Race winner Mike Bliss waves to the crowd. (Glenn Smith/High Sierra Photo)

In a race that featured some of the most intense side-by-side racing of the season, Mike Bliss earned his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win since the 2002 season by narrowly holding off a fast charging Terry Cook to take top honors in the Easy Care Vehicle Service Contracts 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Bliss had the dominant truck in the middle stages of the race, opening up a six-second gap on the pack before a problem on a pit stop dropped him to tenth on a restart. Bliss confidently and cautiously worked his way through traffic before slipping past rookie contender Erik Darnell inside of ten laps to go.

Once out in front, Bliss again pulled away to a one-second lead. That lead quickly evaporated once Cook moved into the runner-up position. Cook, who was driving the same truck that carried him to his first victory since 2002 earlier in the season at Kansas, reeled in Bliss over the final five laps, closing to within a truck length as the duo flashed under the white flag.

Cook made his charge to the outside in turns three and four on the final lap, but barely slipped coming through the center of the corner, ensuring the win for Bliss.

"I didn't know it was Terry that was chasing me down, but I saw the guy behind me go to the outside in three and four and it got me a little worried," Bliss said. "I had run the bottom all night long, and I didn't want to have to go up top to block because I didn't know how the truck would react."

Bliss's No. 16 Strutmasters.com Chevrolet was indeed pinned to the inside groove all afternoon. Bliss could run so low that the left front valence of his truck would shower sparks from dragging the apron, a trick that he said made the truck handle even better.

"We could run so low that if we hooked the inside of the track just right it would make the truck turn even better," Bliss said. "The truck drove so well all day long. I was a little worried once we dropped back after that pit stop because I figured they were setting up for one heck of a wreck in front of me. But the truck was just as good in traffic as it was by itself. I knew we could make it back up there."

Cook, for his part, did his best to make it a close finish.

"I think if we had one more lap we would have given the fans another Atlanta finish," Cook said. "There's just something about this racetrack that lets us put on great races time after time here. The asphalt has aged just right, and combined with the design of the track it just allows us to come and race this way time after time."

Cook's No. 10 Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford seemed to be the only truck that could run with Bliss in the late stages.

"We were a little better the longer we ran," Cook said. "This is the same truck we won with at Kansas. We took it to Las Vegas and tried our hardest to mess it up, but we got it back to the way we need it to be and came here and almost pulled it off. One more lap is all we needed. I think we could have had him."

Mike Bliss makes the race winning pass on Erik Darnell as they pass the finish line. (Christina Ramzel/High Sierra Photo)

Both Bliss and Cook were forced to race their way past a hungry Erik Darnell in the final 10 laps. Darnell, the leading candidate for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award, was one of the strongest drivers all evening. He took the lead at lap 114, but a caution flag just after for Aric Almirola's engine failure allowed Bliss to close in and cool his tires for the final dash to the checkered.

"We surely didn't need that last caution," said the driver of the No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford. "I am really excited for my guys that we were able to get a third place finish for the second straight week. They deserve it. But it is just a little disappointing to finish third after having the lead with ten laps to go. We got beat by two trucks that were just a little better than we were. But we learned a lot and we'll put it to good use next week in Texas."

David Reutimann finished fourth in the No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota and Rick Crawford rounded out the top five finishers in the No. 14 Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford.

After a tumultuous week, David Ragan finished sixth in front of his home crowd in the No. 50 PurposeMoney.com Ford, ahead of a surprisingly strong Chad McCumbee in the No. 08 TheGPSStore.com/Garmin Chevrolet. Pole starter Mike Skinner fought back from lap down midway through the race to come home eighth in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota, Bobby Hamilton, Jr. was ninth in the No. 18 Fastenal Toyota, and Jack Sprague rounded out the top-10 after a brush with the wall while fighting for the lead.

The race was spiced seven cautions for a total 30 laps. The action started early when Mark Martin got crossed up in traffic on the backstretch. Martin impacted the inside wall before shooting back across the track into heavy race traffic. Several trucks narrowly missed Martin, including Erin Crocker who managed to avoid by inches. The action continued moments later when A.J. Allmendinger, who started outside the front row, spun in turn two while racing Johnny Benson for the lead. Allmendinger was hit broadside by Joe Nemechek, damaging both trucks and forcing both drivers out of the race.

The caution flag with the most impact on the season long point battle occurred on lap 96. Benson, who had led early, had driveshaft problems which sent him into a spin off turn two. Benson was running in the top ten at the time, and with Todd Bodine struggling after contact with the wall early, Benson saw his chance of taking over the point lead disappear as the white driveshaft tumbled out from beneath his truck. Bodine lost three laps on pit road while his team made repairs to the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota and eventually finished 25th. Benson lost seven laps in the garage while his crew installed a new driveshaft on the No. 23 NAPA Toyota, relegating him to 29th at the finish.

Bodine unofficially leads the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings by 86 points heading into the next series event at Texas Motor Speedway.

Bliss's margin of victory was 0.209 seconds in a race that averaged 123.200 miles an hour. There were 21 lead changes among 9 drivers, both of which tie the season-high set earlier this season at Daytona.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season continues to wind down with the Silverado 350 next on the schedule on Friday November 3 at Texas Motor Speedway. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage, including TrackSideLive! Practice, qualifying, and race updates starting Thursday November 2.