FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Todd Bodine passed up a chance to refuel on the final pit stop Friday night, and still had enough to win the fastest NASCAR Truck Series race ever at Texas.

Bodine became the winningest driver for any series at Texas, racing to his fifth trucks victory at the 11/2-mile, high-banked track.

In a race with only two cautions and no crashes, Bodine won with an average speed of 152.282 mph. He finished 1.32 seconds ahead of Matt Crafton, who took the season points lead from Ron Hornaday Jr. Colin Braun was a distant third, 10.3 seconds back.

With teams not allowed to change tires and add fuel on the same stop, Bodine came through for tires on the final caution period. But he didn’t return to pit row for fuel before the final restart with 40 laps left.

Bodine went the final 63 laps of the 167-lap race on his last tank of fuel, and still had enough left to do celebratory burnouts in his Toyota on the frontstretch.

“I wasn’t concerned,” Bodine said.

Bodine earned his 17th career victory, all of them coming on superspeedways. It was his second victory this season, the other coming in the opener at Daytona.

Johnny Benson was fourth, followed by Rick Crawford. Only nine trucks finished on the lead lap.

Hornaday, who swept both Texas races last year, had led 55 laps when he made a green-flag stop on the 99th lap. But a tire got loose from his crew in the pits and he had to serve a drive-through penalty and fell out of the top 10. He finished 19th, four laps back after coming off the track early because of an engine problem.

Polesitter Johnny Sauter led the first 42 laps, but lost the lead after some problems in the pit during the first caution, brought out when Brian Scott brushed the wall in the second turn. Sauter was ninth on the restart, and finished sixth.

The only other caution came for debris, from laps 123-127. That is when Bodine won the race, taking tires but no fuel.

The 33 trucks starting matched the smallest field for a race at Texas, which had previously come in the inaugural race when the track opened in 1997. The latest field shrunk quickly with 10 of those trucks starting and then parking within the first few laps.

AP-ES-06-05-09 2328EDT


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