Todd Bodine, "The Onion," won Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. The win makes him the first driver to collect five wins at Texas, and gave Germain Racing its sixth Texas victory while also awarding sponsor Copart its first trip to the winner's circle. Bodine qualified ninth for the 167-lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and led 52 laps en route to winning the WinStar World Casino 400.
"A good friend of mine told me last week that he was rooting for me to finish second, but not win. Sorry Brendan (Gaughan), I had to beat you bud. It's incredible," smiled Bodine, who just broke the tie he'd held with his friend, former Truck Series racer Brendan Gaughan, for the most Truck Series wins at Texas. "The Copart Tundra, right into that last run, we were just too loose. (Mike Hillman) Junior (crew chief) made some great calls at the end and the Copart pit crew fixed it up to make it run. This is an awesome night."
Pit strategy put the No. 30 Copart Tundra alone at the front of the field as the closest contenders had to stop again for fuel in the final laps. The victory ended a long, four-race stretch of misfortunes for the Germain Racing team.
"That's our motto - never give up. The last…four weeks have been tough and this team only knows one thing and that is to not give up. It's because of (Mike Hillman) Senior, we don't give up," explained Bodine, who had complete confidence in the call from the pits to stay out while the rest of the competition pitted to top off with fuel. "I wasn't concerned. If (Mike Hillman) Junior (crew chief) wasn't concerned, I wasn't concerned. The pit crew has it handled. They had it down, what we had for fuel mileage. This Copart Tundra was awesome and I can't believe it's finally back (in victory lane at Texas)."
Germain Racing has been the team to beat at Texas since the No. 30 Tundra first claimed victory there in 2004. Todd Bodine has five wins and one pole. Germain Racing has raced at Texas Motor Speedway in ten Truck Series events, collecting six wins and two poles. Bodine's winning percentage at Texas is 50%, while Germain Racing's chance for winning at the track is 60%; however, the team has no sponsorship for the fall race at Texas.
"We have three more races with Copart, and we have two races scheduled with Ventrilo, but that leaves 12 unsold. We're hoping we can attract some folks to the team for the races late in the season. Talladega, Texas and Homestead should be great opportunities for a No. 30 Tundra sponsor," said crew chief Mike Hillman Jr., whose team will be the defending race winners at Talladega and at Homestead, and will obviously return to Texas in the fall with high hopes for another outstanding race.
Bodine's win Friday night makes him not only the Truck Series driver with the most wins at Texas, but the first Truck Series driver to own five victories at any race track. The win also moved him up two spots in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings to fourth place, just 66 points behind new leader Matt Crafton.
