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Camping World Trucks
TRUCKS: Bodine Ready To Roll
Todd Bodine has won six Truck Series races in Texas...
Todd Bodine has new sponsorship from Georgia Boot. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Figuratively and literally, Todd Bodine is exactly where he wants to be right now.
The Chemung, N.Y., native is closing in on his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship and racing this weekend at what surely must be his favorite track, the super-fast 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.
Over his Truck Series career, Bodine has 21 victories in 162 starts, a winning percentage of 12.96. Six of those 21 victories have come at TMS during Bodine’s 12 starts there, a much higher winning average of 50 percent.
And while it’s unlikely that Bodine will clinch the title in Friday night’s WinStar World Casino 350k at TMS, another victory would all but seal the deal for him. SPEED’s live coverage of the race begins at 8:30 p.m. ET Friday night with the “NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Setup,” followed by the race at 9 p.m.
High-speed, intermediate-length tracks have long been Bodine’s bread and butter, and he’s expecting another strong run in his Valvoline-sponsored No. 30 Toyota Tundra on Friday night.
“We’ve been fortunate to be able to get good trucks that will run fast and run fast for a long period of time,” said Bodine. “I think the race track suits my style, a little bit of get up on the wheel and drive hard every lap.”
Bodine said there’s a secret to going fast around the TMS quad oval, a track many of his peers find treacherous and challenging: Keep your right foot mashed on the accelerator pedal for as long as you have the nerve.
“He who lets off the least goes the fastest and I think we’re pretty good at that, getting this thing to roll the center and stay in the throttle good,” said Bodine, who enters the Texas weekend with a whopping 216-point lead over second place Aric Almirola and a 314-point margin over Johnny Sauter.
The results Bodine has had at Texas in the past, along with his strong 2010 season, have left the man known as “The Onion” in a confident frame of mind for Friday night’s Texas tussle.
“When you come to somewhere that you’ve had a lot of success you kind of have a little different attitude,” said Bodine. “When we go to Texas, we know we have a legitimate opportunity to win because we’ve done so well here. There is a little bit of swagger in our step so to speak when we go to Texas.”
Crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. said he is particularly excited to be racing chassis TRD-131 this weekend.
“When we put this race truck on the track for the first time in Nashville this spring, we knew we had a special Tundra,” said Hillman. “What makes it great is that it responds consistently to whatever chassis setup we throw at it. We've won three races with this truck this year, including in June at Texas. We'll try our best to sweep the Texas races with the Valvoline Tundra on Friday night.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
The Chemung, N.Y., native is closing in on his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship and racing this weekend at what surely must be his favorite track, the super-fast 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.
Over his Truck Series career, Bodine has 21 victories in 162 starts, a winning percentage of 12.96. Six of those 21 victories have come at TMS during Bodine’s 12 starts there, a much higher winning average of 50 percent.
And while it’s unlikely that Bodine will clinch the title in Friday night’s WinStar World Casino 350k at TMS, another victory would all but seal the deal for him. SPEED’s live coverage of the race begins at 8:30 p.m. ET Friday night with the “NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Setup,” followed by the race at 9 p.m.
High-speed, intermediate-length tracks have long been Bodine’s bread and butter, and he’s expecting another strong run in his Valvoline-sponsored No. 30 Toyota Tundra on Friday night.
“We’ve been fortunate to be able to get good trucks that will run fast and run fast for a long period of time,” said Bodine. “I think the race track suits my style, a little bit of get up on the wheel and drive hard every lap.”
Bodine said there’s a secret to going fast around the TMS quad oval, a track many of his peers find treacherous and challenging: Keep your right foot mashed on the accelerator pedal for as long as you have the nerve.
“He who lets off the least goes the fastest and I think we’re pretty good at that, getting this thing to roll the center and stay in the throttle good,” said Bodine, who enters the Texas weekend with a whopping 216-point lead over second place Aric Almirola and a 314-point margin over Johnny Sauter.
The results Bodine has had at Texas in the past, along with his strong 2010 season, have left the man known as “The Onion” in a confident frame of mind for Friday night’s Texas tussle.
“When you come to somewhere that you’ve had a lot of success you kind of have a little different attitude,” said Bodine. “When we go to Texas, we know we have a legitimate opportunity to win because we’ve done so well here. There is a little bit of swagger in our step so to speak when we go to Texas.”
Crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. said he is particularly excited to be racing chassis TRD-131 this weekend.
“When we put this race truck on the track for the first time in Nashville this spring, we knew we had a special Tundra,” said Hillman. “What makes it great is that it responds consistently to whatever chassis setup we throw at it. We've won three races with this truck this year, including in June at Texas. We'll try our best to sweep the Texas races with the Valvoline Tundra on Friday night.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
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