(High Sierra Photo)

Todd Bodine led a Toyota sweep of the top-five finishing positions in Saturday's Dodge Ram Tough 200 at Gateway International Raceway on Saturday night. Bodine started his No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota from the third position, but was forced to come from deep in the field after divergent pit strategies came into play late in the race.

Bodine was forced to endure an NCTS track record 13 caution flags on his way to victory. Those cautions worked to his advantage late in the going, keeping the field bunched closely and allowing him to make up positions rapidly as he was able to pass trucks as quickly as he caught them. One of those late race cautions put him on David Reutimann's back bumper, and he wasted little time in snatching the lead on the restart.

Once in front, Bodine cruised to victory, leading his Germain Racing teammate Ted Musgrave to the line by 0.433 seconds.

"We were definitely great on the long runs here tonight," Bodine said in victory lane. "I knew I had a good truck, and I was just trying to get good restarts without making a mistake. I knew we had a shot to get by (David) Reutimann. This why I wanted Teddy on the team - he's such a great driver and he has so much experience. He knew what to do at the end, I didn't have to worry about him and we ended up with a 1-2 at the finish."

Musgrave, for his part, would have liked to have been the one to cross the line first with his No. 9 Team ASE Toyota, but was glad to do his part to ensure a Germain Racing sweep of the top two positions.

"I talked with Todd on the radio at the end and we talked about what we were going to have to do to get by David," Musgrave said. "Todd was just a tick better than me and I couldn't get by him in the end. It's another top five for me and another win for Germain, but I really would have liked to get my third win here."

Todd Bodine (30) takes over the race led from David Reutimann. (Steve Snoddy/HSP)

Reutimann led from lap 110 through lap 146, but faced the daunting task of keeping a fast closing Bodine behind him for the last 14 laps. On the final restart, Bodine made quick work and blasted past Reutimann's Team Tundra Racing Toyota on the outside going into turn three.

"Those guys were a lot faster than me and I let them go," Reutimann said. "At one point we had a glimmer of hope that we could hold them off. I'm proud of my guys for taking a truck that wasn't very good at the start and turning it into something a whole lot better. It was a good night for us and a good night for Toyota."

For Toyota, it marks the first time the manufacturer has swept the top five finishing positions in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Behind Bodine, Musgrave, and Reutimann at the finish were fellow Tundra drivers Jack Sprague and Johnny Benson. While not ever picking up all five of the top finishing positions, Toyota has notched four of the top five positions on four occasions, most recently at Fontana earlier this season.

Former Gateway winner Terry Cook was sixth, ahead of Bobby Hamilton, Jr., David Starr, Mike Bliss and top Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender Aric Almirola.

It appeared that Erik Darnell would continue his dominance in the battle for top rookie honors as he ran in the top five for a considerable part of the early stages. However, he was tangled up in a crash with Bill Lester on lap 106 and forced to watch the end of the race from the sidelines. Darnell was credited with 31st at the finish.

In all, there were a record 13 cautions for a record 50 laps. Nine cautions were for incidents on the speedway, the most serious of which involved Mike Skinner, Kyle Krisiloff, Marcos Ambrose, and Justin Martz off turn four. Skinner had a right front go flat exiting the turn and pounded the SAFER barrier before bouncing back into traffic. Krisiloff and Ambrose piled in, with the right side sheet metal being peeled back on Ambrose's truck. Only Martz was able to continue on, soldiering on to a 20th place finish in his series debut.

Others involved in the numerous incidents included Timothy Peters, Steve Park, Robert Richardson, Kerry Earnhardt, Erin Crocker, Kraig Kinser, David Ragan, and Rick Crawford. Crawford was involved in the final caution of the night on lap 154 as a right front tire went down while he was running in the fourth position.

Bodine's average speed was 84.966 miles per hour, with the elapsed time of 2 hours, 21 minutes, and 14 seconds.

Bodine unofficially leads the championship point standings by 12 markers over Musgrave heading into the next series event in Charlotte in three weeks.