Todd Bodine celebrates

Rhonda McCole/AR1.con

When it comes to racing at a track called “Too Tough To Tame”, experience makes all the difference.

Todd Bodine drew on everything he’d learned in 38 career starts at Darlington Raceway and rolled home to his second straight victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series “Too Tough To Tame” 200.

Bodine inherited the lead after rookie Austin Dillon gave up the lead to pit on lap 101 and ran the final 71 laps on a single tank of fuel, passing up two more chances to pit over the last 47 laps to beat out Timothy Peters by 0.531 seconds for his 20th career victory.

Ron Hornaday finished third, followed by Johnny Sauter and Dillon.

The victory was Bodine’s third of the season second in two weeks, padding his points lead over Aric Almirola.

“The history behind Darlington and the great drivers that have raced here and walked the garage area and got their Darlington stripes - the list of those driver is incredible and to be part of that, to be in victory lane at Darlington is incredible,” said Bodine. “It’s a great feeling to be able to win at Darlington.

“It’s nice to be to get in the truck and drive this way. I wasn’t on no Sunday drive – I knew I had to go with Timmy (Peters) behind me. I knew he was going to be tough, but we enough for him.

“We had a lot of fun at Darlington, I always have. Like I was saying earlier, I have a lot of laps around here, and it pays off. Experience pays off.”

Indeed it did.

The only driver in the field with a previous victory – in a Nationwide Series race in 2003 – Bodine started eighth in the field and managed to avoid the pit falls that claimed several of the veteran contenders.

It took only five laps for the Lady In Black to reach out and grab her first victim, as Dennis Setzer spun in turn one, collecting mike Skinner in the mix.

Just five laps later, Jason White found the wall with Austin Dillon getting a piece as well.

In all nine caution flags waved for 37 laps, with 16 trucks going to the garage including Skinner, Ricky Carmichael, Brian Ickler and Mario Gosselin.

At the front of the field, Peters led the first 47 laps from the pole and ran close to the front all night. After Dillon surrendered the lead he had held for 23 laps, Peters snuck back into the second position, hoping to either catch Bodine or be in a position to pounce if Bodine’s fuel didn’t hold out.

After the final caution flag flew on lap 124 for Ickler’s crash, Peters chased Bodine for the next 20 laps but could never close the gap as the 2006 series champion easily dodged the final lapped trucks.

“We finally made our last adjustment on the final stop and took sticker (tires) but we were back in traffic and used up our tires really early to get back to the front,” said Peters. “After the wreck between the 12 (Gosselin) and the 4 (Carmichael), I was conserving all (the fuel) I could because we were committed to running all the way to the end. We did everything we could, but all in all it was a great night.”

Matt Crafton, James Buescher, Stacy Compton, Almirola and Ken Schrader rounded out the top ten.

Almirola dropped 57 points to Bodine and now trails the points leader by 231 points.

Results

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	8	30	Todd Bodine	Toyota	Germain.com	195/10	147	Running
2	1	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	Apex Tool Group	180/10	147	Running
3	5	33	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet	E-Z-Go Street Legal Vehicle	170/5	147	Running
4	13	13	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	In Country Television / Curb Records	160/0	147	Running
5	9	3	Austin Dillon *	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Remington Arms / Tracker	160/5	147	Running
6	15	88	Matt Crafton	Chevrolet	Ideal Door / Menards	150/0	147	Running
7	2	31	James Buescher	Chevrolet	Wolfpack Rentals	146/0	147	Running
8	7	60	Stacy Compton	Chevrolet	SafeAuto Insurance Company	142/0	147	Running
9	4	51	Aric Almirola	Toyota	Zyclara by Graceway Pharmaceuticals	138/0	147	Running
10	6	2	Ken Schrader	Chevrolet	Stubb's Legendary Bar-B-Q / Kroger	134/0	147	Running
11	19	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	S&W Services	130/0	147	Running
12	14	81	David Starr	Toyota	Zachry	127/0	146	Running
13	22	46	J C Stout	Dodge	Team Gill Racing	124/0	146	Running
14	21	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb *	Ford	drivenmale.com / DriverBoutique.com	121/0	146	Running
15	24	89	Mike Harmon	Ford	Lafferty Performance	118/0	145	Running
16	20	192	Dennis Setzer	Chevrolet	fleetHQ.com / BTS Tire & Wheel Distributors	115/0	145	Running
17	30	01	Jeremy Petty	Chevrolet	Koma Unwind Chillaxation Drink	112/0	143	Running
18	32	57	Norm Benning	Chevrolet	Norm Benning Racing	109/0	137	Running
19	33	47	Lance Fenton	Chevrolet	FuelDoctorUSA.com	106/0	136	Running
20	3	7	Justin Lofton *	Toyota	VisitPIT.com	103/0	134	Running
21	10	18	Brian Ickler	Toyota	Toyota Tundra	100/0	123	Accident
22	12	5	Mike Skinner	Toyota	International Trucks / Monaco RV	97/0	106	Accident
23	23	12	Mario Gosselin	Chevrolet	TireMonkey.com / James Carter Attorney	99/5	95	Accident
24	16	4	Ricky Carmichael	Chevrolet	Monster Energy	91/0	95	Accident
25	17	07	Donny Lia	Chevrolet	SS Green Light Racing	88/0	91	Accident
26	18	150	T.J. Bell	Chevrolet	Liberty Tire Recycling	85/0	73	Accident
27	11	23	Jason White	Dodge	GunBroker.com / Outdoor Channel Outfitters	82/0	56	Engine
28	28	85	Brent Raymer	Ford	Ford. Drive one.	79/0	24	Ignition
29	25	6	Brett Butler *	Chevrolet	Rick Ware Racing	73/0	19	Handling
30	27	21	Butch Miller	Dodge	SS Green Light Racing	73/0	17	Clutch
31	31	124	Chris Lafferty	Chevrolet	Blue Ox / Lafferty Performance	70/0	16	Over Heating
32	29	93	Mike Garvey	Chevrolet	S&W Towing	67/0	12	Handling
33	26	187	Chris Jones	Chevrolet	Copy Wizard	64/0	11	Rear Gear
34	35	216	Justin Hobgood	Chevrolet	FuelDoctorUSA.com	61/0	7	Over Heating
35	34	172	John Jackson	Chevrolet	DGM Racing	58/0	2	Brakes
36	36	95	Dillon Oliver	Dodge	Team Gill Racing	55/0	2	Engine