Lady Tamer: Kasey Kahne Wins Too Tough To Tame 200 at Darlington
A race at Darlington is normally one of attrition and Saturday night’s Too Tough To Tame 200 was no different.
The Camping World Truck Series was the only show in town and on tap for the weekend. They didn’t disappoint. It started with ROY candidate Cole Whitt capturing from the pole, the first of his career, with a new track record.
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[/media-credit]The action started on lap one when the field charged down into turn one and never made it to turn two. Travis Kvapil, Miguel Paludo, Max Papis, Ryan Sieg, Norm Benning, Justin Lofton and David Starr all had trouble to bring the first caution out.
There were two more yellow flags within the first 30 laps.
Once things settled down, Kasey Kahne quickly asserted himself as the man to beat. While others found there way to the front through pit stops and strategy, Kahne was always lurking and once he took the lead he had no problem driving away from the field.
One of the scarier incidents of the night came after Ricky Carmichael spun on the front stretch and was t-boned by Johanna Long. The caution, eighth one of the night, also brought the action to a halt as the red flag.
Both drivers were evaluated and released from the infield care center.
With 29 laps to go Timothy Peters came down pit road to get his final set of tires, while the leaders stayed out. It didn’t help the battle was up front between Kahne and the defending winner of the event, Todd Bodine.
Even with a restart with less than five laps to go, no one could catch the 18 of Kahne and he would go on to capture the win. It was the third straight race that a driver not running for points in the CWTS has won.
The win was Kahne’s third in his last four starts and second at Darlington. He won back in 2004. It was also the second straight win for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Ron Hornaday finished second and Bodine finished third. The polesitter, Whitt, who thought he had lost a cylinder and dropped to 26th, came home in the eighth position. He was the highest finishing rookie and moved to second in the CWTS points.
Matt Crafton hangs onto the point lead as the trucks will have a few weeks off before heading to Martinsville on April 2nd.
Unofficial Race Results
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Pts. | Bon. | Laps | Status |
| 1 | 2 | 18 | Kasey Kahne | Toyota | 0 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 2 | 6 | 33 | Ron Hornaday | Chevrolet | 42 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 3 | 12 | 30 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | 41 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 4 | 4 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Chevrolet | 40 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 5 | 7 | 31 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 40 | 1 | 147 | Running |
| 6 | 11 | 17 | Timothy Peters | Toyota | 38 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 7 | 8 | 2 | Elliott Sadler | Chevrolet | 0 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 8 | 1 | 60 | Cole Whitt * | Chevrolet | 37 | 1 | 147 | Running |
| 9 | 3 | 13 | Johnny Sauter | Chevrolet | 35 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 10 | 13 | 81 | David Starr | Toyota | 34 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 11 | 26 | 92 | Clay Rogers | Chevrolet | 33 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 12 | 31 | 93 | Shane Sieg | Chevrolet | 32 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 13 | 17 | 77 | Justin Lofton | Toyota | 31 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 14 | 18 | 29 | Parker Kligerman * | Dodge | 30 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 15 | 5 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 29 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 16 | 19 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Chevrolet | 28 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 17 | 24 | 5 | Travis Kvapil | Toyota | 27 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 18 | 16 | 9 | Max Papis | Toyota | 26 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 19 | 27 | 46 | Craig Goess * | Toyota | 25 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 20 | 35 | 1 | Jeffrey Earnhardt * | Chevrolet | 24 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 21 | 15 | 15 | Dusty Davis * | Toyota | 23 | 0 | 147 | Running |
| 22 | 29 | 50 | T.J. Bell | Chevrolet | 22 | 0 | 146 | Running |
