The 2006 Ford 200 Truck Race

Mark ended the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck season the way he started it – Mark wins truck race at Homestead

with a victory in Friday night’s Ford 200 at Homestead Miami Speedway.

And Todd Bodine, despite finishing a lap off the pace in 21st-place, wrapped up the series championship, the first NASCAR national touring series title for the Bodine family.

Mark, who began the year in Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway, broke out of a dramatic, late-race duel with Brendan Gaughan’s South Point Resort Dodge to win for a series-high sixth time. He raced side-by-side with Gaughan for two consecutive laps around the 1.5-mile speedway before pulling away to win by 2.613 seconds.

In doing so, Mark became the track’s 11th consecutive different series winner to match New Hampshire International Speedway’s record set in September.

Mark’s share of a $632,301 purse was $55,550. He led a race high 57 laps after starting his Scotts Ford from the No. 6 position, holding the point on five different occasions.

The winning pass came on the 113th of 134 laps. "We've been on a roll all year with that thing," he said. "It's just pretty special. It's great people and great equipment and it's been a lot of fun."

Gaughan turned in his best finish of the season – and tops since his last victory at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003. It also ranked as Dodge’s high point of the campaign.

“To battle with Mark and Roush Racing you know that your race team can say its ready to compete again,” said the Las Vegas native.

Raybestos Rookie of the Year Erik Darnell – Roush’s fifth freshman to claim the award – finished third in the Woolrich Ford followed by Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Jack Sprague. The finish was the first in the top five by Hamilton, who took over his father’s Fastenal Dodge when Bobby Sr. was forced to undergo cancer therapy in late March.

Joe Nemechek, David Starr, David Reutimann, Dennis Setzer and Terry Cook filled out the second five finishing positions as 19th of 31 drivers running at the checkered flag completed all 134 laps.

The lead changed hands 14 times among eight drivers, the most lead changes in a series race at the track since 2001.

There were five caution periods consuming 17 laps as Mark averaged 126.019 for the 201-mile distance. The final yellow, on lap 96, saw Johnny Benson’s long shot chance of winning the title end when his Exide Batteries Toyota was hit by a spinning Chase Miller.

“It was such a small, outside chance (anyway),” said Benson of his hope of overcoming a deficit of 112 points. He said of the accident, “It didn’t matter anyway; the points would have been the same.” Bodine's final victory margin of 127 points is third largest in the 12 years of the series.