Todd Bodine went from bump drafting Kyle Busch to victory, to winning the Mountain Dew 250 Talladega Super Speedway, on Saturday afternoon and a amazing four-wide finish.
Bodine would record his second win of 2008, sweeping both restrictor plate races this year and repeating as a winner at Talladega.
Erik Darnell, in the No. 99 Northern Tools Ford F-150 truck, was the pole sitter, with teammates John Wesley Townley in the No. 09 Zaxby Ford F-150 truck started on the outside pole position and Colin Braun in the No. 6 Con-Way Freight Ford F-150 truck started third.
Roush-Fenway Racing truck teams held the top three starting positions, and it's nice to see Ford have four trucks in the top five.
Jon Wood in the No. 21 Air Force Ford F-150 truck was to start fourth. But due to having to change the truck starter, he had to start from the back.
You had three wide racing already on the opening lap, and not surprisingly, the first caution came out on Lap 2 for debris on the track.
On the Lap 4 restart, Erik Darnell took the green leading, with Colin Braun in second, followed by Todd Bodine in the No. 3 Lumber Liquidator Toyota Tundra truck in third and Ron Hornaday in the No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet Silverado truck in fourth on a single file restart with the trucks driving along the yellow line.
On Lap 5, Darnell led by 0.122 seconds over Braun in second with the outside line still about 20 trucks back.
On Lap 6, Joey Logano in the No. 59 Team ASE/Harris Trucking Toyota Tundra truck goes from the bottom line to the outside line in front of Johnny Benson in the No. 23 Toyota Certified Toyota Tundra truck, which was the first truck leading the outside line.
Coming off of turn three, Benson would have none of Logano's move, repassing him and bring the outside line with him, making "Sliced Bread" the meat in the middle.
On Lap 8, it's still Erik Darnell leading, Colin Braun in second, Todd Bodine in third, followed by Ron Hornaday in fourth and Scott Speed in the No. 22 Red Bull Toyota Tundra truck rounding out the top five.
On Lap 9, the outside line starts to lose momentum and is falling apart with some drivers going back down to the bottom. Mike Skinner in the No. 5 Tundra sponsored Toyota Tundra along with his teammate Johnny Benson stick with the outside line and a few drivers catch up to regroup the outside line.
On Lap 10, in a team deal, Mike Skinner would get out of the outside line, let his teammate Johnny Benson by, along with the rest of the outside line. Skinner was unable to duck back behind Benson and would drop back to the back of the field.
It's still early, having great three wide racing all over the track, some bump drafting by both teammates and fellow drivers and a lot of give and take.
On Lap 15, Jack Sprague in the No. 2 American Commercial Lines Chevrolet Silverado would slow on the track, getting shuffled out of the draft and pit to check the engine.
Sprague slowed due to his engine stopping. He would switch ignition boxes and lost a cylinder in his engine.
Ron Hornaday's team was concerned, sending a crew member to the No. 2's pit stall to see what the problem was and could be prepared should Hornaday have similar problems.
On Lap 17, Erik Darnell's still leading, Colin Braun's running in second, Todd Bodine's running in third, Ron Hornaday's running in fourth and Scott Speed in fifth.
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3 months ago
Whew, GREAT recap - felt like I ran the truck race myself this morning! Really appreciated this one since I didn't see it. So, sounds like some of our up and comers did ok, others not so good. What did you think about Speed Demon - was he just there to learn? John Wes is going to be a force to be reckoned with I think. Won't Martinsville be interesting?!!
from 3 months ago
Thanks Mary Jo. Thought Speed Demon did a great job, he did have a decent truck early running up front and think he was learning toward the end made up three positions the final laps. Martinsville will be a great race and can't wait to see the Speed Demon make his debut at Lowe's.
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