With the name Teddy Musgrave Jr., some might wonder if he’s related to former NASCAR driver Ted Musgrave. Indeed, Teddy is Ted’s son. Yes, Teddy spent most of his younger days racing on pavement. However, it was a chance opportunity to race dirt that got him hooked. Now he plans to make his first American All-Star Series Presented by PPM Racing Products start at Laurens County Speedway on Saturday, August 10.
“I went to Wisconsin to visit some family,” said Teddy, of Statesville, North Carolina. “My brother-in-law, [Jason Robbins,] he had broken his wrist [when] he banged wheels with a guy [in a race]. He said, ‘If you want to drive my car, you can drive it. There’s no damage [to the car].’ I never drove a dirt car before and it was a dirt late model. I drove that and I was like this is a lot of fun. And I came home, ran my asphalt car one more time and sold it and went dirt racing.”
That was in 2008. Teddy has been a mainstay of dirt racing ever since.
“The biggest thing I like about dirt racing is that from the time you drop the trailer door, you roll your car out, you are in qualifying mode all night,” Teddy said. “You’re as hard as you can go every lap. It’s intense. It’s not like that on asphalt. I ran a lot of 150-lap, 200-lap races [on pavement]. I won some [pavement] super late model races. It’s methodical — I got to have tires at the end. [With dirt], you’re on the wheel from lap one until the checkered flag flies.”
Last year, Teddy Musgrave Jr. won his first track championship, scoring the title at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, South Carolina. He hopes to carry that success over to his first start in the American All-Star Series Presented by PPM Racing Products race on Saturday, August 10, at Laurens County Speedway in South Carolina.
Outside Groove Note of Transparency: Outside Groove is a sponsor of the American All-Star Series. The American All-Star Series paid for the production of this article. The content is not subject to the approval of the American All-Star Series.
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
