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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Racing News and Notes Column: Yellow Flag Keeps Bodine in Second Place

Posted on: Saturday, 18 February 2006, 03:03 CST

By Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Feb. 18--Daytona Beach, Fla. -- Mark Martin didn't know how he was going to keep Todd Bodine at bay when the GM Flex Fuel 250 went overtime Friday night.

Turns out he didn't have to.

NASCAR's one attempt at a green-white-checkered competitive finish to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season opener lasted only a couple of seconds before chaos broke out behind Martin. Then all he needed to do was drive slowly around Daytona International Speedway behind the pace car and then head for victory lane.

"I don't know how they were going to do it just yet, but I'm sure they were going to try like heck," Martin said.

"I know I had my hands full, but I sure hadn't conceded the win yet. They were going to pry it out of my hands to take it."

Martin, 47, had hoped to retire from full-time Nextel Cup competition at the end of last year and move into the trucks with owner Jack Roush. This race was a bonus, a head start on 2007, and Martin made the most of it, pushing his Ford to the front six times for 42 of the 102 laps.

Bodine, who won the final three races of 2005, had the opportunity to set a series record with his fourth race and figured his Toyota was in as good a position as he could hope.

Brendan Gaughan's mid-pack spin on the 97th lap set up the restart, and Bodine was poised to strike. But when Ron Hornaday got crossed up in the middle of the pack on the restart, the yellow flew again. NASCAR used to permit unlimited restarts but now gives drivers just one shot.

"We would have had four in a row, but you know what? I'll take second," said Bodine, who could have set a series record with his fourth straight. "It's a great way to start the points."

Bodine's new teammate, reigning series champion Ted Musgrave, finished third in his debut in a Germain Racing Toyota.

Crown Royal IROC: For 34 laps, no one could challenge Matt Kenseth, and when Martin Truex Jr. finally did on the final lap, the outcome was nearly spectacular.

Truex swung to the outside in the second turn and then clipped Kenseth in the side. Their two cars wobbled but Kenseth hung on and headed to victory while Truex dropped to fifth. The triumph was the first in the four-race all-star series since Kenseth clinched the 2004 title.

"The outside (line of cars) would get a run and then it would come back," said Kenseth, who stayed glued to the yellow line on the inside of the track from the time he took the lead on the sixth of 40 laps. "Martin is really smart, and he's really good at this kind of racing, too, and he got enough of a run where he knew the only chance was to get down in front of me.

"I still probably had 3 feet on him. He just hung a left to try to get to the bottom, which I probably would have done on the last lap. Neither one of us lifted all the way through there. There was smoke flying, and we were going pretty slow, but there was nowhere for anybody else to go either."

Indy-car champion Sam Hornish pushed Kenseth down the back stretch and finished 0.168 of a second behind.

Twenty-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser escaped serious injury but was trapped in his overturned car for about 15 minutes after a frightening four-car crash two laps from the finish. Kinser got hit from behind seven-time ARCA champ Frank Kimmel and pushed into road-racing ace Max Papis. As Kinser's car veered to the outside, it crossed the nose of Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart's car, rolled halfway over and slid a quarter-mile on its roof.

Busch Series: Sprint and midget champion J.J. Yeley, who is working on his stock-car education doing double duty in Busch and Nextel Cup this season, scored his first pole position in 53 starts qualifying for the Hershey's Kissables 300 with an average speed of 183.094 mph.

"Being a rookie on the drafting side, I need to learn as much as I possibly can," Yeley said. "If everything works out all right, I can stay out in front and not have to learn anything, but if I get the opportunity I'm going to get behind some veterans and see if they can teach me something."

Aaron Fike will start alongside on the front row when the race starts at 12:20 p.m. today.

Johnny Sauter of Necedah, Wis., qualified fourth, best among the four Wisconsin drivers who cracked the field.

Nextel Cup: Rookie David Stremme led a group of five drivers who cracked the 191-mph mark on a heat-slickened track early in a 1-hour drafting practice. Kenseth, Mike Wallace and Kevin Lepage all sat out the session, and a final "Happy Hour" is scheduled for today.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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