Iowa Speedway | American Ethanol 200 presented by Hy-Vee | Race 15 of 22
Todd Bodine
No. 11 Toyota Care Toyota Tundra
Start: 15th
Finish: 3rd
Point Standings: 14th
Newton, IA. (Sept. 16, 2012) — Persistence paid off for Todd Bodine and the No. 11 Toyota Care team in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Ethanol 200 presented by Hy-Vee on Saturday night. Numerous adjustments to the Toyota Care Tundra throughout the weekend paid off during the 200 lap main event at Iowa Speedway and set Bodine up for a chance to compete for the win. “The Onion” vigilantly picked his way forward from his 15th place starting position for a third place finish, his best result since his win at Dover in June.
Quiet on the radio from the drop of the green flag until the first caution period on lap 24, Bodine rode near his 15th place starting position and radioed to crew chief Rick Gay that he was too tight on the exit of the turn. Taking the opportunity to bring his driver down pit road, Gay called Bodine to the pits for a chassis adjustment and fuel only to help his handling condition. The call seemed to help the handling in the Toyota Care Tundra, and set the No. 11 team up for another quick adjustment and four tire stop just 12 laps later, pitting with the rest of the lead pack.
Over the next 30 laps, Bodine remained quiet and steadily moved his way forward as Gay read off lap times to his driver over the radio. Spotter Terry Cook provided steady encouragement and coaching for the two-time champion throughout the night, welcoming Bodine into the top-five in the running order on lap 65. From that point on, “The Onion” quietly kept himself in contention and within striking distance of the leaders.
Pit strategy calls by Gay throughout the night set Bodine up for a green flag pit stop on lap 141. With different agendas up and down pit road, Bodine was caught one lap down when the caution came out shortly after on lap 165. He was in position however to take the wave around, allowing him to get his lap back and start at the tail of the field. The strategy gave Bodine enough fuel to make it to the end, and placed him within striking distance of the lead for the restart.
After moving up from 10th to second after returning to the lead lap, three late race incidents bunched up the field for the closing 20 laps and allowed Bodine a chance to close the gap between himself and the leader. Using his veteran experience to his advantage, Bodine powered forward and battled for the lead with three laps to go and cleanly drove through three wide traffic to come out with a third place finish.
“Red Horse Racing is just awesome. My No. 11 team has stuck behind me and worked so hard through all of the bad luck we’ve had this season and just did an outstanding job all weekend to make this Toyota Care Tundra fast and competitive,” Bodine said.
“We had three good trucks. Timothy and Parker got in trouble unfortunately, but we just plugged along. We weren’t really good in the beginning and my crew chief Rick Gay made some great adjustments to really make this Tundra come to life. It was a good night for us and well deserved by this entire team. Hopefully we’ve finally got this monkey off our back.”
Timothy Peters No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra Start: 10th Finish: 19th Point Standings: 2nd (-8)
Newton, IA (Sept. 16, 2012)- Defending Iowa Speedway race winner Timothy Peters headed into Saturday’s American Ethanol 200 presented by Hy-Vee with the bar set high to complete the sweep at the Midwest short track. Optimistic to put together commanding run against the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series field, the No. 17 Red Horse Racing crew worked diligently to give Peters a competitive Tundra throughout both practice sessions and qualifying. From his 10th place starting position, Peters was well on his way to another solid night before contact with another competitor and the outside retaining wall relegated him to a 19th place finish.
Searching for the right balance and overall comfort on race runs during both practice sessions, Peters was pleased following a 10th place qualifying effort on Saturday afternoon. Crew chief Butch Hylton and his crew set Peters up with some final adjustments that allowed him to stay near his starting position for the first 20 laps of the night, knocking on the door of the top-10 for the first 25 laps.
Following a restart from the first caution of the night on lap 28, Peters tangled with another competitor coming off of turn two. The incident put his Toyota Tundra into the outside retaining wall, where he sustained significant right side damage. Hylton wasted no time getting on the radio to take command, guiding his crew through three pit stops for repairs under the caution. Remaining calm and thorough during the repairs helped keep Peters on the lead lap.
“It’s alright guys, we can still get a good finish out of this. A lot of things can happen between here and the end, let’s just use our heads and get everything we can out of it. We can still run top-10, our lap times are good enough,” Hylton relayed to the crew following the first round of damage repairs.
Peters held steady and pushed through the damage with his Tundra until a mixture of pit strategies and fuel mileage scrambled the field just past halfway as everyone began to pit under green when they reached their fuel window. With several pit stops earlier to repair damage under caution, Hylton informed Peters he was in a good spot and had more fuel than most. This allowed Peters to drive his way back up into the 12th position despite the damage, riding solidly inside the top 15 until his final scheduled pit stop with just 53 laps remaining.
Just after his stop, Peters was caught two laps down when the caution came out on lap 160. A strategy call by Hylton allowed Peters to take the wave around to get one of his laps back. The team discovered under the seventh caution that damage from the earlier incident had caused the battery in the No. 17 Tundra to fail, forcing the team to bring Peters down pit road with 20 laps remaining. The extended stop for the repair set Peters up for a 19th place finish.
“I just made a mistake on my part at the beginning of the race that cost us what could’ve been a top-10, possibly a top-five finish. Butch Hylton did a great job staying calm as always and lead the crew through the damage repair that ultimately kept us in the race. This Red Horse Racing crew never gave up and worked really hard to get our Tundra back out there to salvage the best finish we could get and that’s all you can ask for,” Peters said.
