Todd Bodine came into Saturday's Mountain Dew 250 Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway as the winner of the last four restrictor plate races. In the closing laps, he looked to be on his way to number five, despite spinning in a wet spot on pit road early and soon after falling out of the lead draft.
Bodine got by Billy Ballew Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola coming to the white flag to take the lead, but the Ballew freight train got back by him on the final lap, giving the Ballew organization its first-ever one-two finish.
"I owe everything to Aric Almirola today," Busch said. "From that last pit stop to the end, I told him that, if he just stayed with me, they wouldn't be above to beat the 15 (Almirola) and the 51 (Busch). Awesome job to Aric. He can take half of my pay after today."
Bodine held on to finish third.
"Kyle had a teammate right behind him, and that's what you have to have," Bodine said.
Busch ended Bodine's streak by extending one of his own. Busch's win on Saturday was his fifth victory in his last five starts.
Terry Cook finished fourth, and David Starr rounded out the top-five.
Two of the top-three points cotenders were caught up in a wreck with about five laps to go when Bodine and Mike Skinner moved up the racetrack, and Johnny Sauter tried to fill in the hole. Sauter and Skinner went for the same piece of real estate, causing a pileup behind them that collected third in points Skinner and points leader Ron Hornaday, along with Max Papis, Brian Scott, rick Crawford, Timothy Peters, and Chad McCumbee.
Hornaday ended up 17th, and Skinner had to settle for a 19th-place finish.
As a result of Hornaday and Skinner's troubles, second-place in points Matt Crafton was able to add to his cushion on Skinner and pull closer to Hornaday and the lead with his 10th-place finish. Crafton now trails Hornaday by 202 points with three races to go. He came into Talladega with a deficit of 224.
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