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| Bodine Clears Atlanta with Point Lead in Tact, Finishes 25th
10-30-2006 | TruckSeries.com Report
For Todd Bodine, racing at the Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend was chock full of drama that had nothing to do with the 21 lead changes among nine drivers in the 130-lap EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200. Bodine, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points leader entered the race with a 79-point lead over second place Johnny Benson. In a matter of about 50 laps, he lost the point lead then regained it and all the while working with a Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra that suffered an early flat tire and brush with the outside retaining wall. "To say I feel fortunate about finishing 25th is tough to do, but it's the truth. We had a tough day, our Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra suffered a flat tire and a trip to the outside wall under the green flag, so we lost two laps very early," said Bodine. "Somehow, yes, we picked up a few more points over Benson today, but it's not the way I'd like to do it." Thirty laps into the race, while running in seventh position, Bodine radioed to his crew that he'd suddenly developed a vibration. In just a couple laps, the vibration turned into a flat right front tire and a subsequent brush with the outside retaining wall. The Lumber Liquidators crew changed the flat tire, and made some handling adjustments to the #30 Toyota Tundra. With under 100 laps to go, Bodine was two laps down and working hard with his crew to get the truck fast enough to make up some of the lost ground. "If we were really competitive today before our problems, I would feel better about how our day finished up," said Bodine. "We missed the setup today, then right off the bat we lost the right front tire and got into the wall. We worked on the truck, and got a lot better as we went along. We made the truck run competitive times and we were better but we were two laps down. I hate to say it, but as far as our points race goes, we were fortunate Johnny had bad luck today, too." After both leaders suffered bad luck in Atlanta, the points race actually ended up looking familiar as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway. Bodine maintains the points lead with an 86-point margin over Benson. David Reutimann, Ted Musgrave and Rick Crawford round out the top five.
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