Musgrave is relieved to be far, far away from Galaxy

Ted Musgrave is more than a free agent -- he's a free man.

Three days after quitting as driver of Galaxy Motorsports' No. 75 GameWorks Ford with one race remaining in the NASCAR Winston Cup season, Musgrave said he had no regrets about walking away from the team.

And he didn't back off from his harsh comments about the team or its owner, Darwin Oordt.

"It has been the most difficult season of my career," Musgrave said after ignition failure ended his day prematurely in last Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "We don't do any wind-tunnel (testing), we don't do any track test time, and you've got to do all that stuff to be competitive.

"It makes me look bad, it makes the team look bad, so I'd rather just sit back and watch somebody else go downhill."

Musgrave, who was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Wednesday to assist new Winston Cup team owner Cal Wells and driver Scott Pruett test their Ford Taurus, said he doesn't regret his abrupt departure from Galaxy Motorsports.

"My hands were being tied and we couldn't be competitive," Musgrave said. "I'm too competitive just to sit back like the team was doing and not try to get any better. That was the problem, the management wasn't letting us get any better and I won't stand for that.

"It was like being in jail -- so I broke out."

Musgrave, who has yet to record a Winston Cup Series win in 278 career starts, said he plans to continue assisting Wells and Pruett and perhaps run "eight to 10" races in a second car in 2000.

"What I'm doing right now is kind of what I'm thinking about doing for next year -- do a lot of test work with the cars and a lot of engineering groups and try to get the Winston Cup cars feeling a lot better for the drivers and get them a little faster.

"We're trying to get the plan together here where if I come over with Cal Wells and do this deal, I'd also run eight to 10 races on the schedule."

Musgrave, who has been a full-time driver in the Winston Cup Series since 1991, said he would rather run a limited schedule with a first-class team than struggle through a full season with a team on a shoestring budget.

"Why go back to another under-funded team and run again like (I did this year)," he said. "I'd rather come and do this and do a lot of work ... and run eight to 10 races full-strength with a big team where I wouldn't have to worry about running for points -- I could run for wins.

"Next year, if I do this deal and run eight to 10 races, I can throw caution to the wind ... and go for the win. It's a whole different mind set."

Musgrave said he likes what he sees in Wells' PPI Racing program, which will launch its inaugural Winston Cup season next February at the Daytona 500.

"This team is not there right now but it's got all the qualities to do it. It's just going to take a little time to get the program headed in that direction," Musgrave said. "And I want to be a part of that because it will be there."

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