Todd Bodine Scores Truck Win at Rainy Monster Mile

[media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”223″][/media-credit]In spite of Kevin Harvick having by far the dominant race truck, Todd Bodine, in his No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota, stole the win away thanks to rain calling an early end to the Lucas Oil 200.

This was Bodine’s 22^nd victory in 196 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races, but his first victory this year. It was also his first win at the Monster mile.

“Man, finally,” Bodine said. “It’s pretty special. Dover has always been high on my list as one of my favorite tracks. To be able to come back and get a win in Trucks, it kind of puts in perspective what I’ve needed to do here.”

“To be able to do it with a brand new team and get the team the Monster trophy, it means a lot.”

“We didn’t have the best Tundra today but Rick (Gay Jr. crew chief) made a great call,” Bodine said. “You don’t like to win them this way but I’ve lost them this way so I’m going to take it.”

“I took a gamble today and it paid off,” Gay said simply.

Parker Kligerman, behind the wheel of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ram, finished 2^nd in the rain-shortened event. This was his first top-10 finish in two races at the Monster Mile and his third top-10 finish in 2012.

“We had a really fast race truck and were biding our time until halfway,” Kligerman said. “We got a little front end damage and the guys did a great job repairing it.”

“I was angry and I drove like my hair was on fire,” Kligerman continued. “We drove up to sixth and knew the rain was coming so we just were at the right place at the right time.”

Kevin Harvick, pole sitter and driver of the No. 2 Tide Chevrolet, did all he could to preserve a good finish, coming out third when the race was called. It was his second top-10 finish in two races at Dover.

“We had a great truck all weekend and just got beat by the weather there,” Harvick said. “All in all the guys did a great job of controlling all the things that can and that’s all you can do.”

“I still thought we had a chance,” Harvick continued. “They threw the caution before it even started raining so we wasted 25 laps between two cautions waiting around to see if it was going to rain.”

“It was just one of those deals.”

Harvick was unbeatable when he was out front in clean air. But the driver of the No. 2 Tide Chevrolet had more difficulty in the midst of traffic.

“We just got tight,” Harvick said. “So when we got in traffic, it didn’t handle near  as well.”

“It would take a little longer in traffic because it would get so tight off the corner.”

Nelson Piquet, Jr. had a great run in his No. 30 Qualcomm Chevrolet, finishing in the fourth position.

“At the end with the rain coming and going, we stayed out and it worked out,” Piquet Jr. said. “We ended up with a top five and that was very important for us.”

Cale Gale, who finished fifth in the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet, was the highest finishing rookie in the race.

“Obviously we qualified good today,” Gale said. “We got involved in a little incident at the start of the race that got us behind.”

“We made adjustments to the truck and the last portion of the race, it was a lot better,” Gale continued. “We were praying for a little bit of rain there at the end.”

“We are happy,” Gale said. “We finally got a result that we are proud of.”

Ty Dillon, who finished sixth in his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Allstate Chevrolet, had a very special evening in addition to the top-ten finish.

Dillon broke Ricky Hendrick’s record of five straight top-10 finishes by a rookie in the opening five races and now is the sole owner of that record, with six straight top-10 rookie finishes in the first five races.

“That’s very special,” Dillon said. “I’m very happy for my team.”

“Now we need to consistently make those top-fives,” Dillon continued. “We had a fast track today but a little bit to the free side.”

“Track position meant a lot and we played our hand right there at the end.”