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Camping World Trucks - Bodine Chicagoland Preview


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ONE FOR THE MAKING: The two-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Todd Bodine has many emotions about this weekend's race at Chicagoland Speedway. Bodine will make his 200th Truck Series start at the 1.5-mile speedway for the American Ethanol 225 on Saturday evening, one that makes him feel very fortunate. The Onion has three starts and three collective poles in each of NASCAR's three premier series at the speedway. Bodine captured the Sprint Cup Series pole in 2001, followed by a Nationwide pole in 2002 and his Truck Series pole in 2010 during his championship season. The veteran driver has two top-five and two top-10 finishes with 70 laps led in the Truck Series at the D-shaped oval. With an average start of 4.0 and an average finish of 5.7, look for Bodine to come away with his second win of the season.

MILESTONE MAN: The name Bodine is one that is known in most NASCAR households and that's by no mistake. This weekend, Todd Bodine will add to his list of milestones with his 200th Truck Series start. The New York native will move up to the ninth spot in the rankings with 204 starts, after the August 31st race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This weekend's start will mark the veteran's 766th NASCAR sanctioned start, including 241 Sprint Cup series starts, 325 Nationwide series starts and 200 Truck series starts. Bodine is ranked 20th in combined series starts, with Richard Petty topping the list at 1185 starts. Bodine is the only driver in NASCAR's three premier series to have earned over 200 starts in each series.

TRUCK SERIES STATISTICS: Bodine is currently ranked 10th on the list for career starts in the Truck Series, with Rick Crawford at the top of the charts with 334 starts and our own RHR Competition Director, Terry Cook, having 314 starts. He is also ranked fifth on the all-time race winners for the Truck Series with 22 wins. Bodine is also credited with 90 career top-five finishes which ties him for third in the record books. From 2004-2010 Bodine captured two or more wins in each of his eight full-time seasons, which ranks him second on the list of consecutive years with a race win.

YOUR CHANCE TO MEET THE ONION: Bodine will start his race weekend a little different this weekend at Chicagoland. As a huge baseball fan, Bodine plans to attend the Chicago Cubs game on Thursday afternoon as a special guest. Bodine will then join the season ticket holders of Chicagoland Speedway for a 'Trackside Party' that includes a question and answer session and autograph session. On Sunday, Bodine will attend 'Jamboree in the Hills' Powered by Toyota in Morristown, Ohio for a Country Music festival from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Team Onion t-shirts will be on sale during the concert.

CHASSIS HISTORY: Todd Bodine and his No. 11 Toyota Tundra team will utilize the newly rebuilt Chassis No. 085 this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Bodine brought his No. 11 Toyota Care Tundra to Iowa Speedway for the American Ethanol 200 looking for redemption. The two-time Truck Series champion battled with handling issues during the 200-lap event but was able to capitalize a 12th-place finish, moving him up one position in the driver's points standings, just two points out of 10th.

FOLLOW THE ONION: Fans can catch the latest news and whereabouts on Bodine on Twitter @Team_Onion and online at www.teamonion.com.

Todd Bodine talks about his career milestone this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway:

What does it mean to you, to have reached such a prestigious milestone?

"It's pretty neat. When I started in this sport as a driver, you never thought about getting to this point. You only thought about the next race -- the future wasn't something you thought about. Here I am after 21 years driving. My first full season in Nationwide was in '91. To make it to this point, we all strive for excellence in whatever sport we're in. To have longevity and to make a career out of it, and to get to this point, it's a pretty special thing to know I've been able to accomplish that much. I've had a lot of success and have met a lot of great people and have a lot of great friends because of it. It's not often in this world that one gets to do for a living the thing that they love the most. I'm very fortunate in a lot of respects. I'm glad to be able to be a part of this sport."