Trucks: rain hands Bodine win at Dover

Todd Bodine found his way back to victory lane at Dover International Speedway, when he found himself out in front of the late afternoon Lucas Oil 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as the latest rain showers rolled in and forced a red flag and an early end to proceedings. "You don't like to win 'em this way, but you know what? I've lost 'em this way, so I'm going to take this one, and we're going to go to the house!" said the race winner after the race was officially called. Kevin Harvick had led the majority of the race from pole position, in front for 96 of the eventual 147 laps of the scheduled 200-lap full race distance. He had been leading when the race had its first 15 minute rain-instigated red flag for a brief shower some 30 laps earlier, but then pitted when the race resumed and was unable to get back to the front before the next showers hit and settled in for the evening. Overall the race had been rather a stop-go affair, with a total of nine cautions for 46 laps. The first had come on lap 13 for oil on the track laid down by Jason White's engine letting go in fiery fashion, and the next on lap 25 for John Wes Townley's accident in turn 2. The biggest accident of the night was on lap 29, triggered when Jeb Burton gave a slight tap to the back of Cale Gale that sent the two of them around at right angles to the rest of the oncoming field. Inevitably that caught out the rest of the field in the process, with Max Gresham ending into the side of Brian Scott and pushing him all the way down to the inside wall. A harmless spin for Bodine in turn 4 brought out the next caution on lap 69, and then on lap 97 Ryan Sieg lost the #39 getting loose out of the same corner and spun into a crunching impact with the inside wall. An spin into the inside wall for Wes Burton on lap 110 meant that the field was already under caution when the first real precipitation hit the one-mile oval with Kevin Harvick in the lead, causing the 15 minute red flag while the jet dryers got to work. Harvick thought he had it won there and then, but the rain unexpectedly abated allowing the race to resume after all. Harvick opted to come on to pit road at that point along with Timothy Peters, James Buescher and series leader Justin Lofton all giving up top five positions and gambling on making up the positions again when others had to pit a little later. There were two further cautions (for Gresham spinning on the front stretch on lap 129, and Justin Lofton and Ron Hornaday Jr. having a backstretch incident on lap 139) before the rain returned and put an end to the fun and games for once and for all on lap 147. Bodine had last pitted on lap 98 and had stayed out when Harvick and the others came in following the first red flag period; he managed to hold off a late charge from Parker Kligerman as the next weather front moved in, and Harvick - whose car was handling much tighter in traffic than it had done when it was dominating in the lead - ran out of time in his recovery and ended up in third place as the race was called. Nelson Piquet Jr. came home in fourth place. "Kevin had the best truck, but racing isn't always about having the best truck," said Bodine in victory lane later. "It's about strategy and putting yourself in the right position, and [crew chief] Rick Gay did that for this team." "We had a great truck all weekend and just got beat by the weather there," said Harvick. "It wound up raining and not finishing the race. The guys did a great job of controlling all the things they could control and that's all you can do."" Justin Lofton continues to lead the Camping World Truck Series point standings, now by 1pt over Timothy Peters after the race. The weather outlook for the Nationwide race on Saturday and the Sprint Cup event on Sunday is significantly better, although the entire eastern part of the US has been experiencing some temperamental weather in the last 24 hours. See full practice, qualifying and race results, plus current NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship points.