“It’s one of those things that you just have to put behind you because it doesn’t help us to dwell on it at all. We move on to Kentucky and our races are pretty much back to back from here to the end of the season. We won’t let this finish get us down and we’ll be back next weekend with another fast Toyota Tundra.”
Parker Kligerman No. 7 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra Start: 1st Finish: 23rd Point Standings: 4th (-31)
Newton, IA. (Sept. 16, 2012) — Scoring his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole award on Saturday afternoon for the American Ethanol 200 presented by Hy-Vee, Parker Kligerman had his sights set on finishing out the night at Iowa Speedway on top. After proving to be the dominant truck during both practice sessions over the weekend and leading a race and career-high 107 of 200 laps, he was well on his way to covering the field and taking the checkers when an unfortunate turn of events came with less than 20 laps remaining. A right rear tire failure sent Kligerman spinning on the front stretch, and the damage that followed forced him to a 23rd place finish.
Kligerman showed the speed his No. 7 Red Horse Racing Tundra possessed on the very first run during the first practice of the weekend on Friday evening. Reporting to crew chief Chad Kendrick that he had only minor adjustments in mind, the 22-year-old driver put his Toyota at the top of the speed charts for the majority of the session. Following up with the fastest time in final practice on Saturday, Kligerman laid down a blazing fast 22.90 second lap during qualifying, setting the new Iowa Speedway track record.
Pulling out to a convincing lead from the drop of the green flag, Kligerman had the field covered and ran nearly two tenths of a second faster than those behind him through the first round of pit stops under caution on lap 36. Kendrick brought Kligerman down pit road for his first set of fresh tires and adjustments to tighten up the No. 7 Toyota Tundra “just a tick” for the driver. Restarting in the 12th position due to different pit strategy by the rest of the field, Kligerman wasted no time picking his way back to the top of the board.
Differing pit strategies up and down pit road would eventually shake up the field again past halfway, as some teams chose to bring their drivers down pit road under caution on lap 96. Kendrick chose to keep the No. 7 machine on the track since they were not in their fuel window to make it to the end. Several other trucks followed suit, and green flag pit stops approximately 35 laps later shook up the field and shuffled Kligerman back to the 12th position with 50 laps to go.
The sixth caution of the night bunched up the field and gave Kligerman a shot to gain back his lost positions in one fell swoop. After taking the wave around to get back on the lead lap, he took the restart behind several competitors that were laps down due to the wave around rule. Kligerman knew he had to gain back the lost track position quickly, and jumped to the outside to make a bold four-wide move into turn one. He found grip and soared around several competitors, regaining lost ground in less than one lap.
Disaster struck just shortly after Kligerman made his daring moves, as his No. 7 Tundra snapped around on the front stretch and spun towards the infield with two flat right side tires. While driving his damaged truck back to the pit area, Kligerman lost a lap to the leaders and sustained further damage to the front suspension from the flat tires. Forced to hang on for the remaining 20 laps, Kligerman crossed the finish line in 23rd.
“I really can’t say enough about this Red Horse Racing team and the attitude and effort they bring to the race track every weekend,” Kligerman said. “It really showed this weekend how hard they work on these Toyota Tundras. We had such a great run going. I thought we had it, but that’s racing. The right rear tire blew and the spin after that caused more damage. But, this team is too good to not get a win soon, there’s no doubt about that. I’m proud of their effort and how fast this Tundra was. We will just have to get them next weekend at Kentucky. If you don’t think this team is a contender for this NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship then you’re not paying attention.”
Championship Points Update:Timothy Peters slid back to second in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship point standings, now eight points out of the lead after his 19th place finish at Iowa. Teammate Parker Kligerman’s misfortune kept him in the fourth spot, now 31 points behind the leader. Bodine’s first top-three finish since his win at Dover in June keeps him in the 14th spot in points.
Toyota Racing For Awareness: Toyota Racing kicked off ‘Racing For Awareness’ in August, a friendly competition among women affiliated with the Toyota NASCAR program to design t-shirts that will support breast cancer awareness. Among the participants are two members of the Red Horse Racing family, Janet Bodine, wife of driver Todd Bodine, and Sara Peters, wife of driver Timothy Peters. The winning design will be selected from fan votes and produced during the Charlotte race weekend in October, and Toyota will donate $500 in the name of each participant to Carolina Breast Friends in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vote at www.toyotaracing.com/RacingForAwareness now through Oct. 4, 2012 at 12 PM (ET).
Next on the Schedule:The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicks off the second of four straight races next Friday, September 21, at Kentucky Speedway for the Kentucky 201. Broadcast for the 17th event of the 2012 season begins at 7:00 PM EST on SPEED.
###
About Red Horse Racing:
Founded in 2005 by former Mobil Corporation executive Tom DeLoach and NASCAR veteran Jeff Hammond, Red Horse Racing aims to be a professional racing team that strives for excellence on and off the race track. Red Horse hopes to build and maintain solid, mutual relationships with its partners, to win championships and races and to represent itself in a professional manner. The team has nine victories and eight poles in its brief existence. DeLoach and Hammond also own Performance Instruction and Training (visitPIT.com), the number one pit crew training center in the world that also has many corporate training options that include team-building, lean manufacturing, motorsports demonstrations and more.
