Todd Bodine cemented his hold on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings with a dominant victory in the Nashville 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday night.
And he may be getting in the heads of his closest pursuers.
"We did it in the style of Germain Racing: Went out and just stomped on them," said Bodine, who led 91 of the race's 150 laps and increased his points lead to 174 over second-place Aric Almirola.
The victory was Bodine's second of the season and first at the 1.33-mile concrete track.
After the race, all Almirola could do was shake Bodine's hand — and his own head.
"I told Todd when I went to victory lane, 'When it's your year, it's your year,'" Almirola said. "I have a flat tire and I end up knocking the fence down and ruining a race truck and finishing 30th. He has a flat tire and is able to get to pit road, stays out, and everybody else has to pit under green — and he's like one of three trucks on the lead lap. How do you race against that?"
Bodine won his first pole of the season and led the first two laps before Timothy Peters took over. Bodine's No. 30 Toyota slid back in the order, and he eventually pitted for a flat right-rear tire under the race's second caution.
Bodine restarted 15th but caught a break laps later when another yellow flag flew after most of the other leaders had made green-flag stops. That put him back on top, and he eventually pulled away to a 4.16-second victory.
"That's part of winning championships: You've got to have that luck, that golden horseshoe everybody talks about," Bodine said.
But the veteran driver isn't about to start celebrating his second truck series championship yet.
"No, not really. It can be lost," Bodine said. "You can never count anybody out. Racing, you never know what's going to happen. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing every week. If we take care of what we do and don't worry about everybody else, we'll be just fine."
Under the yellow where Bodine got the lead back, the race saw a somewhat comical moment after Mario Gosselin and Joe Aramendia got together. After Gosselin got out of his damaged truck, he flung a piece of hose at Aramendia, who was still running under yellow.
Rookie Austin Dillon finished second, with Almirola third, Peters fourth and Johnny Sauter fifth. Sixth through 10th were Ron Hornaday Jr., Matt Crafton, Brian Ickler, Justin Lofton and Ken Schrader.
NASCAR returns to Nashville Superspeedway in 2011 with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series. For more information, or to purchase tickets, call 1-866-RACE-TIX or visit NashvilleSuperspeedway.com.
