Bodine secures 1st Daytona win

He edges Kyle Busch to take the Chevy Silverado, mastering the track after 34 tries.

Tania Ganguli | Sentinel Staff Writer

February 16, 2008

Todd Bodine, driver of the #30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chevy Silverado 250 at Daytona International Speedway. (RUSTY JARRETT, GETTY IMAGES FOR NASCAR / February 15, 2008)

DAYTONA BEACH - He'd won 12 races in his career, but in 17 years and 34 tries, Todd Bodine had never won at Daytona International Speedway.

That changed Friday night when Bodine held off Kyle Busch to win the Chevy Silverado 250 by 77 thousandths of a second for the first NASCAR points win of the season.

"This racetrack's been pretty cruel to us," Bodine said.

"And now it's been pretty good to us in a lot of ways."

Busch finished second, challenging for the win after being involved with an early wreck.

Toyotas took the top four spots in the race with Johnny Benson's No. 23 Toyota third and David Starr's No. 11 Toyota fourth.

Pole-sitter Erik Darnell finished 21st, marking the first time since 2005 that the driver starting from the pole position did not win the Chevy Silverado 250.

By the 25th lap, 15 cars had wrecked and 6 were out of the race, with one having burst into flames.

On lap 18, Busch's No. 51 car, which started 21st in the race, came down the track and made contact with Mike Skinner's No. 5 Toyota.

The contact turned Busch left into the infield. Skinner spun up the banking and several cars slammed into him.

The No. 63 Ford, driven by P.J. Jones, caught fire as it rolled into the infield.

Jones left the car with the arm of his firesuit charred.

Brendan Gaughan, Jon Wood, Chad Chaffin, Ted Musgrave and Matt Crafton were also involved in the wreck, which red-flagged the race for 17 minutes and 23 seconds.

Replays indicated that Gaughan got close to the back of Skinner's truck, but Skinner said Gaughan did not hit him.

"I don't think Brendan hit us," Skinner said. "I think 51 hit us. Awful early in the race to be making moves like that."

Other drivers expressed anger toward Busch as well.

"Kyle will just say, I'll race tomorrow," Gaughan said. "He doesn't care about this. It's just fun time."

Jones, Chaffin and Gaughan all ended the race there. Bodine's No. 30 Toyota led coming out of the caution.

Busch was apologetic after the race.

"When I tried turning down the race track, it turned down a little bit too quick," he said. "I apologize that I wrecked their day and ruined their Daytona performance."

Busch recovered and didn't get into any more perilous situations, despite what he said was a car that was difficult to handle at times.

He tried for the lead on the last lap, but said he'd left Bodine too much space.

At the track where his brother Geoff had won a Daytona 500, Bodine finally got his own Daytona win.

"This is incredible," Bodine said. "I had my first seven birthdays over in turn three. This has been a huge part of my family. To finally get here is unbelievable."

Tania Ganguli can be reached at tganguli@orlandosentinel.com.

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Bodine secures 1st Daytona win

He edges Kyle Busch to take the Chevy Silverado, mastering the track after 34 tries.

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He edges Kyle Busch to take the Chevy Silverado, mastering the track after 34 tries.

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