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Todd Bodine earned his fifth victory at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in the WinStar World Casino 400 making him the only driver in Camping World Truck Series history to win five races at one track.
The race had only two cautions for a total of ten laps making it one of the fastest races in history. The first caution came on lap 42 when last week’s winner, Brian Scott, got into the turn two wall. The second caution flew for debris on the track during a cycle of green flag pit stops and caught several of the leaders one or two laps down.
Bodine took tires but no fuel during the second caution which allowed him to take the lead. Fuel mileage was a concern as the laps wound down but Bodine was confident in his crew chief’s abilities. “If (Mike Hillman) Jr. wasn’t concerned, I wasn’t concerned,” Bodine said. The win was a nice comeback for the Germain Racing #30 team which has struggled in the past few races. “These guys never give up,” Hillman Jr. said. “That’s our motto, that’s what we live for.” Bodine reiterated that same motto in Victory Lane. Matt Crafton drove his #88 Chevrolet to a second-place finish which also got him the points lead for the first time in his career. However, he was still not satisfied with the performance.
“Most disappointing second place finish ever,” Crafton said. “This Australian Gold Chevy was awesome… Dang… I wanted to win here in Texas.” Ron Hornaday is now second in points, 30 points behind Crafton, after a disappointing evening while trying to get his third consecutive win at TMS. Hornaday led the race after pole-sitter Johnny Sauter had problems with a pit stop during the first caution period and lost the lead. Unfortunately for the #33 team, Hornaday had a violation during green-flag pit stops later in the race and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty. To make matters worse, with only eight laps to go Hornaday’s Longhorn Chevy slowed and came down pit road. He reported no oil pressure over the radio and finished four laps down in the 19th position. Colin Braun finished third with Johnny Benson and Rick Crawford crossing the stripe fourth and fifth, respectively. Johnny Sauter, David Starr, Jason White, Tayler Malsam and Mike Skinner rounded out the top-10; only nine trucks were on the lead lap when the checkered flag flew. MORE NASCAR NEWS
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