| 23 | 33 | 7 | Jamie Dick | Chevrolet | 21 | 0 | 146 | Running |
| 24 | 28 | 66 | Justin Marks | Chevrolet | 20 | 0 | 145 | Running |
| 25 | 23 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Toyota | 19 | 0 | 144 | Running |
| 26 | 34 | 57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 18 | 0 | 143 | Running |
| 27 | 14 | 7 | Miguel Paludo * | Toyota | 17 | 0 | 135 | Running |
| 28 | 30 | 22 | Joey Coulter * | Chevrolet | 16 | 0 | 111 | Running |
| 29 | 36 | 25 | Tayler Malsam | Toyota | 15 | 0 | 103 | Engine |
| 30 | 22 | 4 | Ricky Carmichael | Chevrolet | 14 | 0 | 96 | Accident |
| 31 | 32 | 20 | Johanna Long * | Toyota | 13 | 0 | 96 | Accident |
| 32 | 9 | 8 | Nelson Piquet Jr. * | Chevrolet | 12 | 0 | 93 | Accident |
| 33 | 10 | 23 | Jason White | Chevrolet | 11 | 0 | 72 | Accident |
| 34 | 25 | 10 | Chase Mattioli * | Ford | 10 | 0 | 55 | Accident |
| 35 | 20 | 51 | Justin Johnson * | Toyota | 9 | 0 | 41 | Accident |
| 36 | 21 | 32 | Brad Sweet | Chevrolet | 8 | 0 | 13 | Accident |
One-On-One with NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Driver Jeffrey Earnhardt
With the last name Earnhardt, everybody automatically expects you to do well, once you hit the track. That’s no exception with Jeffrey Earnhardt as there are already the predictions hitting the floor.
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[/media-credit]He came out of the gate with a top 10 at Daytona and went to Phoenix and finished 19th. While everybody is looking for this success, he right now is set on learning lessons and moving forward with them.
While preparing for Darlington this weekend, he took some time to answer some questions for the readers.
Ashley McCubbin: What are some of your thoughts on the year so far?
Jeffrey Earnhardt: So far, I’ve had a pretty good season starting off. We finished seventh at Daytona and we finished 19th at Phoenix – didn’t have the best shot, but we ran it right to the end of the race and we didn’t have a single scratch on the truck. Anytime you can finish out a race like that it’s definitely progress. We’re just slowly working on making our entire program better. We’re just waiting for everything to fall into place to run upfront, but for now it’s just having everything work in order, giving the feedback and getting the seat time to learn these trucks.
AM: How’d you get involved with Rick Ware Racing?
JE: Well, I guess it was like two or three years ago, I got the opportunity to drive some Nationwide races for him. We went to Dover and tried to make the race and ended up not making the race, but that’s when I first met him. This opportunity came about to do five races and obviously the five races last year led to a full season this year.
AM: What are some of your expectations for this year?
JE: Just the seat time. We want to go out here and run the best we can, but also we want to go out and learn as much as we can with finishing races. I mean, if we do that then I don’t see why we can’t be competiting to win rookie of the year. There’s definitely a possibility as we’ll see how the year goes and where it takes us, but to start, it’s just to get as much seat time and just go from there.
AM: Speaking of lessons, what are some of the lessons you’ve learned so far this year?
JE: Just to get to the finish and figure out what the truck needed and if you do that, you’ll come out in one piece and if you’ll have a decent finish. Even though you’re getting the finishes, you got to understand that you’re still learning and probably the biggest thing I’ve learned is to be there at the finish.
AM: What are some of your thoughts going into Darlington?
JE: I actually just rode around with Todd Bodine in a pace truck and it is quite a strange track. It’s got totally different corners and seems to be a tough track as we talked about how he did, how tough it is and how easy it is to take yourself out of the race. It seems that’s the toughest part, just getting used to the track, but not stepping over that boundary.
AM: With the last name Earnhardt, there are a lot of expectations. Care to share any thoughts on that?
JE: There’s a lot of expectation and a lot of pressure that gets put on you. It’s just that you got to learn how to deal with it and if you can handle it the right way, you’ll be fine and I think I’ve done a pretty good job of not letting it get to me. Just doing my thing and I’m just here to learn and be a racecar driver and I try not to worry about all that.
AM: Which race track are you looking forward to?
