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Written by:
Kevin Krefting
06/08/2007 - 07:00 PM
Fort Worth, TX
Todd Bodine and the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota team celebrate after winning the Sam's Town 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) ยป More Photos
Bodine started from the pole and was running third when his truck suddenly slowed on lap 36. He dropped to 17th in the running order and was perilously close to losing a lap when Joe Ruttman crashed on the backstretch on lap 78.
Bodine was able to steadily pick off position after position during the next long run of green flag racing, and when the leaders started making their way to pit road for fuel with less than 20 laps to go, Bodine stayed out and took over the lead. But a crash on lap 155 involving Brendan Gaughan and T.J. Bell put the field under the fifth caution of the night, and sent four of the five remaining trucks on the lead lap to pit road for service.
Travis Kvapil stayed on the track and led the field to the restart on lap 161. Just after the completion of lap 162, Kvapil first went high and then low to block Bodine heading into turn one. But Bodine had a strong run and was committed to the bottom lane, and the two made contact sending Kvapil into a long slide into turn
On the final two-lap dash to the checkered, Bodine held off a strong charge by Mike Skinner to win by just 0.188 seconds.
"I really don't like winning that way at all," Bodine said in victory lane. "We fought back all night long. We had a carburetor problem that caused the truck to just quit running and almost lost a lap because of it. Somehow it managed to fix itself, and we were able to stay on the lead lap. Then we were just about ready to come down pit road for fuel when the caution came out. I hate that we got together with Travis because he's a good guy and Mike Beam and that team do a great job. He blocked us high and then tried to block us low. You can block, but you get one move. You need to leave a lane and he didn't leave us one."
Kvapil was frustrated to end the night with a crashed truck, but was pleased to have a chance at the win.
"The thing I'm upset about the most is we have a wrecked truck," Kvapil said. "Earlier in the race we came from dead last to fourth. I knew we had a good truck and wanted clean air. We were running wide open on two tires, so I knew we were out front and we could run wide open again on the restart. I had it flat on the mat, but he got a good suck on me in the draft. As soon as I saw him go high, I went high. Then he went low and I don't know what happened but he just barely clipped me. I tried blocking him and it just worked out wrong and he got into the back of me. I really thought I had it saved. That's what bums me out the most is our K&N Filters Ford is tore up."
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