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TRUCKS: Bodine Holds Off Busch at Daytona
Written by: SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com   
02/18/2008 - 10:47 AM
Daytona Beach, Fla.
 
Todd Bodine won the Chevy Silverado 250 at Daytona for the first time in his 17 year career. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos

Todd Bodine held off Kyle Busch and Johnny Benson during a nine-lap run to the finish to win the Chevy Silverado 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.

The 2006 series champion picked up his 13th career win in the 2008 season opener. Busch edged Benson for second place, while David Starr and Rick Crawford completed the top five.

The trucks were running for the first time with 17.75-gallon fuel cells instead of the 22-gallon cells in use last year, but that didn't become an issue until late in the race, when the leaders had to come to the pits for fuel on Lap 85. A caution two laps later involving two of the race's strongest cars set up Bodine's winning run.

"I tell you, this is my 20th year coming to this speedway -- three as a crew member and 17 as a driver," said Bodine, who claimed his first victory at the 2.5-mile speedway. "Seventeen years, and we finally got there."

His winnings of $96,850 were a single-race record in the series eclipsing Jack Sprague's Daytona winnings of $93,375 a year ago.

On Lap 19, contact between the trucks of Kyle Busch and last year's series runner-up, Mike Skinner, ignited an 11-truck pile-up near the exit to Turn 2 that eliminated Skinner and left the Ford of P.J. Jones sliding along the backstretch, engulfed in flames.

Jones escaped unharmed
from his burning truck, with his fire suit singed, but the accident left a string of crippled race machines in its wake -- those of Skinner, Jones, Brendan Gaughan, Jon Wood, Matt Crafton and Ted Musgrave. Busch escaped major harm and returned to contention as the race developed.

"It was way too early in the race for people to be jumping all over the track like that," Skinner said, referring to the wild racing that preceded the contact.

The race resumed after a stoppage of 17 minutes, 23 seconds to clear the track of debris, but before the field could complete one lap under green, a melee through Turns 3 and 4 damaged the trucks of Roush Fenway Racing teammates Joey Clanton and Colin Braun, as well as those of veterans Mike Bliss and Terry Cook.

Mechanical problems took the measure of defending truck series champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who brought his no. 33 Chevrolet to the garage on Lap 44 after losing a rear-end gear.

After holding onto the lead with a two-tire stop on Lap 85, pole sitter Erik Darnell felt a vibration in his No. 99 Ford and slowed in Turn 4 on Lap 87, only to be collected by Justin Marks, who was running third. That handed the lead to Bodine for a restart with nine laps remaining.

CHEVY SILVERADO 250 RESULTS
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