JE: I look forward to all of them. I mean, I’m looking forward to go doing to Dover for simple fact I ran good there before and I think we can get out of there with a successful run. I mean, I look forward to each and every race and each race I am just as excited as the next one and there’s really no special one I’m really look forward to.
AM: Where do you see yourself in five years?
JE: I would like to be up in the Cup level. Obviously, my goal is too potentially to end up at that level and five years from now I should be there. And hopefully won a championship in one of the three NASCAR series, whether Nationwide or Truck, but I’d like to be at the Cup level in five years.
AM: What is your advice for other people getting into racing?
JE: Just don’t ever give up. It’s tough and it’s not as easy as some people may think. If you really want it bad enough, you can get it accomplished. You just gotta really stick to it and push hard to get what you want. It may seem tough and you may want to get down, but if you push hard enough, eventually you’ll get it and the reward is definitely worth the wait.
AM: Who do you admire outside of racing?
JE: Johnny Cash was definitely a good one for me just because he was his own man and he was just kind of a man’s kind of man and more of that kind of person, but I know, really, I’ve just always been in racing and never really worried about anything else. I’ve been around racing my entire life and haven’t really cared about watching anything else.
Lap by Lap: Too Tough To Tame 200 won by Kasey Kahne
Rookie Cole Whitt took the pole for the Too Tough To Tame 200 with a new track record, followed by Kasey Kahne, Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton and Austin Dillon.
Chad McCumbee, Chris Fontaine and Chris Lafferty were the trucks that did not make the field.
“Turn 1 racing just brought this awesome truck, I want to keep this red bull truck at the front and keep it there. These guys built an awesome truck….We’ve come back a long ways since missing the race at Daytona. I’m proud of this team.” – Cole Whitt, pole sitter
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[/media-credit]Crafton leads Clay Rogers by 1 point in the points standings, followed by Witt and Sauter
“Charlotte was special, but Darlington would be bigger. So much history here, so hard to win, it’d be awesome to win here.” – Matt Crafton
Cole Whitt leads the field to the green
Caution lap 1 Paludo, Papis and Kravil all spin as people slow in front
Restart on lap 4
Lap 5 – Cole Whitt leads Kahne, Timothy Peters, Crafton and Ron Hornaday
Lap 7 – Chase Mattioli spins, no caution
Lap 14 Caution – Brad Sweet hits the wall. He had issues in qualifying as he spun on his second lap. Norm Benning gets the lucky dog.
Restart Lap 19
Lap 21 – Whitt Kahne Buescher Sauter Hornaday Crafton Sadler Peters Dillon Kligermann
Lap 25 – Whitt Kahne Buescher Hornaday Sauter Sadler Crafton Peters Dillon Bodine
Caution Lap 26 Brendan Guaghan goes for a spin
PIT STOPS
Lots of people are saying the visibility are terrible as some take two tires, some take four tires.�
Race off pit road: Sadler, Dillon, Busch, Buescher, Hornaday, Kligermann, Bodine and Peters. Leader Cole Whitt had a long pit stop as his team had lug nut issues.
Restart lap 30
Caution lap 35 Dustin Johnson plows the wall after getting loose underneath Jeffrey Earnhardt.
Restart Lap 40 – Sadler leads
Lap 41 Kahne to the lead, Sadler drops back to fourth with Buescher second and Dillon third. Sadler says he got a bad start, thanks to his teammate Ron Hornaday getting up under him
Lap 50 – Kahne Buescher Sadler Bodine Hornaday Dillon Sauter Peters Whitt Carmichael
Lap 53 – Chase Mattiolli into the wall again – no caution
Lap 54 – Sauter and Peters have both passed Dillon, putting Dillon back to eighth. Dillon says the truck is tight and then loose late in the corner. Dillon only took two tires while most of the leaders took four. Sadler was the other one with two tires.
