Tundras have been strong at the Texas Motor Speedway, earning a total of three wins, all by Todd Bodine in the No. 30 Tundra for Germain Racing (2004, 2005 and 2006), and a total of four poles, all by Mike Skinner (2004, 2005-2 and 2006) in the No. 5 Tundra. Tundras have also earned a total of 10 top-five finishes in five starts at the speedway.
The 2006 NCTS champion, Bodine, has earned three wins in his past five starts at Texas Motor Speedway. "I don't know what it is, but I've always run well at Texas," says Bodine. "Even the first year (of the track, 1997), when a lot of guys were talking about the corners being messed up, I drove the Budweiser Cup car and had a shot to win, but got spun at the end of the race. I've just always enjoyed that track -- when you have a good truck with a good set-up, you just run good there. It's easy to over drive this track, but it's easy to under drive it, too. There's a find line to walk to be able to go fast at Texas."
Mike Skinner has earned six consecutive poles this season in his No. 5 Tundra for Bill Davis Racing and four of the last six poles at Texas Motor Speedway. In the first eight races of 2007, Skinner has earned three wins, six top-fives and eight top-10 finishes, along with leading 520 laps, 330 more than the next highest driver (Ron Hornaday).
In the first eight races of 2007, Tundra drivers have consistently finished in the top-five at every event with only one Tundra in the top-five at Dover this past weekend and as many as four at the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. Tundras have also led nearly half of all NCTS laps run this season with 631 of the possible 1336 (47.2%).
Tundra drivers hold six of the top-10 spots in the NCTS championship point standings. After eight races, Skinner continues to sit atop the point standings for Bill Davis Racing. Tundra drivers trailing Skinner in the standings are Bodine (third), Ted Musgrave (fourth), Johnny Benson (seventh), Jack Sprague (eighth), and Aaron Fike (ninth). Thus far this season, Tundra drivers have captured four wins (Sprague at Daytona; and Skinner at California, Atlanta and Martinsville), 21 top-five finishes and seven pole positions, including the current streak of six poles by Skinner.
Texas is home to TMMTX -- Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Texas. The production facility, which is located in San Antonio, opened in November of last year and will produce 200,000 Toyota Tundras annually. The facility employs 2,000 Toyota team members, and an additional 2,100 people are employed through the 21 on-site suppliers located at the facility.