Saturday, October 6 Talladega Superspeedway Talladega, AL

Todd Bodine Wins Mountain Dew 250 In Dramatic Finish

TALLADEGA, Ala. – After 250 miles of racing, it all came down to the final 250 feet. And in the end, Todd Bodine managed to barely hold off Rick Crawford and Johnny Benson to claim victory Saturday in a thrilling Mountain Dew 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Crawford remained tucked behind Bodine for most of the final two laps, with Benson close on the rear of Crawford. Then as the trio came off Turn 4 and headed through the tri-oval toward the checkered flag, Crawford pulled out on the high side and Benson tried to pass on the bottom of the track. They crossed the finish line three-wide, with Bodine maintaining the lead by 0.014 of a second over Crawford.

“This is Talladega. It just lends itself to great finishes,” Bodine said afterward. “Where the start-finish line is and the way the track is. … It’s just the way Talladega is. It’s a great place to race, and a great show for the fans.”

Jason Leffler finished fourth, followed by Dennis Setzer in fifth, NCTS rookie Willie Allen sixth and Ron Hornaday Jr. seventh.

Hornaday’s showing was enough to give him a 14-point lead in the NCTS points standings over Mike Skinner, who finished 13th. Skinner had entered the race with a three-point lead over Hornaday. It was the third time in the past four races that the points lead has changed hands.

The only thing closer than the points battle was the final-lap battle for the victory in Saturday’s race. Crawford said he waited until the last-possible moment to make his move out of concern that if Benson didn’t follow him, he would have lost the draft and dropped several positions.

“I was getting a really good run off of (Turn) 4 … but if I had pulled out (too early), I would have finished 10th or 15th,” Crawford said. “So I had to take the draft, I had to use it as much as I could. I got the side draft off of Todd, I was just four feet short.”

Bodine said he knew Crawford was going to make a move, he just wasn’t sure when.

“He had a great run. He just came up a little short,” said Bodine, the defending NCTS champion. “It was pretty close. I knew Rick was out there, but I couldn’t see his hood (at the finish line), so I knew we had won.

“Rick timed it just a little too late. If the start-finish line was down another couple 100 yards, he probably would have been by me. He almost timed it perfectly.”

But Crawford, who drives a Ford, said he was worried that if he had gotten out of line, Benson would have stayed behind Bodine, since both of them drive Toyotas. Benson did not dispute that notion.

“If (Crawford) would have had a manufacturer behind him the same as him, he would have gone on by (Bodine),” Benson said. “I just tried to win the race myself. I thought we were going to get there. Between first, second and third, it had to have been pretty tight.”

A victory would have been special to Crawford, since he is a native of Alabama.

“I thought I made the right move,” Crawford said. “If I second guessed myself or looked in the rear view mirror, I would have done it the same way. … “(It was) a bold move there at the end to try to make it exciting for the fans in my home state of Alabama.”

The victory was special to Bodine as well, considering how close he has come to winning past NCTS races at both Talladega and Daytona International Speedway.

“I’m just glad to come out on top for a change,” Bodine said. “I’ve always run well at Daytona and Talladega, I just never quite got it done. I finally got it done today. That’s the best part about this whole thing.” Broadcast Times

• Qualifying: Friday, October 5 (SPEED at 2 p.m./AT)
• Pre-Race Show: Saturday, October 6 (SPEED at 4:30 p.m./AT)
• Race: Saturday, October 6 (SPEED at 5 p.m. AT)

Event Stats PDF files unless noted otherwise

Entry List

Starting Lineup

Point Standings

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: Mountain Dew 250
The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
The Date: Oct. 61
The Time: 4:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: SPEED 3:30 p.m. (ET)
Track Layout: 2.66-mile speedway
Race Purse: $780,490
2006 Winner: Mark Martin
2006 Pole: Mark Martin
Schedule (track time): Thursday: Practice 12:10-1:10 p.m.; Rookie practice 1:50-2:20 p.m.; Final practice 2:20-3:20 p.m. Friday: Qualifying 12:10 p.m.
Year-To-Date Standings: click here

Track Map



Green Flag Notes

• Inaugural Daytona 250 winner Mike Wallace will drive Germain Racing’s No. 03 Toyota at Talladega, giving the series’ 2006 championship team a one-two-three punch of Wallace, Todd Bodine and Ted Musgrave (No. 9 Team ASE Toyota).
• Kyle Busch (No. 51 Flanders Beef Patties Chevrolet) believes the Mountain Dew 250 will be a great tuneup for the debut of NASCAR’s new NEXTEL Cup car at Talladega Superspeedway. “The trucks, just like the COT, have more drag and they both have more power so drafting is different, but similar to the truck,” said Busch. “The way both the COT and the trucks are built, the bumpers line up so I expect you’ll see a lot of bump drafting in both races.”
• Seven of the season’s 19 winners started from the Bud Pole, giving added importance to Friday’s qualifying session. Mark Martin won the Mountain Dew 250 from the No. 1 starting position a year ago; Jack Sprague won the race from the Bud Pole in January. Mike Skinner continues to pursue his tenth Bud Pole of the 2007 season, which would match his series record set in 1995.
• Jacques Villeneuve (No. 27 Toyota) will compete in all three events at Talladega Superspeedway beginning with Friday’s ARCA RE/MAX Series race. Villeneuve finished 21st in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• Rick Crawford (No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford) and Cale Gale (No. 2 Camping World Chevrolet) will represent Alabama in the Mountain Dew 250. Both hail from Mobile. Crawford finished 15th in 2006; Gale, teammate to Ron Hornaday Jr., did not compete here a year ago.
• Brendan Gaughan (No. 77 South Point Hotel Chevrolet) finished fourth in Talladega’s 2004 fall race and 12th in last year’s Mountain Dew 250. He’s completed all 470 possible laps in three trips to the speedway.

IMPORTANT: All information, schedules and/or scheduled events is/are subject to change without notice. Please check with the source to confirm.