Lap 58 – Caution for debris
Restart Lap 62 Cole Whitt leads the field to the green after taking two tires
Lap 63 – Kasey Kahne takes the lead from Cole Whitt in turn 1
Lap 64 – James Buescher to the lead
Lap 69 – Pole Sitter Cole Whitt drops through the field with his two tires – now back to seventh
Lap 70 – Kahne back to the lead.
Lap 72 – Kahne Buescher Bodine Hornaday Sauter Dillon Sadler Crafton Peters and Whitt
Lap 74 Caution – Nelson Piquet Jr into the wall, Joey Coulter and Jason White wreck behind them. Looks as though Piquet had a flat tire, which caused him to get into the wall. Coulter and White looked to try to slow behind them, both getting hit from behind and then hitting near the inside wall.
“Just somebody spun out in front of us and with the sun going over the wall, it got hard to see and I just got run into from behind. I’m sure it was nobody’s fault, just a blind spot on the track. It was just starting to get fun as I was just starting to learn this place.” – Joey Coulter
David Starr gets the Lucky Dog
Restart lap 79
Lap 82 – Kahne Hornaday Bodine Buescher Sauter Dillon Crafton Sadler Peters Gaughan
Lap 87 – Pole Sitter and Rookie Cole Whitt has dropped a cylinder
Lap 88 Caution – Chase Mattoilli into the wall for the third time
Sadler first off pit road with two tires while most take four tires. Crafton had to come back down pit road as he had a loose lugnut. Johanna Long gets the lucky dog.
Restart lap 96 with Sadler leading, though Kahne gets the lead from him before the end of the lap.
Caution Lap 97 – Ricky Carmichael wrecks as Nelson Piquet Jr. and Johanna Long wreck behind him. Carmichael wrecked first and then behind him, Piquet and Long made contact, which cut both their tires. Piquet went up into the outside wall while Long plowed into Carmichael as she couldn’t steer the truck around him. There was a sevne-minute red flag to clean up the wreck.
“Yeah, I’m alright. We were fast in race trim all day long. Coming from behind, we qualified horrible – you put yourself in a hole and we never got caught up from there. Finally I think I know what I am doing and having to come from behind makes it tough.” Carmichael, who said he either got loose or someone hit him.
Max Papis gets the lucky dog
“We had a really good truck and we finally got our lap back. Our team worked hard on the truck and hopefully we can get the truck fixed for Nashville as sponsorship is low…..I think another truck hit the wall and I think I hit him as he came down a little bit.” Johanna Long
Restart 45 to go
43 to go Tayler Malsam down pit road for unscheduled stop. He was slow down the backstretch. He said on twitter that they blew the motor.
41 to go Joey Coulter brings truck back on track to make laps after earlier incident.
39 to go Cole Whitt must have fixed motor issue on pit road as he has moved his way back up to 11th. The problem he was having was the throttle stop.
33 to go Kahne leads followed by Hornaday, Bodine, Sadler and Peters
29 to go Caution for Debris as some of the leaders pit while most stay out, including leader Kasey Kahne. The record for cautions is 10, which was set in 2004 when Kahne won then.
Restart with 25 to go
24 to go Todd Bodine passes Ron Hornaday for second
22 to go Kahne Bodine Hornaday Buescher Whitt Sadler Dillon Crafton Goess and Sauter make up the top 10.
21 to go Crafton passes Dillon for seventh
19 to go Sauter passes Goess for ninth
Kahne Bodine Hornaday Buescher Whitt Crafton Sadler Dillon Sauter and Goess
17 to go Peters passes Goess for 10th. Peters took four tires under the previous caution while most of the leaders stayed out.
11 to go Crafton has passed Sadler for sixth
9 to go Kahne Bodine Hornaday Buescher Whitt Crafton Sadler Dillon Sauter and Peters
8 to go Ron Hornaday reported a bad vibration a couple of laps ago.
CAUTION 8 to go as Jeffrey Earnhardt makes contact with the outside wall – This ties the record for the most cautions in a Camping World Truck Series race at Darlington at 10. The record was set in 2004 when Kahne won.
