Catchfence

Fort Worth, Texas _ Johnny Benson’s sponsor-induced exit from NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series earlier this week may not be the last by a champion.

Todd Bodine’s post-race celebration of his historic fifth series victory at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night was tempered by the reality that Germain Racing may have to park the No. 30 Copart.com Toyota Tundra in the heat of summer because of lack of sponsorship.

“We’ve been fortunate…we’ve got a great sponsor now in Copart, and Ventrilo,” said Bodine, whose victory in the Winstar World Casino 200 at TMS marked the first time a Truck Series driver had won five races at a single venue. “We got three (races remaining) with Copart and two with Ventrilo. We’re still not totally funded for the season and that is a concern.

“We’ve made the business decision that if we don’t have sponsorship, we’re not going to race. We’re working like crazy trying to get somebody on this truck for the rest of the year. Hopefully, Copart will step up. We do need funding for the rest of the year.”

Bodine, who won the 2006 Truck Series championship by 127 points over Benson, earned his 17th career victory in 123 starts on TMS’ 1.5-mile quadoval. After beginning the season with finishes of 1-2-3, including victory in the prestigious season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, Bodine struggled through a four-race stretch during which he finished no higher than 18th. But Friday night’s victory left him fourth in the driver’s points championship, only 66 behind TMS runnerup and first-time leader Matt Crafton.

- Racintoday.com