* Todd Bodine's Texas victoryy elevates him into pretty fast company
 
NEWS AND NOTES
 
Todd Bodine's (No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota) June 9 victory at Texas
Motor Speedway put the series point leader in elite company. His Sam's Town
400 win was Bodine's 10th in 49 NASCAR Craftsman Truck races ranking the New
Yorker fourth all-time in fewest starts to reach double figures.
 
Mike Skinner (No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota) -- the competitor Bodine passed on
the final lap at Texas -- is quickest to win No. 10. Skinner won eight times
in a 20-race 1995 season and added his 10th victory in the next year's sixth
race.
 
Four competitors -- Skinner, Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation Chevrolet), Ted Musgrave (No. 9 Team ASE Toyota) and Bodine -- are
the only 10-time series winners to reach the mark in fewer than 50 races.
 
Bodine has won three of his last four starts at TMS and three times in 2006.
He now has won seven times on 1.5-mile tracks -- the layouts that comprise
more than one-third of the schedule. His next 1.5-mile start comes July 1 at
Kansas Speedway where Bodine is the defending winner of the O'Reilly 250.
 
Homecoming week for Kirkendall family ... Terry Cook's (No. 10 Ford Power
Stroke Diesel by International Ford) boasts a husband and wife team hailing
from Tecumseh, Mich., a community located just north of Detroit. Jeff
Kirkendall is the team's engineer while wife Teresa scores for Cook among
other duties. The pair's mutual love of racing resulted in marriage and
relocation to North Carolina. "Teresa has always supported my racing career
and luckily she too enjoys racing, said Kirkendall. "When I started college,
I had an eye toward business management and wanted to run my own mail-order
parts business and eventually sponsor my very own race car. However, the
business bored me and so I switched to mechanical engineering," Teresa said.
"I didn't have much interest in working for a race team while living in
Michigan. I enjoyed scoring for teams as often as I could because I love to
go to the race track. After moving to North Carolina and as they say, 'living
the dream,' I became very interested in the business aspects of racing. ppc
Racing is a very family-oriented company and I feel very much at home with
this team. They have given Jeff and me an opportunity that not many husbands
and wives have, to race together. "
 
ETC. ... David Starr (No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota) is set to make his
150th start at Michigan, the 10th driver to reach the number. ... Cook will
reach $3 million in series winning with a top-20 finish in the Con-way
Freight 200. ... Ted Musgrave (No. 9 Team ASE) can become the series' third
$4 million winner with a third-place finish. He would join Jack Sprague (No.
60 Con-way Freight Toyota) and Dennis Setzer (No. 85 E85 FlexFuel Chevrolet).
... Cook and Setzer are the only drivers to complete all 600 laps and 1,200
miles at Michigan. ... Sprague, still seeking win No. 1 for Wyler Racing's
Con-way team, recalls that Travis Kvapil's Line-X Toyota was the winner of
the 2004 race that was sponsored by -- Line-X. ... Twenty-three different
drivers have led a lap through the season's first nine races. ... Chad
McCumbee (No. 08 Death Toll The Movie Chevrolet) was the fourth different
Raybestos Rookie of the race with a ninth-place finish at TMS. It was
McCumbee's first top 10. ... Michel Jourdain Jr. (No. 50 Roush Racing Ford)
made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck debut with a solid, 13th-place effort on the
lead lap. Jourdain becomes the 17th member of this year's huge Raybestos
Rookie class. ... Reutimann, who finished sixth in Saturday's NASCAR Busch
Series Federated Auto Parts 300, will drive Michael Waltrip's entry at
Kentucky Speedway this week. ... Erin Crocker (No. 98 Cheerios/Betty Crocker
Dodge) will see double duty at Michigan. She'll compete in Friday's ARCA
RE/MAX event in which she finished seventh a year ago. ... Bill Lester (No.
22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota) is slated to make his second NASCAR NEXTEL Cup
Series start on Sunday.
 
ON THE RIGHT TRACK
 
Musgrave, Sprague solid on MIS-style tracks ... While neither driver has won
a series race at Michigan, there's no arguing with the record of Musgrave and
Sprague on 2-mile speedways. Combining their records at Michigan and sibling
California Speedway, the pair counts five wins, 13 top fives and 16 top-10
finishes. At Michigan, Musgrave twice has finished second (2003-04) while
last year's fourth place stands as the best by Sprague.
 
QUOTEBOOK
 
"My sponsor is based about 45 minutes from the track in Ann Arbor and they
are bringing a thousand or more employees to celebrate their sponsorship of
the No. 60 Toyota. I can't tell you how badly I want to bring home the
checkered flag for them as thanks for their support." -- Jack Sprague.
 
"Daytona is for the team, Texas is for our owner Mr. (Tom) Mitchell, Michigan
is for (crew chief) Cowboy. Cowboy has been working over time and then some
to keep our team up front. Michigan is Cowboy's home track and there is
nothing like a home track-win." -- Rick Crawford on hoping to reward crew
chief Kevin "Cowboy" Starland with a Michigan victory. Starland is from
Chesaning, Mich.
 
"I look forward to racing in Michigan every year because General Motors is
not too far away. It is always great to be able to meet the individuals that
support our team from the manufacturer's side and I look forward to bringing
our momentum off a good run in Texas." -- Dennis Setzer, No. 85 E85 Flex Fuel
Chevrolet, the defending winner of the Con-way Freight 200. Setzer's
sixth-place at Texas Motor Speedway is his best finish of 2006.
 
IN THE LOOP
 
Although winner Dennis Setzer posted the top Driver Rating of 129.8, three
competitors in last year's race finished high on the statistical charts.
Kevin Harvick was second at 122.7 while Mike Skinner scored a 122.4.
 
Setzer recorded only the fourth-fastest lap of the race at 180.550 mph. Rick
Crawford led all drivers at 181.202.
 
Where is the "passing zone" at Michigan International Speedway? Ask Setzer
and he'll probably say Turn 3. He executed more than one-third (22) of his 61
passes en route to Victory Lane.
 
FROM THE ARCHIVES
 
The 1999 inaugural running of the Con-way 200 saw family history made on the
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as a father and son led a series race for the
first time. Jay Sauter finished second while his father Jim Sauter came home
in 10th-place. The elder Sauter, at age 56, is the oldest driver to compete
in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck event at Michigan International Speedway.
 
FAST FACTS
 
What: Con-way Freight 200 (Race 10 of 25).
 
Where: Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Mich.
 
When: 3:15 p.m. ET, June 17.
 
Track layout: 2-mile paved oval.
Race length: 200 miles/100 laps.
 
Posted awards: $595,299
 
TV: SPEED Channel, 3 p.m. (ET),
Radio: MRN, XM Satellite.
 
2005 winner: Dennis Setzer
2005 polesitter: Kyle Busch
 
Top 10 drivers: 1.Todd Bodine 1,490. 2. Ted Musgrave 1,375. 3. David
Reutimann 1,354. 4. Johnny Benson 1,258. 5. Jack Sprague 1,203. 6. David
Starr 1,187. 7. Mike Bliss 1,187. 8. Dennis Setzer 1,175. 9. Rick Crawford
1,168. 10. Matt Crafton 1,155.
 
Pre-race schedule (all times local): Thursday --Practice 10:15 a.m. -- 11:25
a.m. Rookie Practice 1:10 p.m. -- 1:40 p.m. Final Practice 1:50 p.m. -- 3:00
p.m. Friday -- Qualifying 11:40 a.m. Trucks impounded after qualifying.
 
##MMR 2.61(beta). 


--- GTMail 1.26