Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola jumped past leader Todd Bodine on the frontstretch of the last lap at Talladega Superspeedway to finish 1-2 in Saturday's Mountain Dew 250. It was the first 1-2 finish for Billy Ballew Motorsports and the fifth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in a row Busch has won when driving the No. 51 Miccosukee Resorts Toyota Tundra.
Almirola was second in the Graceway Pharm Toyota, followed by Bodine's Copart Toyota.
"That was unbelievable," Busch said. "I owe everything to Aric Almirola. … It was a lot of fun today."
Colin Braun started on the pole in his Con-Way Freight Ford F-150, flanked by Terry Cook's Cajun Industries Toyota.
When the green flag fell, Braun took the lead, the field going five-wide on the very first lap.
The first yellow came on Lap 7, when T.J. Bell lost a right-front tire after a brake caliper failed. That sent most of the field down pit road, with the crews of Cook and Kyle Busch both going under the hood of their respective trucks. The father-daughter team of Mike and Chrissy Wallace stayed out one extra lap and were credited with being 1-2 for that lap.
The race restarted on Lap 11, with Braun still out front. Two laps later, Robert Richardson's Mahindra Chevrolet grenaded an engine to bring out another caution, though fortunately, everyone avoided his oil.
On Lap 18, the green waved again, as Braun led Aric Almirola and Todd Bodine, the later of whom had won the four prior restrictor-plate truck races. Behind them came points leader Ron Hornaday Jr. and David Starr.
Just past the one-quarter distance in the 94-lap race, Mike Skinner and Busch led a charge to the high line, trying to challenge Braun on the bottom.
Matt Crafton lost a right-rear tire on Lap 27, going a lap down in the process.
Skinner and Busch, running in tandem and working very well in the draft, took the lead from Braun. Bodine and Hornaday soon made it a four-way battle for the lead, as the racing starting to intensify as the laps went on.
Caution No. 3 flew on Lap 39, after Hornaday lost one of his cowl flaps. On the ensuing pitstops, Bodine looped his truck, doing a full 360-degree spin. He had to re-pit for another set of tires. Hornaday also had a bad stop, stalling out briefly on his stop.
The race restarted on Lap 43, with Chrissy Wallace leading briefly before Brian Scott took the lead, followed by Busch, Skinner and Braun. Almirola soon got his Toyota back at front.
With 32 laps to go, Mike Wallace's truck started to lose his left-front fender and hood simultaneously and was black-flagged. Two laps later, Braun got turned sideways on the backstretch, with Tayler Malsam going into the wall, too. Crafton got the Lucky Dog on this stop, which put him back on the lead lap.
Everyone made their final pit stops under the ensuing caution, with Scott getting busted for speeding.
Bodine led Starr, Skinner, Busch and Almirola on the restart. Mario Gosselin got hit from behind by Max Papis and spun his mytiremonkey.com on the frontstretch on the first lap of green, bringing out another caution. Gosselin did a great job keeping his spinning truck on the low line and not going back up into the field.
The green came out with 19 laps to go, the field forming up into a single line. But the field got just two laps of green before Steve Park lost an engine to send the yellow waving again.
Now, there were just 12 laps left when the green came out again, Bodine leading Starr, Skinner, Busch and Almirola. With seven laps left, Busch and Almirola jumped to the outside lane, and they freight-trained past Bodine into the lead.
On Lap 90, Bodine and Skinner jumped to the outside, just as The Big One happened on the backstretch, Hornaday, Peters, Skinner, Papis, Rick Crawford, Scott, Chad McCumbee, James Buescher, Ricky Carmichael and others caught up in the mayhem. The contact began when Johnny Sauter bumped Skinner, and all hell broke loose.
That set up a green-white-checkered finish. Busch led Almirola and Starr, but Bodine went high and took the lead before they hit the one to go mark.
On the last lap, Matt Crafton went high and almost got the lead, but at the line Busch and Almirola jumped out and gave team owner Billy Ballew a 1-2 finish.
