Joey Coulter, Chad Hackenbract win uneventful Truck Series and ARCA sprints at Pocono; Todd Bodine’s controversial interview

I don’t have a lot to say on today’s track action at Pocono International Raceway, so I’ll keep my thoughts brief in lieu of more thorough Nationwide Series recap.
Pocono delivered three pleasant surprises on Saturday with Juan Pablo Montoya winning the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race, and two first-time winners in the Camping World Truck Series and ARCA Racing Series respectively.
Saturday’s races were short on action and decided by fuel mileage and track position, apparently the new norm in stock car auto racing.
Camping World Truck Series
Joey Coulter became the latest first-time winner in NASCAR, winning the Pocono Mountains 125 on Saturday afternoon. He first took the lead on a restart with seven laps to go and never looked back. Prior to that restart, Coulter had been a mid-level race contender, proving just how important restarts are to success in NASCAR.

The reverse is certainly true for Nelson Piquet Jr., who clearly had the most dominant truck of the afternoon. The former F1 star led a race-high 33 laps but could not get started on the final two restarts. It indirectly led to a confrontation with Todd Bodine (see below) and his losing track position respectively.

The most compelling story to come out of this race was the contact between Piquet and Bodine on lap 33, with the latter suffering terminal damages. But it was Bodine’s post-crash interview that will have people talking in the morning.
Bodine called Piquet “an idiot”, claiming that it was too early to be racing that hard, and that he couldn’t trust racing alongside Piquet.
The interview is best-described as pure comedic gold. First of all, the accident occurred with 17 laps remaining, go-time as drivers call it, with the replays clearly indicating that Bodine initiated the contact.
While drivers should always be afforded some freedom of speech in the heat of moment, it was hard to sympathize with Bodine, especially considering he had just watched the replay. Bodine did not do himself many favors with his rant or his post-incident temper-tantrum, that included a failed attempt at launching his helmet at Piquet’s No. 30 as it circled under caution.
For Piquet, the incident clearly broke his concentration and momentum, as the emotional Brazilian fell back to sixth on the restart before recovering to finish fifth. Piquet will look back at Saturday as yet another missed opportunity to get his long-awaited first Truck Series victory. It’s just a matter of when.

Timothy Peters now leads Ty Dillon by eight points in the championship and James Buescher by 15.
A complete full-field rundown, championship standings and a brief ARCA recap can be found after the jump.

Buescher takes the lead, Bodine in big wreck (via TheOfficialNASCAR)

Final Laps: Coulter scores first NASCAR win (via TheOfficialNASCAR)

ARCA Racing Series
Very similar to the Truck Series race, one driver (Brennan Poole) sat on the pole and acquired a commanding lead. Just like Nelson Piquet Jr. before him, circumstance stole a win from ARCA’s most dominant Pocono contender.
This time it was fuel strategy that cost the dominant car, as Chad Chad Hackenbracht (Or Hacken-Something) pitted early, made his fuel last during a long green flag run, and ultimately won his first career ARCA Series race.
Hackenbract didn’t lead until lap 38, the moment that Poole made his only pit stop of the afternoon. Hackenbract came out roughly six seconds ahead of Poole and made the tires and track position last.

The strategy first came into play on lap seven, when Hackenbract was the only car to pit. Lap six was the earliest teams could pit for a 50-lap race. Team 58 took the bait and was rewarded with a long green flag run and the checkered flag.
Well done crew chief Kevin Reid.