“That’s our last chance right here. He’s got a little vibration. We’ve overcome some adversity as we had to go to the back after that wreck at the beginning. I just want to thank the guys at the shop as we’ve had to overcome a lot of adversity. We’ll take a shot at the 18 truck this start.” – Todd Bodine’s crew chief Mike Hilman Jr.
Bodine says his right front tire feels like its bouncing up the track.
“We’ll see what we got for him. The main thing is we got to get to that checkered flag…..Espically on these old tires, it’s really easy to spin the tires and that’s where the difference comes in. If you don’t spin them and he does, then you got him down there. If I don’t make any mistakes, which I’ve been known to make, then we’ll be in good shape.” – Todd Bodine
“Yeah, it just seems that helps in one and two and down the backstretch.” – Kasey Kahne on choosing the outside lane.
“We just got to get through the gears and get out there…..We’ll see what we can do as these guys at Kyle Busch Motorsports build awesome trucks.” – Kasey Kahne
Kyle Busch is watching from Cancun, Mexico while on vacation, and is watching it in Spanish, despite not being able to understand a thing.
Restart with 4 to go
3 to go Dillon falls back through the field as he gets loose, Bodine gets loose and falls back, allowing Hornaday to pass him
2 to go Kahne starts to stretch out his lead
Checkered Flag: Kasey Kahne wins the Too Tough To Tame 200. In his four truck starts, he has three wins a second place finish.
Ron Hornaday finished second, followed by Todd Bodine, Matt Crafton, and James Buescher rounding out the top five. Peters was sixth, followed by Sadler, Whitt, Sauter and Starr.
“I mean, I came into this weekend wanting to win as that was the plan. This is a tough series to win in and on the restart with Todd, he drove me all the way up to the wall and I think he got himself loose there. I want to thank Kyle Busch for letting me drive this truck and all of Kyle Busch Motorsports for working so hard on this truck. Eric Phillips was great to work with…..I will buy them vacationing time to drive this truck, again.” – Kasey Kahne
“I owe everything to Jeff Hensley and this entire team working so hard on this truck. I got into the wall in practice causing them to work harder and then got into somebody on pit road. Your brother (Elliott Sadler) spun his tires and I got into the back of him. Kahne was pretty tough; we got to figure out what he does.”
“Kasey was going to be tough and we both spun the heck out of tires. I drove into one and about wrecked. These trucks are so aerodependent as I don’t know how I didn’t wreck with that truck on my tail. Ron did what any veteran would do and legged back there. I am loving the Truck Series. We didn’t want third, second would’ve been better but we’re back.” – Todd Bodine
“We had a problem on pit road and to come from shotgun where we were with 46 to go to here is pretty good.” – Matt Crafton
Crafton leads Whitt by 6 points in the standings, followed by Peters, Rogers and Sauter.
FINISHING ORDER
1 Kasey Kahne
2 Ron Hornaday Jr.
3 Todd Bodine
4 Matt Crafton
5 James Buescher
6 Timothy Peters
7 Elliott Sadler
8 Cole Whitt
9 Johnny Sauter
10 David Starr
11 Clay Rogers
12 Shane Sieg
13 Justin Lofton
14 Parker Kligerman
15 Austin Dillon
16 Ryan Sieg
17 Travis Kvapil
18 Max Papis
19 Craig Goess
20 Jeffrey Earnhardt
21 Dusty Davis
22 T.J. Bell
23 Jamie Dick
24 Justin Marks
25 Brendan Gaughan
26 Norm Benning
27 Miguel Paludo
28 Joey Coulter
29 Tayler Malsam
30 Ricky Carmichael
31 Johanna Long
32 Nelson Piquet
33 Jason White
34 Chase Mattioli
35 Justin Johnson
36 Brad Sweet
Too Tough To Tame 200 Qualifying: Cole Whitt on the Pole
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[/media-credit]After two eventful practice sessions, the Camping World Truck Series had qualifying for tonight’s Too Tough To Tame 200.
