Todd Bodine celebrates in victory lane after winning the Sam's Town 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. (Ronda Greer Photo)

It's been exactly one year and 25 races since defending series champion Todd Bodine celebrated a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in Victory Lane. His last win came in epic fashion, defeating Mike Skinner at Texas Motor Speedway on the final lap after rallying from a one-lap deficit in the middle stages of the race. Although he earned the series title, Bodine freely admits his team stumbled over the final stages of the 2006 season. Those stumbles are officially history as Bodine drove the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota to victory in the Sam's Town 400 again in come-from-behind fashion.

Bodine started from the pole and was running third when his truck suddenly slowed on lap 36. He dropped to 17th in the running order and was perilously close to losing a lap when Joe Ruttman crashed on the backstretch on lap 78.

Bodine was able to steadily pick off position after position during the next long run of green flag racing, and when the leaders started making their way to pit road for fuel with less than 20 laps to go, Bodine stayed out and took over the lead. But a crash on lap 155 involving Brendan Gaughan and T.J. Bell put the field under the fifth caution of the night, and sent four of the five remaining trucks on the lead lap to pit road for service.

Travis Kvapil stayed on the track and led the field to the restart on lap 161. Just after the completion of lap 162, Kvapil first went high and then low to block Bodine heading into turn one. But Bodine had a strong run and was committed to the bottom lane, and the two made contact sending Kvapil into a long slide into turn one, ending his chances at victory.

On the final two-lap dash to the checkered, Bodine held off a strong charge by Mike Skinner to win by just 0.188 seconds.

"I really don't like winning that way at all," Bodine said in victory lane. "We fought back all night long. We had a carburetor problem that caused the truck to just quit running and almost lost a lap because of it. Somehow it managed to fix itself, and we were able to stay on the lead lap. Then we were just about ready to come down pit road for fuel when the caution came out. I hate that we got together with Travis because he's a good guy and Mike Beam and that team do a great job. He blocked us high and then tried to block us low. You can block, but you get one move. You need to leave a lane and he didn't leave us one."

Kvapil was frustrated to end the night with a crashed truck, but was pleased to have a chance at the win.

The No. 6 K&N Filters Ford after a late race mishap at Texas. (VPS Motorimages Photo0

"The thing I'm upset about the most is we have a wrecked truck," Kvapil said. "Earlier in the race we came from dead last to fourth. I knew we had a good truck and wanted clean air. We were running wide open on two tires, so I knew we were out front and we could run wide open again on the restart. I had it flat on the mat, but he got a good suck on me in the draft. As soon as I saw him go high, I went high. Then he went low and I don't know what happened but he just barely clipped me. I tried blocking him and it just worked out wrong and he got into the back of me. I really thought I had it saved. That's what bums me out the most is our K&N Filters Ford is tore up."

The tangle between Bodine and Kvapil pushed another strong run by Ron Hornaday out of the spotlight. Hornaday dominated the race, leading a race-high 117 laps and at times opening up a five-plus second advantage on the second place driver. He had lapped up to sixth place during the round of green flag stops when he ran out of fuel on lap 149.

"We ran out of gas at the start-finish line," Hornaday said. "We knew everyone else had pitted and we were coming. It's just one of those things that happens. It doesn't matter. This truck was fast again, and we get to take the same one to Michigan next week."

After tangling with Kvapil, Bodine was forced to deal with current series championship leader Mike Skinner on the two-lap dash to the flag. Bodine got a strong restart, but Skinner did too. The driver of the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota dispatched Rick Crawford just after taking the green flag and tried to chase down Bodine, but fell about five truck lengths short at the finish.

"I got greedy," Skinner said. "I tried to run that last lap wide open, and I probably should have breathed it a little. It just pushed up slightly and that was the difference. It was a lot of fun those last laps. Rick Crawford raced us like a gentleman and we tried to chase down Todd. The results might have been the same as last season, but we didn't have nearly the truck we did last year. Last year Todd came down and got fresh tires with a handful of laps to go and beat us. If we had another lap this year, we might have been able to get him."

Crawford finished third in the No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford, rebounding after a couple of weeks of bad luck. Hornaday was able to rebound to finish fourth in the No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet, and Texas native David Starr rounded out the top five in the No. 10 International MaxxForce Diesel Ford.

Kvapil finished sixth, the last driver on the lead lap, with Matt Crafton, Ken Schrader, Ted Musgrave, and Stacy Compton rounding out the top ten.

There were 12 lead changes among six drivers, and the six cautions consumed 35 laps. The average speed was 118.057 miles per hour.

Skinner continues to lead the series standings by 82 points over Hornaday entering the next race at Michigan International Speedway on June 16.

TruckSeries.com will have complete coverage of the Michigan 200, starting with TrackSideLive! updates of practice on Friday June 15, and will continue with Live! Bud Pole Qualifying coverage Saturday June 16 at 11:05 A.M. Eastern. Continuing updates leading up, during, and following the Michigan 200 will follow.