Ted Musgrave #55 Jasper Engines Pontiac

    Ted Musgrave ran his first full Cup season in 1991, driving for car owner D.K. Ulrich~ His first race in the Jasper Engines sponsored car came in the Miller Genuine Draft 500 @ Pocono, where he qualified 31st, and finished in the 13th position, 1 lap off of the pace of race winner Rusty Wallace~ This was to be the best finish of the season in the Jasper Engines car, although he did finish 12th in the Valleydale Meats 500 @ Bristol earlier in the season, with sponsorship by RaDiUs~ He finished the season 23rd in the points standings, with an average start of 30th, and an average finish of 22nd~

    For the start of the 1992 season, the team swapped manufactures for the Daytona 500, choosing to field a Chevrolet for the race~ Musgrave qualified poorly, starting the race in the 40th position, but methodically worked his way through the field to finish 8th, for his first career top 10~ For the next 2 races, the team again switched manufactures, this time fielding Oldsmobile's~ Musgrave finished 17th in the GM Goodwrench 500 @ Rockingham, and 25th in the Pontiac Excitement 400 @ Richmond~

    He was back in a Chevrolet for the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 @ Atlanta, where he qualified 16th, and came home in the 19th position~ For the TranSouth 500 @ Darlington, the team went back to running a Pontiac~ Musgrave started the race 22nd, and finished 15th~

    The team ran Oldsmobile's again for the next 3 races, with a best finish of 14th in the Food City 500 @ Bristol~ Ulrich made another manufacturer change for the Coca-Cola 600, this time choosing to field a Ford for the first time~ Musgrave qualified in the 16th position, and came home in 8th~

                                   Musgrave on track in the Jasper Engines Pontiac~  (1991)

    Ted picked up his first career top 5 in the Miller Genuine Draft 500 @ Pocono, finishing the race in the 5th position~ The team ran a Chevrolet in the DieHard 500 @ Talladega, with Musgrave finishing in the 12th position~ After this race, the team switched back to running Ford's for the remainder of the season~ At seasons end, Musgrave was 18th in the points standings, with 1 top 5, and 7 top 10's~

    The team ran Ford's for the entirety of the 1993 season, and Musgrave picked up 2 more top 5's with a 5th in the Champion Spark Plug 500 @ Pocono, and another 5th in the Champion Spark Plug 400 @ Michigan~ He had his best qualifying effort of his career up to that point in the season finale @ Atlanta, the Hooters 500, where he rolled off in the 4th position and came home 8th~ He finished the season with 2 top 5's, and 5 top 10's, but slipped to 25th in the points standings~ After this season, Musgrave would end his time in the #55 Jasper car, and move on to Jack Rouch's #16 Family Channel car~

                                               Ted Musgrave #55 Jasper Engines Pontiac~

                                                             Click pics to enlarge~

      

    Moving on to the review of this car, I can tell you that I'm highly offended by Racing Champions use of stickers instead of painted logos~ As with Kyle Petty's Mello Yello car of the same era, I just don't understand why Racing Champions felt the need to do this~ The entire car, with the exception of the driver name and number is entirely made up of stickers~ RC put out cars with much more detail than this during this time period, and did so using painted on logos.. so I just don't understand the need for these petty stickers~

    Because of this, I give the car a D+ grading~ If not for the stickers, it would easily be a B+ car~ The other downside of the car, is that it doesn't mention that it is a Pontiac anywhere on the car~ The plus sides of the car are the yellow and green striping along the bottom, and the card is pretty nice~ If you are lucky enough to find this car in 1/24 scale, it's highly sought after, and worth quite a bit more than some of the other 1/24's of its time~

    As with all of my posts, below are some videos of Musgrave driving this car, along with a few more videos from his career~ If you'll notice in the first 2 videos, something I couldn't stand back then was Ned Jarrett always having to mention Dale Jarrett every few moments, regardless of his running position~ lol~ Thanks so much for stopping by to read the blog!~ :)

                                            1991 DieHard 500~ Big wreck involving Ted~

                                          
                                          1991 Champion Spark Plug 400~ Musgrave spin~

                                      1993 Splitfire Spark Plug 500~ Musgrave blows engine~

                                          2007 Silverado 350K~ Big Crash/Musgrave win~
                                          Sorry about the Michael Waltrip commentary~ :P