Before their three week break, the Camping World Truck Series rolled into the Irish hills of Michigan International Speedway. On Saturday morning, rookie Austin Dillon put his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet on the pole for the second consecutive week. He was joined on the front row by veteran and past series champion Ron Hornaday, Jr.
Under cloudy skies the 36 truck field took the green flag for the VFW 200. Dillon was unable to hold off Hornaday, who took the lead on the first lap of the race. Further back, Kyle Busch was slicing and dicing his way up to the front from his eighth place starting position.
On lap two, Matt Crafton, who crashed out of last week's Winstar World Casion 400k in Texas, made it three wide with Hornaday and Dillon to take away the top spot. The following lap, however, it was a surging Kyle Busch in the lead.
The first caution of the day came out on lap four for an incident between the No. 84 of Chris Fontaine and the No. 90 of Brad Sweet. Both trucks were sent spinning after contact but neither hit the wall and continued on.
Busch led the field to the restart on lap eight and was able to full ahead of Crafton, and Dillon and Hornaday who battled side by side for third. As Hornaday made the pass on Dillon caution again came out on lap 11, this time for Chase Austin blowing an engine.
The field came down pit road under this second caution, and mainly took fuel only and took slight adjustments. Hornaday's adjustments, however, earned him a penalty sending him back to 25th on the restart. Crafton's crew also experienced issues on the pit lane.
On the lap 19 restart Busch once again pulled away from the field, but was chased down and passed by Dillon on lap 22. Elliott Sadler, who had been running in the top ten, lost a right front tire, nearly hitting the wall and was forced to come down pit road for tires.
Dillon was able to maintain his lead but it was interrupted by rain, bringing out the third caution of the day on lap 34. It was about a 40 minute rain delay, after which Dillon led the field off pit road and to the restart on lap 42.
Busch regained the lead a lap later as Bodine began challenging Dillon for second. On lap 48, both Bodine and Dillon were able to drive by the No. 18.
A long green flag stretch ensued and Bodine maintained the lead until a very loose Busch passed him on lap 59. On lap 63 Busch got completely sideways allowing Bodine to once again take the lead. Pit stops came under green with 24 laps to go. Bodine was able to win the race off ahead of Busch, who had a hang up on the stop. The No. 3 of Dillon was penalized for removing the gas can from the box.
The fourth caution of the race came on lap 83 when troubles continued for Matt Crafton as he lost an engine in his No. 88 Menards Chevrolet. More trouble on the restart with just 12 laps remaining; while Hornaday, Dillon and Busch were three wide for second rookie Nelson Piquet, Jr. was sent spinning mid pack.
Just eight laps remained when the field again took the green flag. Bodine and Aric Almirola raced side by side but Busch dove down to the bottom and at the start finish line they were three wide, with Almirola ultimately coming out with the lead.
Bodine continued to challenge Almirola with the No. 18 Toyota on his bumper, but The Onion's several attempts to get by the No. 51 Graceway Toyota came up short, who took the checkered flag and won the VFW 200.
“What an awesome team,” Almirola said in Victory Lane.“It was their first win at Michigan so I finally did something Kyle didn’t do.”
Bodine finished second, Busch third, Hornaday finished fourth and Dillon finished out the top five. Rounding out the top ten were Timothy Peters, Jason White, David Starr, Cup regular Elliott Sadler and rookie Nelson Piquet, Jr.
With the win Almirola sits just 55 points behind leader Bodine. Peters, Hornaday and Sauter finish out the top five.
Thanks to NASCAR on SPEED, NASCAR.com, Scene Daily's Bob Pockrass and Racin' Today for the information and quotes used in this post.
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