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Todd Bodine Defends Truck Win at Daytona

The inaugural event of the 2009 Camping World Truck Series (first year with the new title sponsor) in Daytona was nothing like the Sprint Cup chaos that was to come, but it sure provided a lot of action in the final laps of the race. Winner was none other than 2008 Daytona 500 triumphant Todd Bodine, who managed to keep Kyle Busch on his tails in the last section of the race to become the first Truck driver to defend a victory at Daytona.

Heading into the last lap, Bodine managed to stretch his lead over Busch after Turn 3 and 4 and eventually crossed the finish line in 1st place. Third overall in the NextEra Energy Resources 250 was Terry Cook.

“This truck is phenomenal. It just drives so good. I've said it all week, that Daytona is a handling track. You've got to handle. You've got to get around the corners comfortably,” said Bodine after his 4th win on a Superspeedway inside the Truck Series.

“I watched everybody all night fighting their trucks, and I was just sitting out there riding and driving beautiful like I was rolling down the highway,” added the North Carolina-based driver.

Busch, on the other hand, was quite content with his runner-up place in the race, having the sole regret of not figuring out when to pull out the move on Bodine in the last lap. He only blamed himself for that mistake.

“The truck was good - the driver screwed up. Going down the back, I got into Todd getting into Turn 3 and it kind of shot him ahead, I guess, and I couldn't get my momentum built back up, and Terry wanted to get to my outside. I just can't figure out when to make a move, because if I go before the last lap, and I make a move, everybody's just going to get overzealous behind me, go crazy and start wrecking. I don't know what I could do different, but I've got to figure something out,” commented Busch.

Reigning Truck champion Johnny Benson finished on a poor 26th place overall, as he was involved in a massive wreck on Lap 48 of the race. The 100-lap race was interrupted by 6 cautions, which lasted for an overall 30 laps.
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