After stating earlier this week that he would be leaning on Kasey Kahne, Red Bull Racing driver Cole Whitt captured his first career pole with a lap of 173.93 mph. Whitt has only competed in four previous CWTS events. This season he’s competing for Rookie of the Year honors and is currently third in points.
Whitt also set a new track record.
Point leader Matt Crafton will start from the fourth position. Crafton holds a one-point lead over Clay Rogers.
Defending winner of this even, Todd Bodine, was pleased with his practice effort in the No. 30 Germanin.com Toyota, but will start 12th. According to Bodine, both Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler will be tough competition in tonight’s event.
Kahne will drive the No. 18 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports starting in the second position. Many have tabbed him as the favorite for the event. Sadler on the other hand is back behind the wheel of the No. 2 for Kevin Harvick Inc. and is coming off a second place in Daytona. Sadler will start in the eighth position.
Jeffrey Earnhardt qualified his No. 1 Fuel Doctor Chevrolet 35th and will be in a backup truck after wrecking in practice this morning. Those who did not qualify for the event were Chad McCumbee, Chris Fontaine and Chris Lafferty.
The Too Tough To Tame 200 can be seen on SPEED channel at 4:30 p.m. ET. The green flag falls at 5:19 p.m. ET.
RACE LINEUP
Too Tough to Tame 200, Darlington Raceway
March 12, 2011 – Race 3 of 25
====================================
Pos. No Driver Make Speed Time Behind
====================================
1 60 Cole Whitt* Chevrolet 173.933 28.273 0
2 18 Kasey Kahne Toyota 173.613 28.325 -0.052
3 13 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet 172.93 28.437 -0.164
4 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet 172.863 28.448 -0.175
5 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 172.614 28.489 -0.216
6 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet 172.499 28.508 -0.235
7 31 James Buescher Chevrolet 172.457 28.515 -0.242
8 2 Elliott Sadler Chevrolet 172.348 28.533 -0.26
9 8 N. Piquet Jr.* Chevrolet 172.306 28.54 -0.267
10 23 Jason White Chevrolet 172.107 28.573 -0.3
11 17 Timothy Peters Toyota 171.974 28.595 -0.322
12 30 Todd Bodine Toyota 171.65 28.649 -0.376
13 81 David Starr Toyota 171.447 28.683 -0.41
14 7 Miguel Paludo* Toyota 171.028 28.753 -0.48
15 15 Dusty Davis* Toyota 170.869 28.78 -0.507
16 9 Max Papis Toyota 170.762 28.798 -0.525
17 77 Justin Lofton Toyota 170.543 28.835 -0.562
18 29 P. Kligerman* Dodge 170.537 28.836 -0.563
19 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 170.012 28.925 -0.652
20 51 Justin Johnson* Toyota 169.93 28.939 -0.666
21 32 Brad Sweet Chevrolet 169.836 28.955 -0.682
22 4 R. Carmichael Chevrolet 169.777 28.965 -0.692
23 62 Brendan Gaughan Toyota 169.908 28.994 -0.721
24 5 Travis Kvapil Toyota 169.491 29.014 -0.741
25 10 Chase Mattioli* Ford 169.467 29.018 -0.745
26 92 Clay Rogers Chevrolet 169.456 29.02 -0.747
27 46 Craig Goess* Toyota 169.432 29.024 -0.751
28 66 Justin Marks Chevrolet 169.31 29.045 -0.772
29 50 T.J. Bell Chevrolet 168.394 29.203 -0.93
30 22 Joey Coulter* Chevrolet 167.859 29.296 -1.023
31 93 Shane Sieg Chevrolet 166.636 29.511 -1.238
32 20 Johanna Long* Toyota 166.377 29.557 -1.284
33 7 Jamie Dick+ Chevrolet 163.451 30.086 -1.813
34 57 Norm Benning+ Chevrolet 153.469 32.043 -3.77
35 1 J. Earnhardt+* Chevrolet – – –
36 25 Tayler Malsam Toyota 168.192 29.238 -0.965
Todd Bodine Confident About Darlington but Knows Cup Ringers Will Be Strong
With two races in the books for the Camping World Truck Series and thanks to NASCAR’s new pick a series rule, there has yet to be a winner who’s running for the 2011 championship.
