|| *Comments on the 2011 Coca Cola 200 Presented by Hy-Vee:* View the most recent comment <#31> | Post a comment <#post> 1. 00andJoe posted: 07.16.2011 - 10:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #17 sponsor: Crescent Tools 2. potatosalad48 posted: 07.16.2011 - 11:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Matt Crafton did an excellent job at holding off Austin Dillon, throwing the block and taking his line away when Dillon clearly had the faster Truck. Just an excellent piece of driving. Also, Justin Marks took a hard hit into a concrete section of wall on the frontstretch which required a red flag. Marks had to be transported to a local hospital, but it was good to hear he was OK. 3. Cooper posted: 07.16.2011 - 11:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 32 Trucks? This is getting ridiculous. NASCAR has to find away to cut costs in these lower series. Embarrassing. 4. dUDE gUY posted: 07.16.2011 - 11:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Finally, I saw my favourite truck driver win! Crafton's pit crew pulled off an awesome pit stop on the last caution, putting him in prime position to take the lead. Then he flat out held off Austin Dillon for a good twenty or so laps, who clearly had a better truck. Awesome win for the 88 bunch. David Mayhew earns his first pole and gets his second top five of the year, both in a KHI truck. Joey Coulter gets his third 5th place finish in the last four races, finishing seventh in the other. He's got these trucks figured out, I'd say. Todd Bodine, who almost didn't start this race, led a few laps with strategy and finished the night with a top 10 finish. Not bad for a guy who wasn't gonna race. I love these truck races at iowa. Great racing all around, from green to checkers. 5. 00andJoe posted: 07.16.2011 - 11:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Agreed - this was an excellent race. Aside from the car count... It's odd - it used to be teams would roll their backup trucks/cars off the hauler to fill short fields. Why don't they anymore? And too bad NBR couldn't have put, say, Johanna Long in the #75 instead of Greg Seevers (who?). 6. Dodge posted: 07.16.2011 - 11:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It definately is a sad day when there is only 32 trucks for a 36 truck field. The 20 and 30 both skipped due to lack of funds. The 99 appears to maybe close up. The Siegs were supposed to run 3 trucks, with the 38 withdrawing the day before practice. I know a few years ago NASCAR lowered purses for the Nationwide and Truck series and it appears that it is really hurting the Truck teams a lot now. 7. Anonymous posted: 07.16.2011 - 11:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wooo Crafton! 8. Nick posted: 07.17.2011 - 12:15 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Have to agree with the people who say this track deserves a cup race way before Kentucky. This truck race provided better/more racing than all 3 races at Kentucky last week. The guys can race side by side here, although in essence it is just a slightly bigger Richmond with variable banking but also puts on a similar show. Great track, great race. The truck regulars got their stuff together this week after an embarrassment last week. 9. AlmirolaFan88 posted: 07.17.2011 - 12:34 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Coca-Cola has been sponsoring races like crazy this year. They've also picked up the Talladega Truck Race. David Mayhew would be great in the #33 if Hornaday chooses to retire at the end of this season. He reminds me alot of David Reutimann, a late bloomer. Matt Crafton got in the way of a Dillon brothers sweep for the day. 10. 18fan posted: 07.17.2011 - 1:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first time I think I ever rooted for Crafton to win a race. This to me showed that Dillon's numbers are more a product of his equipment than his talent. I'm not saying that he is bad, but he needs more time in the feeder series. 11. Mamorese posted: 07.17.2011 - 1:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) So I take it you guys would rather have a full field with 8 cars parking. That makes a whole lot of sense. From what I see here the only thing different is that we didn't have an extra 4 trucks parking, which is fine by me 12. 18fan posted: 07.17.2011 - 1:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) There was a red flag when Justin Marks went head on into the pit wall and seriously damaged the section of the wall he hit. Marks appeared to have the wind knocked out of him and went to a local hospital for precautionary reasons. 13. RaceFanX posted: 07.17.2011 - 2:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was shaping up to be a fuel milage race until Ricky Carmichael's crash set up a different ending. Carmichael's truck had been damaged earlier in the event and repaired, it didn't seem off the pace before he blew a tire and crashed into the outside wall. 14. TLarson83 posted: 07.17.2011 - 3:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Crafton vs. Dillon battle at the end was awesome. These races are so much more fun to watch when the well-funded Cup guys aren't stinkin up the show 15. TLarson83 posted: 07.17.2011 - 3:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Like I'm supposed to be impressed that some dude from the Cup series whoops up on Truck Series regulars... pretty sure Albert Pujols doesn't go and play in AA baseball to hit a few homers when he's feeling down 16. Anonymous posted: 07.17.2011 - 4:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Norm Benning enters two trucks for the first time. He used to do this during his ARCA tenure with the same driver, but when you only have 32 trucks showing up, why not. 17. 