Todd Bodine won the Sam's Town 400 at Texas Motor Speedway in the No. 30 Tundra for Germain Racing, his 11th-career victory in Tundra and his 11th-career NCTS win. The win by Bodine marks Toyota's 30th victory in NCTS competition. This is Bodine's first victory since winning at Texas last June.
Mike Skinner (second) and Ted Musgrave (ninth) also scored top-10 finishes for Toyota. Tundra drivers Bodine (27), Skinner (six) and Terry Cook (two) all led laps Friday night. Tundras have won five of nine NCTS races this season. Jack Sprague won from the pole in the season-opener at Daytona, while Skinner followed with three-straight wins (California, Atlanta, and Martinsville) before Bodine's win at Texas.
Todd Bodine, No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Tundra, Germain Racing Finished: 1st
Can you talk about your win tonight? "It's pretty incredible. The motto of this team is to 'never give up" and we don't. Even when we were having problems, I was running as hard as I could, running wide open with all I had. I came in and the team looked at it , but never figured out what was wrong. We went back out on the track and it was better. The Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra was just incredible and I just can't say enough about this team. They work hard every week, every day and every hour. This is what the payoff is."
What was your take on the incident with six laps to go? "I had a run. Obviously, he was on old tires and I was on new tires. I had a run going and I was going to give him the bottom. All he had to do was stay down there. I started on the outside and he came up and blocked, so I went to the bottom and he blocked again. You can't do that. You have to pick one lane or the other and he picked both. I don't want to win that way and I don't want to get the lead that way. We had the best truck all weekend and here we are."
Mike Skinner, No. 5 Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing Finished: 2nd
Can you talk about your run tonight? "(Crew chief) Jeff (Hensley) tried some pit strategy but the cautions kept flying tonight. Our pit strategy ended up back-firing on us a little bit. We had one more set of stickers left when the race was over, but weren't able to use them. If we could have had one more lap, we would have had a shot. I'm not too disappointed with a second-place run. We brought a pretty good truck here to Texas, but just came up short for the win again. All in all, it was a good points day for us."
Aaron Fike, No. 1 RFMS Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finished: 11th
Is it disappointing to finish 11th after having such a strong truck? "It's a little disappointing, but 11th isn't a bad finish. We unloaded pretty fast on Thursday and had a good truck tonight. Unfortunately, Jack (Sprague) got into the back of us when someone was spinning, but that's part of racing sometimes. Overall, we were able to finish just outside the top-10, so we'll regroup and head to Michigan."
Ted Musgrave, No. 9 Team ASE Tundra, Germain Racing Finished: 9th
Terry Cook, No. 59 Harris Trucking Tundra, HT Motorsports Finished: 12th
Josh Wise, No. 00 Aaron's Lucky Dog Tundra, Darrell Waltrip Motorsports Finished: 13th
Ryan Matthews, No. 36 Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing Finished: 21st
Jack Sprague, No. 60 Con-way Freight Tundra, Wyler Racing Finished: 26th
Johnny Benson, No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra, Bill Davis Racing Finished: 29th