Benson edges Crawford for win at Talladega

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/06/2007 - Talladega, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Todd Bodine held off a last corner charge from Rick Crawford and Johnny Benson to capture Saturday's Mountain Dew 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Talladega Superspeedway. The No.30 Germain Toyota crossed the finish line 0.014 seconds ahead of Crawford.

The victory was Bodine's second of the season and 12th of his truck career.

Bodine brought the field to the green flag for 94 laps of tight side-by-side racing. Early on Jack Sprague, who started second, took the lead from Bodine and the two stayed at the top of the charts through the first two pit stops.

Meanwhile, points leader Mike Skinner, who had made an additional early pit stop, was in 21st place and working his way towards the leaders. By lap 20, the No.5 Toyota cracked the top-five and was back in the battle.

Of course, this was Talladega and there were 18 drivers within one second of the lead all racing three-wide and changing positions many times per lap. That's what makes the superspeedway a fan favorite and frequently a "crashfest."

Bodine and Sprague were still one-two at the midpoint of the race.

A crash on lap 54 (third caution of the day) set everyone up for their final stops.

When they came back on the track Travis Kvapil was the new leader. Sprague was second and Benson was third. Championship leader Skinner was sixth and the man just three points behind him entering the race, Ron Hornaday Jr. was right in front of him in fifth.

Two laps later Sprague led a charge around the outside of Kvapil and grabbed the lead. Benson followed Sprague and slipped into second and Kvapil was forced all the way back to third place.

On lap 66 a caution flag for debris slowed the field and gave everyone a chance to breath before the final wild ride to the checkered flag.

On the restart Rick Crawford and Erik Darnell thundered past the leaders on the outside. Sprague and Benson returned the favor one lap later.

But Sprague, who had some right-front tire smoke, suddenly spun in turn four of lap 66 while leading and the "Big One" was on. Kvapil, Darnell, Terry Cook and a dozen others were collected in the mess, but Skinner somehow avoided everything and was in great shape to expand his lead.

Hornaday Jr. had minimal damage and would return to the track, but Kvapil was done for the day and probably lost any chance at a championship.

"One of the tires went down...and the guys behind me had nowhere to go," said Sprague. "I couldn't signal because I was too busy trying to save the truck."

They restarted with 16 laps to go and Skinner was the new leader with Bodine and Kyle Busch behind him. They lasted one lap before Josh Wise brought out another caution flag in turn three.

The race would restart with 12 laps remaining and just 17 trucks on the lead lap. Bodine moved to the top of the track and had the horsepower to take the lead with 11 laps to go. Mike Wallace was second and Hornaday Jr. was third with just 10 laps remaining.

Skinner's hood pin broke and his hood was flapping in the wind with six laps to go. But Wallace spun to bring out a caution flag and it saved Skinner's season. NASCAR was already black-flagging him as the yellow started to wave and the result was that the No.5 would remain on the lead lap.

The green flag dropped with two laps to go. Bodine took off and Crawford stayed right with him. They stayed in line as they saw the white flag. They were still all in line as they went into turn three. Crawford slid to the outside as Bodine protected the yellow line and the bottom line was the winner by less than half-a-truck length.

Hornaday Jr. finished seventh, Skinner 13th, so Hornaday Jr. will take a 14- point lead to the next event.

The next race is scheduled for Saturday, October 20th at Martinsville.

Wwwrichsex Autoracing Betting News

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