00andJoe posted: 07.17.2011 - 5:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ah, so it's "ol' buddy ol' pal o' mine". Fair enough. But that still left four spots where people could have cashed easy checks with their backup trucks. (Look at some of the old Pikes Peak Busch races for examples of this - or the first Las Vegas BGN race). It's bizzare nobody does that anymore. 18. Anonymous posted: 07.17.2011 - 10:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) this was a GREAT race. wouldn't it be nice if every truck race had no cup drivers like this? if someone like busch or harvick was in this race, they would have likely led almost every lap and won and it would have been 'boring'. and to the people that are complaining about only 32 trucks. you guys would complain either way. when there's 36 trucks and a bunch of them park, you cry. when there's 32 since some parkers didn't show up, you still cry. who cares 19. 00andJoe posted: 07.17.2011 - 1:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mamorese: Yes. Yes, I would rather have that. I've posted in defense of S&P in some of the Cup pages. Why would a team -not- want to cash an additional ~$7,000 paycheck for essentially the cost of two sets of Goodyear tires? #18: As noted above, I have -no problem - with S&Pers. They're doing what they have to do (and, in this race, presumably that $7,000 check Seevers received allowed the 57 to actually run the entire race). 20. cjs3872 posted: 07.17.2011 - 1:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Potatosalad48, where did you see any footage that had Matt Crafton actually blocking Austin Dillon, because he did no such thing. He drove hard, something he usually isn't accused of doing, and did a great job to hold him off for the win, which was the most overdue in any of the three major NASCAR series in years. Dillon had everyone outclassed by a mile, but I disagree with those that say Dillon was the reason the #3 truck didn't win. In fact, he was the only reason it had a chance to win. The reason it didn't was a botched pit stop under the final caution period. Both Dillon and Crafton made four-tire pit stops, something Dillon wasn't aware of until after the fact, which he admitted in his post-race interview, and Crafton came out four spots ahead of Dillon. Crafton pushed Todd Bodine on the final restart, then went by him on the first lap after the restart, while Dillon had to go through traffic. But at a multi-groove track like Iowa Speedway, Crafton used the higher groove to hold him off. 21. chris posted: 07.17.2011 - 7:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) now that's the way a truck race should be, with no cup invaders, it was a great race, 22. Electric Flash Yo posted: 07.18.2011 - 7:29 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) MATT CRAFTON ACTUALLY WON A RACE :O 23. 1995z71 posted: 07.18.2011 - 12:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The best race of the weekend.. mostly b/c no cup drivers were in the race, FINALLY. great race! 24. Talon64 posted: 07.18.2011 - 4:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dillon's crew really screwed him on the last pit stops so he had to restart 8th. But I have to say the way he charged his way up to 3rd within a lap or two of the restart was Kyle-Busch-esque, except he couldn't close the deal on the win because it took him too long to get by the 2nd place truck (Mayhew?) and Crafton's truck got better on the long run. That was also the first time all race that Crafton had clean air. Matt Crafton gets just his 2nd career Truck Series win in 258 starts; it took him 178 starts to get his first win and 80 races to get his second, so at that pace it should take him about 40 races to get his 3rd win. It's the first time that Thorsport has ever had two teams win in the same season. Austin Dillon gets his best finish of the season in 2nd; he's led 314 of the last 400 laps run at Iowa with a win and a 2nd to show for it. It's his 10th top 5 in 38 career Truck races. David Mayhew picked up his first career Truck Series pole in his 6th series start; Mayhew finished 3rd for a 2nd straight start, both in the #2 KHI truck. After back-to-back races finishing outside of the top 20, Johnny Sauter picked up his 4th top 5 of the season; him and James Buescher are the only 2 drivers with average finishes better than 10th so far in 2011. Joey Coulter was the highest finishing rookie in the race, getting his 4th straight top 10 finish which includes 3 finishes of 5th. He's now 2nd in the ROTY standings, 13 points back of... ROTY points leader Cole Whitt, who finished 6th for his first top 10 in 4 races. Parker Kligerman is now 3rd in ROTY points, 19 points back. James Buescher picked up his series-leading 9th top 10 of the season (in 10 starts) and 7th straight. Nelson Piquet Jr. made it 3 rookies in the top 10, picking up just his 3rd of the season. He's averaged a driver rating of 95.6 in the last 7 races but has just 1 top 5 and the 6th most points scored to show for it. David Starr has back-to-back top 10's for the first time this season. In his first race in the #5 Randy Moss Motorsports truck, Todd Bodine equals the team's best finish of the season (with Travis Kvapil behind the wheel) in 10th and giving the team their first laps led of 2011. 