Jacques Villeneuve
Talladega, AL (Sports Network) – Todd Bodine captured the pole for Saturday afternoon’s Mountain Dew 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Talladega Superspeedway. The No.30 Germain Toyota circled the giant 2.66-mile track in 52.670 seconds (181.811 m.p.h.) to lead a Toyota sweep of the front row and nine of the top-12 starting spots.
The pole victory was Bodine’s second of the season and third of his truck career.
Starting with Bodine on the front row will be three-time series champion Jack Sprague, who posted a time of 52.720 seconds.
Erik Darnell (52.766) and Mike Wallace (52.980) will make up row two. Travis Kvapil was fifth quickest.
Try as he may, Kvapil can’t quite make the Craftsman Truck Series championship a three-horse race.
The driver of the No.6 Roush Racing Ford has won four of the last 10 events, but still finds himself 181 points behind points leader Mike Skinner. After a slow start that yielded just one top-10 in the first six events, Kvapil turned it up a notch and has collected 11 top-10s since the end of May.
Two weeks ago in Las Vegas, Kvapil won the pole and then beat off every challenge en route to a 0.718-second win over Johnny Benson. Both Skinner and Ron Hornaday Jr. had rare off days and Kvapil clawed closer to the two leaders.
But with just six races left, Kvapil is running out of time.
On the other hand, the race is in Talladega and when NASCAR comes to this superspeedway anything can and usually does happen. The drivers could be running three-wide at the finish or as in 2006 there could be a multiple-truck incident in Turn 3 of the final lap allowing Mark Martin to win under caution.
"I like Talladega; it is a track where you have to be on your toes at all times," said Skinner, who finished second in 2006. "The key to this race is just try and stay out of trouble."
Easier said than done. Skinner will start in the middle of the "storm" – eighth.
Former Formula One World Champion, Jacques Villeneuve (1997), qualified 10th in his second NASCAR outing. He is also schedule to try and qualify for Sunday’s Nextel Cup race.
The race is set to drop the green flag on Saturday at 4 p.m. (et).
Source: www.tsn.ca
