CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

• Busch beats Bodine in California.

  
  

  Fontana, CA (Sports Network) - Avenging his second-place finish in Daytona, Kyle Busch beat Todd Bodine to capture Saturday afternoon's San Bernardino County 200 at the Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway). The No.51 Toyota crossed the finish line 1.415 seconds ahead of Bodine.

  The victory was Busch's first of the season and fifth of his Craftsman Truck Series career. Last week in Florida it was Bodine that beat Busch to the checkered flag.

  "It was a great race truck," said Busch. "These guys at Billy Ballew Motorsports did an awesome job."

  Johnny Benson, Terry Cook and defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. completed the top-five. It was Benson's second consecutive third-place finish.

  The winning pass came with 24 laps remaining and Busch would never trail Bodine over the rest of the way.

  "When we were leading before the last pit stop, we were really good," said Bodine. "We started getting tight and I told Mike (Hillman) and he said 'yea the clouds came over.' Kyle got a lot better."

  Hornaday Jr. brought the field to the green flag for 100 laps of high- speed racing. He led the first five laps until the first green flag for a Justin Marks spin.

  But the most important news was that Mike Skinner was already talking to his pit crew about his engine not feeling right, seemingly down a cylinder. They raised the hood on the No.5 Toyota, found a plug wire off, and off he went.

  Hornaday Jr. took the green flag on lap nine, with Bodine just behind him. Busch, who started the race in the 20th spot, was fourth and Skinner restarted 33rd.

  By lap 12 Busch joined Hornaday Jr. and Bodine in the lead group and put some distance between themselves and Rick Crawford in fourth place. But a debris caution flag slowed the race on lap 14.

  All the leader pitted and a slow stop left Hornaday Jr. in 13th place. Bodine took fuel only and inherited the lead. By lap 24, Busch's charge was complete and he took the lead for the first time.

  By lap 25, Benson, who started from the back after making a post-qualifying fuel pump change, cracked the top-10. And after Skinner's early race problem he was up to 10th after 33 laps.

  But Busch was dominating and his lead was up to three seconds on Bodine. The lead was still big when another debris caution slowed the race and sent the leaders down pit road.

  It was Busch, Benson, Bodine and Hornaday Jr. the top-four. And a good pit stop from the No.5 crew got Skinner fifth place as they went back to green- flag racing on lap 48.

  Bodine was following Busch when the No.51 got loose, gave up the bottom of the track, and Bodine took advantage by ducking underneath for the pass.

  Bodine's lead was 0.789 seconds with 32 laps to go. But the young Toyota driver pulled back to Bodine's rear bumper and then on the next lap passed the 2006 series champion with 24 laps remaining in the race.

  There would be one more pit stop to make adjustments and charge for the win.

  Both men came in on lap 19, both took four tires and Busch beat the No.30 off pit lane. Meanwhile, Hornaday Jr.'s crew had some problems and he fell way back.

  Benson was still out on the track until lap 17 when he made the big left-hand turn. He took right-side tires only and returned to the track just behind Busch and Bodine. When everyone had cycled through, they were one-two-three.

  Busch stretched the lead to almost two seconds with 10 laps to go. Two laps later in was more than three seconds and he wasn't letting up. He was the fastest truck on the track.

  "When I slowed down I got looser, so I had to keep going," said Busch. "I almost wrecked a couple times, that's just how loose you have to drive these things."

  Busch finally began to relax with five laps remaining, allowing Bodine to cut the deficit to two and-a-half seconds, but without a caution flag, Busch was not going to be caught.

  Busch cruised to the checkered flag and the truck championship lead. He led 51 of 100 laps.

  The next race is scheduled for Friday, March 7th at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

  02/23 17:20:09 ET