John Deere 200 at Atlanta Motor Speed way
With 10 laps remaining in the John Deere 200 at Atlanta Motor
Speed way, Mark Martin had a comfortable lead and appeared to be on
his way to his record-tying third consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series victory.
But an ill-timed pack of traffic and a hard charging Todd Bodine put
the brakes on Martin's victory charge. That pack of traffic split
the leaders on lap 126 - just four laps remaining in the scheduled
distance - gave Bodine the opening he needed. Bodine split the
middle between the two lapped trucks, while Martin dipped to the
inside. Both of the leaders' trucks pitched sideways, with contact
made between all four drivers as they raced down the backstretch.
Bodine did a Herculean job to keep his truck under control, while
Martin escaped with some damage to the right side. A third driver
involved, Timothy Peters, cut down a left rear tire after contact
from Bodine and that eventually sent him around and into the wall to
set up the third green-white-checkered overtime finish in three
series races. On the restart, Martin dipped to the inside, but that
was exactly what Bodine needed to keep him at bay.
"If Mark had gone high, there is no way I could have held him off,"
Bodine said in victory lane. While Martin was disappointed his win
streak came to a halt at two, he was pleased with his team's
performance and enjoyed his first Truck Series race at Atlanta.
"That was a lot of fun," Martin said. "What got us there was the
lapped trucks. We came up on a three-wide pack of trucks and they
were all in their own race. That's what chopped down that lead, and
Todd saw an opening and he went for it. It was a great race, these
Truck Series drivers do a heck of a job." While Bodine and Martin
were engaged in their own battle, just behind them lurked Johnny
Benson looking for any opportunity to sneak past and collect his
first career Truck Series victory.
A pileup in turn four on the last lap threw everyone for a loop, and
held up the unofficial results while NASCAR officials reviewed video
and scoring data. Aric Almirola got loose exiting the final corner
and collected Jack Sprague, Brendan Gaughan, Bobby Hamilton, Jr.,
and Steve Park. Sprague and Gaughan both went hard into the outside
wall head on, demolishing their trucks, while Hamilton, Jr. slid up
into Park's path at the last moment, leaving Park no where to go and
doing major damage to both vehicles.
Ted Musgrave continued his strong start to the season with a
fourth-place finish, while David Reutimann finished fifth. Jon Wood
had a strong run to finish sixth, with Mike Bliss unofficially in
seventh. Erik Darnell was the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie of
the Year contender in eighth, while Matt Crafton picked up his first
top ten of the season in ninth. Rick Crawford finished a Truck Race
at Atlanta for the first time in four tries and rounded out the
top-10. Skinner and Miller were 35th and 36th respectively.
Source: truckseries.com
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