Catchfence

No. 5 International Trucks / Monaco RVs Toyota Tundra (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)

This Week’s Tundra… The No. 5 International Trucks/Monaco RVs team and Germain Racing driver Todd Bodine will utilize GR-018 in Saturday’s 146-lap NCWTS race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This is the same truck that Bodine most recently drove to a seventh-place finish two weeks ago at Kentucky Speedway, and it was raced earlier this season at Chicago (13th), Atlanta (9th), Michigan (11th), Pocono (12th) and Nashville (6th). Mike Hillman Jr. will once again be atop the pit box calling the shots for the defending series champion as this marks the 11th race of a collaborative effort between Germain Racing and Randy Moss Motorsports to field the No. 5 Tundra. Bodine has finished no worse than 13th in those 10 previous races, with an average finish of 9.1.

· Track Stats… Bodine scored his fourth of 21 career Camping World Truck Series victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September 2005. In total, Bodine has four top-five and five top-10 finishes in seven NCWTS starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bodine also has one pole and has not started a race outside of the top 10 in truck series competition, and leads all active truck series drivers in laps led at LVMS with 216. In addition to his Truck Series statistics, Bodine went to Victory Lane at Las Vegas in the Nationwide Series in 2001.

· Closing the Gap… Bodine has not finished outside of the top four in the final truck series point standings since he began competing full-time in the series in 2005. With his seventh-place finish last race at Kentucky Speedway, Bodine is now tied for eighth place in the driver point standings and is just 33 points out of the top four with five races remaining.

· Meet Todd… Fans in the Las Vegas area will have the opportunity to meet Todd Bodine on Thursday, October 13, in advance of the truck series race at LVMS. The driver of the No. 5 International Trucks/Monaco RVs Toyota Tundra will meet fans and sign autographs at the Boot Barn (7265 Las Vegas Boulevard South), as part of a program with Germain Racing sponsor Georgia Boot. The Georgia Boot show truck will be on display from 12 – 5 p.m. PDT at Boot Barn, and Todd will make a two-hour appearance from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. PDT on Thursday.

· Watch and Listen… The Smith’s 350 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be broadcast live on SPEED, MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio, channel 90, on Saturday afternoon. SPEED kicks off its pre-race coverage at 3:00 p.m. EDT, and MRN Radio will begin its live broadcast at 3:15 p.m. EDT on Saturday, October 15.

Todd Bodine, driver of the No. 5 International Toyota Tundra - Photo Credit: Tom Whitmore/Getty Images for NASCAR

“Compared to other mile and a half tracks, Las Vegas Motor Speedway is unique in its banking. It has progressive banking, but also, even though the track surface is fairly new, it has a lot of bumps. We didn’t run as well as we’d like at Kentucky, but we feel we learned a lot about the bumps and track conditions that should help us at Las Vegas and through the rest of the season. We’ll know when we get the International Trucks/Monaco RVs Tundra on track Friday in Vegas.”

“Our setups haven’t been as good as they were in the past. This year, Goodyear has been giving us different tires than we are used to racing at a lot of these tracks. It’s more than halfway through the season and the changeup in tires has kind of thrown us for a loop. We think we’ve figured it out and when we get to Las Vegas we’ll be able to test that and see where we are.”

“I love Las Vegas. We get to stay at the South Point Hotel & Casino with Mr. Gaughan. I’m looking forward to the bowling tournament to benefit Speedway Children’s Charities and just enjoying being in Las Vegas.”

- Germain Racing / Randy Moss Motorsports Press Release