Bodine Wins Third Straight, Musgrave the Title

Todd Bodine tied a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series record with his third consecutive victory Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway while Ted Musgrave captured his first-ever championship.

The Ford 200 had been scheduled for Friday night but was postponed just over 12 hours by intermittent rains.

Bodine had the dominant truck for much of the race, leading twice for 74 of the 134 laps around the 1.5-mile superspeedway. He put his Germain Motor Company Toyota in front for the final time on lap 134 when Brendan Gaughan stopped for fuel.

The seventh and final caution on lap 128 gave Jack Sprague a shot at passing Bodine but the three-time series champion instead wound up battling Johnny Benson for second place. Sprague was just over a half-second behind Bodine when a multi-truck accident at the head of the backstretch brought out the yellow flag to end the race under caution.

Mike Bliss finished fourth with Bill Lester, who started from the outside of the front row, took fifth.

Kyle Busch, Raybestos Rookie of the Year Todd Kluever, Mark Martin, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Matt Crafton filled out the top 10.

There were nine lead changes among nine drivers – although many came during a cycle of green flag pit stops just past the race’s half-way mark. The caution waved seven times with 24 laps consumed by the slowdowns. Bodine, who won $57,800, averaged 119.920 mph for the 201-mile distance.