Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Nashville Superspeedway – August 7, 2010
- Todd Bodine won his second race of the season in Saturday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
race at Nashville Superspeedway.
- After starting from the pole, Bodine led twice for 91 (of 150) laps before driving his Germain Racing Tundra to victory
lane at the Tennessee 1.33-mile concrete oval.
- Toyota drivers have now swept both NCWTS races at Nashville in 2010 (Kyle Busch won in April), earned seven wins
this season and 72 since entering the series in 2004.
- Aric Almirola (third), Timothy Peters (fourth), Brian Ickler (eighth) and Justin Lofton (ninth) also finished in the top-10
for Toyota in the 200-mile race.
- Toyota drivers Mike Skinner (11th), David Starr (14th) and Johanna Long (34th) were also in the field.
- Tundra drivers have held the pole position in the six most recent NCWTS races at Nashville. Bodine was the top-
qualifier for Saturday night’s race after starting from the pole in 2008, while Skinner (2005 and 2007), Peters and Busch
(April 2010) have also started from the front of the field at Nashville
- Bodine continues to lead in the unofficial NCWTS point standings, and is currently 174 points ahead of second-place
Almirola. Peters (third), Skinner (eighth) and Starr (ninth) are also in the top-10 in points after 14 of 25 races.
Finishing Position:
1stWhat does this win mean to you?
“I’ve been so close so many times. Even at the (Nashville) fairgrounds I was close. We were close with this truck before.
The Germain team is awesome — these guys are the ones that do this every week. I have to thank all the guys in the motor shop, this was an awesome motor again. I’d like to thank all the fans, all those sitting in the grandstands and watching it on T.V., we appreciate it. It’s about time I got this. That trophy is awesome.”
How does it feel to get your first career NCWTS win at Nashville?
“I don’t know if it’s the most gratifying, we did it in the style of Germain Racing going out and stomping on them. That’s
testament to the guys in the shop that work so hard to make great race trucks. Everybody back at the motor shop built a great motor.
(Mike Hillman) Junior (crew chief) has done a great job in making these things so I can drive them. In the beginning of the year we struggled a little bit with the drivability of it and went to work and figured it out and it showed. Every race we’ve been incredibly competitive. I’ve made a few mistakes and we’ve had a little bit of bad luck, like last week in Pocono, but we’ve had top-five trucks every single week. That’s pretty incredible to do.”
Do you think this is your year to dominate the series?
“No, not really because it can be lost. You can never count anybody out. In racing you never know what’s going to happen. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing every week. If we take care of what we do and don’t worry about everybody else, we’ll be just fine. We just can’t make mistakes and put ourselves in a hole. We get good position on the track, we got to keep it. I can’t make a mistake and lose positions just because of something I did. We can’t look back. Those guys are tough behind us and if you give them a chance, they’ll be right there.”
Do you prefer to win races with a big lead or a tight competition?
“It’s fun both ways. You get the checkered flag, the trophy and the money. It’s all good. It’s really gratifying when you have to come through the pack and pass and take a big lead and do all that. You know that you’re worthy and you’ve passed those guys — you beat them. But, to go out and stomp on them like this, it’s a testament to the team on how good a truck they built and what a great job (Mike Hillman) Junior (crew chief) has done with it.
One of my sayings is I’m just a lucky guy that gets to be the end result of what a lot of hard work guys do. I was fortunate to be the one driving tonight. We got the flat tire early and caught a break with the caution and caught another break later on when the caution came out when we were coming down pit road and the caution came out. That’s part of winning championships — you’ve got to have that luck, that golden horse
shoe people talk about.”
Finishing Position:
3rdWas a third place finish tonight like a win for your team?
“Yeah it was, we’ve never ever really been good here. I think the best we’ve ever run here was eighth earlier this year. I
don’t think we’ve ever finished inside the top-10 until then. This has not been one of our favorites or my favorite race tracks.
It still isn’t by any means, but to come out of here with a third-place finish is a great night for us. I know Todd (Bodine) won and keeps increasing that point lead, but we can’t worry about that. We just have to go out and run the best we can week in and week out. We had a second to fifth-place truck at times tonight and we finished third — that’s what we need to do.
At certain times in the race I felt like if I pushed any harder, I was going to back it into the fence and that wasn’t what we needed to do. I told Todd when I went to victory lane after the race, it’s your year. I had a flat tire and I end up knocking the fence down and ruining a race truck and finish 30th, he has a flat tire and is able to get to pit road then stays out and everyone else has to pit under green and he’s like one of three trucks on the lead lap. How do you race against that?”
Is the track surface at Nashville becoming a better racing surface?
“It was so slippery, I think that’s why you saw two and three-wide racing, it was just because it was so slippery that if you went in on the bottom and somebody got to your quarter panel on the outside, you were already loose running by yourself so if somebody got to your outside, you were kind of at their mercy. It just depended on who it was or how they raced you. The track was slicker tonight than I think I’ve ever seen it. I probably have raced here going on three or four years now in Nationwide and Trucks and it was so slippery. We just couldn’t get a handle on it. I know Todd (Bodine) won the race and he even complained of the same thing. The track was really loose, but I’m not saying that’s bad. It promoted good racing because usually when it gets a lot of grip, everybody runs right on the bottom and you get really aero-tight and it’s really hardto pass. It probably promote better racing but the race track was really slick.”
Finishing Position:
4thHow was your race tonight?
“We were good all night, we just got a little loose and never seemed to get better, we just got worse. We are turning our top-10s into top-fives, so it’s a good day for us. Our Toyota Tundra was fast all race long, it’s just hard to swallow when you’re dominant like that and you finish fourth. But hey, that’s good to be mad at a fourth-place finish.”
Finishing Position:
8thHow was your race?
“We didn’t qualify quite like we thought we should and we drove up to sixth and rode there for a lot of the race. I made a
little mistake on pit road. We actually pitted, got caught on pit road when a caution came out and went a lap down with the wave around. We drove back to about seventh and raced there pretty much all day. At the end the last set of tires got really, really free and just held on back there and finished eighth. Not a horrible day, not the day we were expecting but it was alright for points.”
JUSTIN LOFTON, No. 7 VisitPit.com Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
MIKE SKINNER, No. 5 International Trucks Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 11th
DAVID STARR, No. 81 Cash America / Zachry Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 14th
JOHANNA LONG, No. 15 Visit Pensacola / Panhandle Paving Toyota Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports
Finishing Position: 34th
- Toyota Motorsports Press Release