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[/media-credit]Michael Waltrip’s emotional yet controversial win took center stage in Daytona to kick off the season. He’s not running for points in the CWTS and neither was the second place finisher Elliott Sadler. A week later in Phoenix it was more of the same as Kyle Busch took the win and Clint Bowyer was the runner up.
The series rolls into the Darlington Raceway this Saturday where again two drivers not running for points are looking to crash the party. CWTS regulars such as the defending winner of the event, Todd Bodine, have other plans.
First on the agenda for ‘The Onion’ is to continue his climb through the point standings. After a wreck in the season opening event, his 14th place finish in Phoenix has him sitting 12th in points.
The early deficit puts him in unfamiliar territory in his title defense. Attempting to become the first driver in CWTS history to win back-to-back championships, another strong performance Saturday will help his effort.
This past August in Darlington Bodine, in his No. 30 truck led 47 of 147 laps on his way to the victory. He comes into this weekend as the favorite to do it again. In part, it’s because the egg shaped track is one that Bodine is very much familiar with, making him a contender each time NASCAR is in town.
After practice Saturday morning Bodine was confident he’d be up front again.
“We were pretty good, pretty happy with it,” he said. “Drives good and does everything I need it to.”
Something that pleased Bodine was how his truck maintained a consistent speed on older tires. The track is starting to get the feel of old Darlington back he said, one that is eats rubber. During practice he wore out ever set of tires he had.
“I think we’ve got something for them,” he said about the race though. “I think we’ll be just fine.”
His August victory goes with one from a Nationwide Series race in 2003. Bodine’s experience also extends to the Cup Series.
That’s where his toughest competition will come from. Two of the most competitive and winning teams in the CWTS have big guns in their trucks. Kasey Kahne has the wheel of the No. 18 Toyota from Kyle Busch Motorsports while Elliott Sadler will be behind the wheel of Kevin Harvick Inc.’s No. 2 truck.
Kahne is also a past Darlington winner in the truck series at Darlington. It came in the first time he competed at the track back in 2004. That race also happened to be the first CWTS race of Kahne’s career.
Saturday will be his first start of the 2011 season in the CWTS. As of right now he does have any other truck races planned but says that could change. First comes Darlington.
“Darlington is an awesome race track and I’m sure that the Truck Series will put on a great show for the fans this weekend,” said Kahne. He’ll drive the same truck he finished second with at Pocono last year to Sadler.
Second at Darlington would ruin Kahne’s plan.
“I was looking around at all the victory banners on the wall when I took my seat over to KBM a few weeks ago,” Kahne said.
“Whether they came from trucks or late models, Kyle was the driver for pretty much every win. I told [him] I need to get a banner this year so he doesn’t control the wall.”
Both Kahne and Sadler will be up front on Saturday, many already putting money on the No. 18. Bodine knows that as well and doesn’t to see it become three for three in non-point winners.
“Well, that’s what we’re here for [to win], not to finish second,” said Bodine.
The Cup drivers winning the first two races of the year happened for a few reasons, Bodine said. What allowed Waltrip and Sadler to drive away for the win in Daytona was their understanding of the bump drafting from their experience in the Cup cars.
Waltrip’s win was then defended by Bodine.
“Everybody talked about Michael losing that spoiler and winning the race — that’s not what won him the race. He won the race because he was smart and I just want everyone to know that.”
In terms of Phoenix, the trucks that the Cup drivers were racing in are phenomenal and come from great teams. Adding a driver with of the caliber of a Kyle Busch or Kasey Kahne makes it hard to keep them from running up front.
“A guy like myself, we got caught up in a crash,” said Bodine.
