Talladega, the Monza of NASCAR tracks, will be home to Truck racing October 31. The high-speed circuit is one of NASCAR’s most well-known venues, with 2.66 miles of banked asphalt separating start from finish.
The spotlight has panned onto a former Truck series champion for tomorrow’s event. Todd “The Onion” Bodine will be making his fourth Talladega start in the Truck series and looks to follow up on his 2007 and 2008 victories at the Alabama tri-oval. Bodine currently holds a four-race win streak at restrictor-plate tracks after claiming first at the two most-recent Daytona races (2008 and 2009) and managing a final-lap pass on Ron Hornaday Jr. at Talladega last year. Bodine will be behind the wheel of his Germain Racing TRD-058 Toyota Tundra, the same truck he drove to the podium during his streak.
The 2006 Truck series champion credits drafting experience to his high-speed success.
"Experience is everything at Talladega, especially in the draft," Bodine said. "Knowing what you want to do and how you can accomplish it. The draft is a tricky thing, and you can just as easily make a mistake as make the right move. Being smart is more important than luck, and so is understanding how to use the draft to your advantage instead of your disadvantage.
Talladega is a lot about using patience in the draft and understanding you're not going to pull out and pass, you have to use other trucks to make your passes."
There is little doubt that Bodine will bring his cojones tomorrow.
In other Talladega-related news, Mike and Chrissy Wallace will be the first father-daughter team to race against each other in NASCAR history. Aside from Bodine, Mike is the only driver in the upcoming race with more NASCAR experience at Talladega, where he will be making his 34th overall start and fourth in the Truck series.
After Talladega, just three races remain on the NASCAR Truck schedule: Texas (November 6), Phoenix (November 13), and Homestead (November 20).
Image courtesy of Getty Images and map courtesy of NASCAR.