Kyle Busch made a late-race pass on Todd Bodine for the lead and then held off Bodine on a restart with seven laps to go to win Friday’s inaugural EnjoyIllinois.com 225 Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
Busch recorded his fourth victory of the season and the 13th of his Truck Series career. He won last week’s race at Bristol, snapping Ron Hornaday Jr.‘s five-race winning streak. MiamiHerald.com
“It was a fun night,” Busch said. “My parents are from just outside Chicago and my girlfriend is from just over the border in Indiana, and it was cool to come back and win before the home folks in the Midwest.”
“It’s definitely an accomplishment,” Busch said. “I’d love to get some more.”
Bodine finished second, .580 seconds behind. It was his first top-five in the past six races.
“Second is pretty good after the last two months,” Bodine said. “We’ll take it.” NASCAR
Busch previously won at Chicagoland in NASCAR’s top two series, sweeping the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series races there last season.
Ford Driver Colin Braun finishes third followed by Rick Crawford, with Johnny Sauter finishing fifth in a Chevrolet.
It was a disappointing night for the series’ top two championship contenders, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Matt Crafton. Both drivers spent much of the race a lap behind the leaders, with Hornaday making up his lap in the late stages of the race to finish 11th and Crafton finishing a lap down in 14th.
NASCAR Truck Series Race at Chicagoland Speedway - Race Results
Hornaday leaves Chicagoland with a solid 220-point lead over Crafton in the standings.
After the race, Bodine complained that passing was too difficult and made a plea for NASCAR officials to take a look at the aerodynamic characteristics of its race cars across the board.
“They need to work on it — all three divisions,” Bodine said.
Bodine said when he wasn’t stuck in traffic, his car was the fastest in the field.
“Out in clean air, that thing was a rocket,” Bodine said. “I could just about run wide open, lap after lap. We were consistently two tenths (of a second) faster than the rest of the pack. But when you get behind somebody, you just can’t do anything with it.” The Associated Press
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