25. Anonymous posted: 07.18.2011 - 5:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Greg Seevers almost 40mph off the pace in qualifying on a short track. What did the NASCAR officials do, let him qualify the pace car? 26. Daniel posted: 07.18.2011 - 6:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Very good race, but really disappointing to see how the economy is hurting this series. Winfield Motorsports and Brent Raymer's team shut down after the first two races. Then Randy Moss Motorsports went down to one truck. Germain Racing has went from 4 to 2 trucks. It looks like Chase Mattioli's team has shut down. I think Johanna Long is turning to a partial schedule. Neither of the Sieg trucks are entered right now at Nashville and it seems like the Stacy Compton's #66 will shut down if they don't get any sponsors after this week, GoPro is in their final race. 27. potatosalad48 posted: 07.19.2011 - 11:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @ post 20: Crafton blocked Dillon twice, once into turn 2 when he took the 3's line away and again into 1 where he retook the lead completely 28. Talon64 posted: 07.20.2011 - 3:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The lap traffic didn't help. And ESPECIALLY since one of the trucks that got in the way was none other than Crafton's Thorsport teammate Dakoda Armstrong. Dakoda also got in the way when Coulter was trying to get by Johnny Sauter late in the race. I think it was just dumb luck that it was Dakoda who got in the way, but it certainly didn't look good. 29. cjs3872 posted: 07.22.2011 - 8:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) To me, potatosalad48, that isn't blocking, but rather good, hard racing. You can't block in the turns anyway on a track like Iowa. Sometimes the vehicle's handling may be why do run a cartain way. Now blocking to me would be if Dillon tried a move on the straightaway and Crafton chopped him off. That, to me IS blocking, but what you are describing is, in no way blocking. It's just good, hard racing. None of this would have happened if Dillon's pit stop wasn't botched anyway, because Dillon would have run away, as he did the entire race leading up to the last pit stop. In fact, what you described Crafton doing to Dillon entering turn one when he got the lead is EXACTLY what Gordon Johncock did to Rick Mears on the final lap of the 1982 Indianapolis 500, when Mears had a much faster car, closing in from 11 seconds behind in 10 laps, and getting alongside him at the start of the final lap before Johncock retook the lead in turn one. And yet, not one person has ever called that blocking, and next year's Indianapolis 500 will mark the 30th aniversary of that race. (Hard to believe, isn't it?) You're probably upset because Dillon didn't win the race. But face the facts. Crafton just did a better job, and that's why he, and not Dillon, who had a much faster truck, won the race. 30. Nascar Lead Lap Points posted: 04.25.2014 - 1:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew 20 Johanna Long Panhandle Grading & Paving Donald Long 11 Toyota 38 Mike Garvey S&W Services Pam Sieg 11 Chevrolet 31. Nascar Lead Lap Points posted: 05.25.2016 - 12:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Owner Update #5 Germain Racing (Same for all the races Todd ran in the #5) Crew Chief of the #5 was Mike Hillman, Jr. UPDATE 2: SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody has learned that Randy Moss Motorsports and Germain Racing will join forces to put reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Todd Bodine in the #5 Toyota Tundra for the remainder of the 2011 season. Germain Racing owner Bob Germain confirmed the move today, saying, "We began talking with (RMM co-owner) David Dollar last weekend, and met this week about the possibility of combining their #5 and our #30 trucks for an unknown period of time; possibly the rest of the season. We compared sponsor commitments, and with 15 races left in the season, that's about what we had in combined sponsorship. It made sense to talk, and while the deal is not completely done, we knew we had to make a decision on Iowa right away. We've told Todd that he will go to Iowa this weekend and drive the #5 Toyota with Mike Hillman, Jr. as crew chief and our pit crew. The move will leave former series champion Travis Kvapil without a ride, after he replaced Mike Skinner as driver of the #5 during the offseason. Kvapil currently stands 18th in Truck Series points, with a pair of tenth-place finishes the highlight of his year. It's been a surprise to all of us that (Randy Moss Motorsports) hasn't been more competitive this season," said Germain. "The upside for them is better performance for the #5 truck and their sponsors." He said it was "fair to assume" that Bodine will pilot trucks from the Germain Racing stable for the remainder of the season, re-numbered with RMM's #5 and prepared and crewed by Germain. "I think we're a little bit ahead of them on the superspeedways and 1.5-mile tracks," he said, "so we will probably end up using our trucks.(Siriur Speedway PR)(7-13-2011) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: