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“Rowdy” Trucks Past “The Onion” At Joliet

JOLIET, IL: With only 19 laps to go, it appeared that Todd “The Onion” Bodine had the Camping World Truck race in the bag at Chicagoland Speedway Friday night. But, following a late race re-start, second running Kyle “Rowdy” Busch had other ideas.

Bodine, past master of the mile and a half speedways, had taken the lead on Lap 98 of 150 when previous leader Busch made his final pit stops for tires and fuel, on consecutive laps. Busch was fifth for the restart with 50 laps remaining.

“Bodine had the race won until that caution came out,” Busch said.

When the green flag flew for the re-start, Bodine appeared to get a good jump. However, Busch quickly closed the gap through turn one, and drafted by the leader on the back stretch, assuming a lead he would hold the rest of the way.

“I got too good a restart,” Bodine said. “This place is so much like Daytona and Talladega and he was able to get a draft on me and drafted past me.”

The victory gave Busch his second consecutive truck series win. It was his fourth win of the season in 10 starts in the Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota. Busch also made Chicagoland the fifth track in which he has won a race in each of NASCAR’s three national series. He won the Sprint Cup and Nationwide races there last season.

In victory lane, “Rowdy” seemed even more pleased with his win than normal. “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.”

Colin Braun finished third, followed by Rick Crawford and Johnny Sauter. Points leader Ron Hornaday finished 11th, but still gained points on second-place driver Matt Crafton, who finished 14th. Hornaday leads Crafton by 220 points with nine races remaining. Mike Skinner ran 13th and is 316 points back in third.

With unseasonably cool conditions and heavily overcast skies, it was a bit hard to judge the size of the crowd. It would probably be best to just say it was a good deal below capacity.

Results for the EnjoyIllinois.com 225:

Pos. Driver Make

1. Kyle Busch Toyota
2. Todd Bodine Toyota
3. Colin Braun Ford
4. Rick Crawford Ford
5. Johnny Sauter Chevrolet
6. Dennis Setzer Chevrolet
7. Chad McCumbee Chevrolet
8. Aric Almirola Toyota
9. Timothy Peters Toyota
10. Terry Cook Toyota

Sporting News Wire Service contributed to this article.

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