speedway – fell short. #16-Travis Kvapil finished third in his Chevrolet to preserve a 34-point championship lead over Gaughan after 12 of 25 races. Gaughan averaged 99.489 mph in becoming the sixth different winner at Gateway International Raceway. The speed was the slowest in the history of the race as five caution periods consumed 27 laps. #99-Carl Edwards finished fourth, followed by #14-Rick Crawford. #75-David Starr [in his return], #1-Ted Musgrave, #46-Dennis Setzer, #29-Terry Cook and #88-Matt Crafton completed the top 10. Gaughan and Musgrave were the only race leaders, swapping the lead three times between laps 48 and 50 before handling trouble dropped Musgrave out of contention for a third victory of the year. Pole starter Kvapil failed to lead a lap after being passed by Musgrave one the initial lap.(ThatsRacin.com/AP)
For race results see Thatsracin.com, Truckseries.com, MotorsportsOne or NASCAR.com.(7-20-2003)
