So much for my proverbial mortgage.
The Daytona Truck 250 had by far the best racing so far in the season, but the finish of the year to date came at Atlanta. Mark Martin had won Daytona and Fontana, benefitting greatly from strong extra pre-race track time in his Nextel Cup car in the same fashion as when he was monopolizing BGN races run as companion events to WC, and in the Atlanta 200 he effortlessly stormed into the lead.
So there was little reason to expect anyone else to win the Atlanta 200 - yet Todd Bodine, the Truck Series' recent dominator in the Germain #30 Toyota, pulled off the upset. Bodine made perfect use of Atlanta's banking, pinching Martin to the bottom enough to stall him out coming off the corners, a classic strategy for high-banked speedways.
Bodine's upset is the biggest in Trucks in some time given the overwhelming edge Martin shows in Winston/Nextel Cup companion races. And it came in a surprisingly hard-fought race, as Bodine and Martin went at it side by side for the lead for several sustained periods. Bodine's decisive pass was as nervy as one can imagine, four-abreast between lapped traffic and sideways off Two to boot.
The Bodine-Martin showdown highlighted a race with strikingly little competitive depth, as the top two runners basically had the race to themselves. The only really noteworthy run other than Bodine and Martin was Bobby Hamilton, wrapping up his 2006 season with a respectable charge from midpack into 13th.
Other than Hamilton, there was little to discuss for anyone else. Bill Lester, the show-stealer in WC qualifying, never got untracked, had to pit with a vibration, and had another poor finish in Trucks. Erin Crocker likewise showed nothing from the start and was another lapped Truck. The Chevrolets as a group were largely MIA, while Martin's Ford was essentially alone on the speedway.
The finish, though, will be discussed for some time, particularly as the Atlanta 500 weekend proceeds.
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