“We weren’t probably going to win the race but we were going to be up front. [Ron] Hornaday didn’t have a perfect truck so there’s other factors involved than just those guys being that good.”
He then said, “they are that good — there’s no doubt about that. But there are other factors involved and you have to look at the whole picture to understand that.”
Bodine then said that when it comes to the race Saturday night the CWTS regulars will show that they can run with the Cup guys. Cup guys that will again be at the front of the field.
“There’s no doubt about it,” he said.
Rookies Beware: The Lady in Black Awaits on Saturday Night
There’s a reason why the Darlington Raceway is most often referred to by her nicknames ‘Too Tough to Tame’ and ‘The Lady in Black.’
She’s not nice.
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[/media-credit]When the Camping World Truck Series takes the green flag Saturday night in the Too Tough to Tame 200, it’ll be more than their third race of the season. Drivers will be in an all out fight not only with each other but with the track. Most are going to lose and only one can say he was able to survive be the track tamer.
Then come the 11 rookies entered in the field.
If all goes according to plan they’ll have looked at the performance Austin Dillon put on here last August in hopes of repeating it. To them, all hope isn’t lost. Dillon was on top of the speed charts during each practice session and then came home with a solid fifth place finish.
Being a rookie is already a disadvantage. But racing at Darlington, a rookie has an even bigger task ahead. Every one of them in the field, all 11, have never raced at Darlington in a truck before, except on any racing simulators they’ve invested in.
Simulators and confidence are the only things they’ll have entering Saturday night.
“I think the learning curve is going to be a lot like it was in Phoenix,” said Kevin Harvick Inc. driver Nelson Piquet Jr. The Brazilian finished 13th at Phoenix two weeks ago and sits 16th in points.
“It’s going to be another weekend where I’m learning the track and trying to gain as much experience as I can. I hope that some of what I learned in Phoenix will apply when we get to Darlington, but obviously they’re different tracks with different characteristics and difference challenges.”
Piquet Jr. feels his Phoenix performance will end up helping him at Darlington. Being able to race so closely to other competitors while bumping and banging was a good opportunity he says and something that he knows will come into play at Darlington.
On the other hand, Miguel Paludo from Red Horse Racing says he knows almost nothing about Darlington.
“I saw last year’s race on television,” he revealed.
“One thing I noticed is it’s a narrow track. I think it would drive a bit like Homestead, and since I have experience at Homestead that should help a little bit.”
Paludo will rely on his teammate Timothy Peters. Peters sat on the pole for last years race and finished second. Any experience that might rub off on the rookie is more than he had before.
And while he doesn’t know much about the track, Paludo does know about the famed Darlington stripe.
His crew chief in fact said that if he doesn’t get one this weekend his crew chief going to be upset because “it’s something that when you’re really fast and you’re running well, it should happen because you’re close to the wall.”
The wall has the tendency to become a magnet to racecars and trucks. From Darlington stripes to hard wrecks, the track isn’t very forgiving. It’s up to the driver to be on their best behavior or wait until as some says, the lady jumps out and bites you.
In order to avoid that, Red Bull Racing driver Cole Whitt will be leaning on Sprint Cup Series star and past Darlington winner Kasey Kahne. He won’t be a in a RBR truck, but Kahne will be in Saturday’s field.
Other than that Whitt says, “there is not a whole lot you can do. Kind of just have to get in there and get some first laps and just shake it down and get the feel for it and wing it. I think it will be good though.”
Whitt is the current Rookie of the Year point leader. Paludo follows close behind with Jeffrey Earnhardt in third. Just four points separate the top three as Joey Coulter, Justin Johnson and Craig Goess follow behind.
As the day begins every driver and every rookie will have an air of positivity about their chances. Each calling their shot and confident in their freshly painted and finely prepared trucks.
It won’t stay that way for long. Darlington is looming.
As the saying goes for rookies, “what they don’t know they don’t know.” Nowhere is that more true than this Saturday night.
