Todd Bodine (David M. Vaughn Photo)

These last few weeks have left Germain Racing's No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra crew a bit baffled. For the team, and their championship contender driver Todd Bodine, Phoenix was a welcome change of pace. Bodine qualified third and finished fourth. They raced hard and got a finish they could understand.

"There's no question, this week we had a fourth place truck. We didn't have a truck that could win the race - Johnny (Benson), Mark (Martin) and (Mike) Skinner had trucks better than ours and we had a truck better than fifth, so we finished where we should. It seems like it's been a while since we've been able to do that," said Bodine, who was happy to get a solid top-five finish. "Johnny cut some points off of our lead, but we've still got a decent lead - there's some comfort level there, but this is the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. This series has become known for its close points battles. We know we're in for a challenge at Homestead."

As Bodine took the green flag for the Casino Arizona 150, he watched in amazement as his closest contender in the points chase, Johnny Benson, spun out, bringing out the first caution of the day.

"There was no one in our pits that could believe what happened on that first lap," said Bodine. "I'm sure a lot of people imagine that me or my crew would be cheering at a time like that but we are all very set against that, especially the Hillman's. Cheering for someone else's misfortune is like asking for trouble of your own."

The Lumber Liquidators pit crew worked with Bodine on getting the #30 Tundra to handle just a bit better to put it in contention with the race leaders.
If the team was able to make one more pit stop, it may have made a difference on the race results.

"Junior (Mike Hillman, Jr.) and Senior (Mike Hillman, Sr.) kept telling me we needed about a tenth. We would've liked to make one last adjustment to the Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra. I don't know if it would've made it a winning truck because Johnny was just that good, but I know it would've been better," said Bodine. "We couldn't do anything because of track position - you've gotta have the track position. To make that adjustment was gonna take too much time on the pit stop, so Mike made a good call and decided not to do it."

Bodine's 4th place finish was his 29th's top-five and 41st top-ten in his Truck Series career (64 starts). The Chemung, N.Y., native maintained the points lead over Benson, who won the race after being the cause of the race's first caution. David Reutimann, Ted Musgrave and David Starr round out the top-five in the championship points standings.