BODINE: Defending Winner Excited to Go Back to 'Dega
09-29-2008 10:00 am

Heading into Talladega last fall, Germain Racing driver Todd Bodine and the #30 Lumber Liquidators Tundra carried with them an impressive record. Together, they'd scored no worse than a fifth-place finish at Daytona or Talladega.

When the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to the high-speed action of Talladega Superspeedway this week, Bodine and his crew, led by Mike Hillman Jr., will defend impressive statistics. Bodine won, from the pole, at Talladega last fall and followed that speedway effort up with a win in the Truck Series season opener at Daytona in February. The team wants more of the same.

"I'm excited," said Chemung, NY, native Bodine. "I love Talladega and I'm telling you the Lumber Liquidators crew put in a lot of work in to make the #30 Tundra even better for this race.  I've always enjoyed Talladega and Daytona speedway racing. It doesn't hurt things when you've won the last two races and you're taking the same truck that's been the winning truck."

Crew chief Hillman Jr. will race the only chassis the #30 team of Germain Racing has ever put on track for a speedway race, TRD058.

"We're taking the same truck we've run at Daytona and Talladega since our first trip to Daytona in 2005. If you're doing the math, yes, it is the same truck that made the highlight reels for its crash at Daytona in '05. The truck is a very good truck. It always runs well. Nothing has changed how well this truck runs so I see no reason to bring any other truck," said Hillman Jr., of Lockport, NY.

Leading into Talladega was the Truck Series race at Las Vegas. There Bodine had the truck to beat, got into an altercation and came from the back of the lead lap pack to finish ninth. The run was actually a great day for closing the gap in championship points between him and leader Johnny Benson, but Bodine still slid two spots to seventh in the Truck Series standings.

"We're out of the points battle. We know that. We're not going to win the championship and we're not going to finish second, but we're only 93 points out of third and that's incredible. There's five guys fighting for third, so there's kind of two points races going on and that's what we're going for. We're going to try to get third and win every race along the way," said Bodine

The 2006 Truck Series champ feels good about his chances at Talladega.

"We've got the truck that has won the last two speedway races. But, the Lumber Liquidators Tundra crew didn't just sit on the truck and wait for the next race. They've worked on it to make it even better. That's just the way this team is," said Bodine.