(Sports Network) - Todd Bodine passed Kyle Busch for the lead coming out of the final turn of the last lap and then held off Ron Hornaday, Jr. to win Saturday's Mountain Dew 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Talladega Superspeedway. The victory was Bodine's second of the season and the 14th of his Truck Series career. It was also his third consecutive superspeedway win. Bodine won in February at Daytona and last year's race at Talladega.

"Going down the back straightaway, I was thinking I'll just finish second here," Bodine said. "I pushed Kyle Busch down there, tried to get him to win. We came off of turn four and I hit him, got him sideways and I had to go down the side, and then I had a buddy behind me, Ron Hornaday. He was back there, and he came back and pushed me and here we are."

Hornaday's second-place finish couple with an 11th-place run for Johnny Benson allowed Hornaday to take a 39-point lead over Benson in the championship standings with five races remaining in the season.

"We'll take a second, that sounds like a win here at Talladega for me," Hornaday said.

Pole sitter Erik Darnell led the field to the green-flag, but the race was under caution for debris on the second lap. Darnell held the top spot but John Wes Townley quickly fell from second to eighth in one lap. Colin Braun moved up to the second spot and ran right behind Darnell.

Debris from Joey Logano's truck put the race under caution for the second time on Lap 20. Darnell was the fastest off of pit road and remained the leader. Hornaday exited the pits fourth, but was penalized for speeding. Hornaday fell back to 26th.

Bodine charged from third on the restart to take the lead from Darnell on Lap 34. But Darnell moved back into first two laps later.

Darnell dominated in the first half, leading 48 of 49 laps.

As green-flag pit stops began on Lap 50, Townley lost control and spun while entering pit road in a pack of several trucks. Townley fell back to 21st after his stop. After the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 59, Bodine was back in command.

On Lap 66, Braun made the pass on Bodine and reclaimed the lead. Jack Sprague, however, made slight contact with Kyle Busch and smacked the wall one lap later. Braun was the quickest out of the pits during the caution.

Mike Skinner and Landon Cassill made contact as they exited pit road. Skinner sustained minor damage to the right front corner of his truck and had to make additional stops for repairs.

Dennis Setzer remained on the track and led the field for the restart on Lap 76. But Braun immediately charged to the front as he passed John Andretti for second and then Setzer for the top spot.

The battle for the lead became intense with 16 laps remaining as Braun, Bodine and Kyle Busch ran three-wide for the top spot. Busch pulled ahead two laps later as the pack settled into single-file formation.

Braun and Andretti made contact and spun to set up a seven-lap shootout to the finish. Braun managed to quickly climb back into the top-10.

Busch continued to run out in front with two laps to go, but Braun had charged through the field thanks to drafting help from TJ Bell and captured the lead heading into the final lap.

As the leaders headed into turn three on the last lap, a multi-car crash ensued on the backstretch, but NASCAR (web|news) did not display the caution flag. Busch pulled ahead of Braun in turn three, but Bodine got the needed help from Hornaday to get around Busch for the win.

Busch finished third.

"Bodine's truck was just real strong," Busch said. "He got into us coming off the corner and got me a little loose, but I got it back down to the bottom and shot up and around on the outside."

Braun and Mike Wallace rounded out the top-five.

The next race is scheduled for Saturday, October 18th, at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway.



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