NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

• Germain Racing driver Todd Bodine (fourth) was the highest finishing Toyota driver in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Gateway International Speedway near St. Louis.


• The NCWTS race was scheduled to run on Friday night, but a power failure at the race track forced the race to be postponed to Saturday afternoon as the heat index climbed to over 100 degrees at race time.


• Timothy Peters (sixth), Aric Almirola (eighth), Brian Ickler (ninth) and Mike Skinner (10th) scored top-10 finishes for Toyota in today’s race.


• Almirola led once for 16 (of 160) laps at the 1.25-mile Illinois oval.


• Tundra drivers David Starr (13th), Max Papis (15th), Brad Sweet (16th), Steve Wallace (17th) and Justin Lofton (27th) were also in the field.


• Bodine continues to lead in the unofficial NCWTS point standings, and is currently 101 points ahead of second-place Almirola. Peters (fourth), Skinner (fifth) and Starr (ninth) are also in the top-10 in points after 11 of 25 races.

TODD BODINE, No. 30 Germain.com Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How hot was today’s race?
“That truck we ran at Texas and won with that truck at Texas.  I burned my rear end then and that was a night race and it wasn’t near this hot.  We did some work to it and put some stuff on the seat and it worked on it a little more after practice and thought we had it.  Man, I burned my butt bad today and my back even got burnt so that's why I laid down in here (media center) on the cold floor.”

How was your race despite the heat?
“We missed it a little bit.  Our Germain Tundra was okay.  At the beginning it wasn’t good, Junior (Mike Hillman Jr., crew chief) as usual, made great calls and got the truck to where I could race those guys at the end.  That was the difference.  We got a little track position, great pit stops again -- I have the best crew on pit road for sure.  It’s a shame that we can’t get a full time sponsor.  We’re leading the points, top-fives when we don’t crash when I don’t lose my head like last week.  We need that sponsorship to get this team to the next level, to get up there and compete with Kevin (Harvick, race winner).  Congratulations to him, Ernie Cope (Harvick crew chief) is awesome and Kevin’s a heck of a driver.  We had a good day, our Tundra was okay.”

TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How did your truck handle in today’s race?
“We were good all day. We got a vibration about middle way through the race. It never got worse, but it never got better. Jeff Hensley (crew chief) and everybody on this Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra did a great job on pit road. Feels good when you come to the track and you run as good as we did today. Like to have got a win today, but we’ll take it. We gained some points that we needed to and we’ll go on to Indy Friday.”

How warm was it in your truck today?
“It was pretty warm, but my guys hooked me up with a lot of fans. I tried my best to hydrate the best I could. It doesn’t look like it now, but I’m ready to get a cold shower and get on the airplane.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 51 Zyclara/Graceway Pharmaceuticals Toyota Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports
Finishing Position: 8th
How was your truck in today’s race?
“It wasn’t very good really. We struggled all day. We made some adjustments there after practice that we felt like were going to make us better for the race. Maybe if the race was last night, maybe it would have been a different ball game. We just weren’t very good today. We missed it real bad. Our truck didn’t handle very good at all. I’m surprised that we got out of here with an eighth place finish. We fought really hard for that. It’s a well deserved eighth place finish, but a very disappointing eighth place finish.”

BRIAN ICKLER, No. 18 Viasystems Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 9th
What happened between you and Todd Bodine early in the race?
“I got up into Todd (Bodine) again, probably my fault. I pinched him up in the wall and his splitter cut my right rear tire down so we went a lap down under green and had to pit under green. Just kind of fought back all day.”

How was your truck in today’s race?
“Felt like we had a good truck. Once I got up there in the top-10, my stuff was pretty burnt up. I think if we could have stayed up there, we might have been all right. I was having a little bit of a hard time restarting on the inside. Guys were getting big runs on the outside. It didn’t really seem like the inside was going up off of two. I think we had a good communication day. We kept making the truck better for sure. We just needed a little more time to finish up there.”

MIKE SKINNER, No. 5 Exide Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 10th
How did the race track compare to practice yesterday?
“The track just had less grip than it did yesterday and not really a whole lot of that. We just kind of missed it -- this whole package lately, we just haven’t ran very well. The truck was again extremely tight in the gas all day and aero-sensitive. I got into Ricky Carmichael there and popped a little hole in the nose and they never saw it all day. That’s probably why we were so tight.”

DAVID STARR, No. 81 Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 13th

MAX PAPIS, No. 9 GEICO Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 15th

BRAD SWEET, No. 90 Great Clips Toyota Tundra, Turner Motorsports
Finishing Position: 16th

STEVE WALLACE, No. 15 Toyota Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports
Finishing Position: 17th

JUSTIN LOFTON, No. 7 VisitPit.com Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
What happened that took you out of the race?
“We’re not 100 percent sure. We got some oil leaking underneath out of the oil pan, we still had good oil pressure. Just another disappointing day for the No. 7 Visitpit.com Toyota Tundra. We can’t catch a break. We had a good run going last week and we were going to have another good run this week. Just feel bad for all the guys. They work so hard. It’s unfortunate when it’s mechanical failure like this. Just have to go on to next week. We’re going to rebuild and just keep digging and go get us a finish.”

How hot was it in the truck today?
“Probably the hottest I’ve ever been in a truck. The air that all your stuff is bringing in is hot and it’s miserable. It’s a grueling day and I feel sorry for the guys that are going to run two races tonight.”