Todd Bodine. (David M. Vaughn Photo)

Todd Bodine gave his sponsor, Lumber Liquidators, an exciting ride for their first trip to Daytona International Speedway. Bodine kept the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Tundra in the top-three for much of the 100-lap race, including grabbing the lead on two occasions, and making a few powerful moves through the field to show off the strength of his Tundra. When the checkered flag waved, Bodine, Toyota's first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, finished fifth, while Jack Sprague teamed with Johnny Benson to overtake Travis Kvapil and collect Toyota's first victory at Daytona.

"What a race. It was very intense," said Bodine of the non-stop action on the 2.5-mile superspeedway. "This competition, these guys that finished at the front tonight, they will be on top each week. The competition level in the Truck Series is incredible. This is probably going to be the best year of truck racing yet."

With less than ten laps to go, Bodine was in definitely in contention for his first win at Daytona in Saturday night's Chevy Silverado HD 250. As it turned out, he finished fifth. Bodine described the intense last-lap action: "Well, I made my move. Jack went to the outside, I was gonna go with him, but (Ron) Hornaday (Jr.) hit me from behind and I couldn't. So I went to the bottom and everyone else went up behind Jack and I had no help. That's just the way Daytona racing is - sometimes you pick the right line, sometimes you don't. We came out of here fifth and I really can't complain about that."

The Daytona season-opener was a good showing for a team that collected the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship while wrestling with some tough luck and mediocre finishes in the final races of the 2006 season.

"We figured a lot of things out (over the winter) that should make us run better," said Bodine. "We're looking forward to getting to California. We had a good test at Homestead, and California will be a good place to test out what we've learned and see what else we need to improve upon to get set for the rest of the season. I'm leaving Daytona as confident as ever in our Daytona/Talladega program, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we've got for the rest of the races on our schedule. We should be in very good shape."

Bodine's fifth place finish puts him fifth in the series points standings heading into race number two at California Speedway.