Peters edges Todd Bodine to win Saturday’s truck race at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Timothy Peters avoided a rash of wrecks and won the season-opening truck series race at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.

Peters passed two-time defending race winner Todd Bodine on the final lap, then edged Bodine at the line for his second career victory. Dennis Setzer finished third, followed by Jason White and Matt Crafton.

“I can’t believe it,” Peters said. “This thing drove like a Lexus.”

Bodine lost control of his truck after crossing the finish line and spun into the muddy infield.

Peters, Bodine and just a handful of others avoided two big accidents that took out nearly half the 36-truck field for the rain-delayed race.

“I dodged a lot of bullets,” Bodine said. “It was a race of survival.”

Defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr., Kyle Busch and Elliott Sadler were involved in accidents that caused a third of the 100-lap event to be run under caution.

Bodine knew he was in trouble when he saw Peters and White make a move on the outside. Bodine swerved in front of them, but Peters cut to the inside and drove by. Bodine nearly lost control, scraped the wall between turns two and three and almost got back to the front.

But he lost too much momentum to catch Peters, whose first series win came at Martinsville in October.

It was fairly fitting that Bodine and others wrecked just after the finish line. After all, the race was somewhat of a crash-fest.

For the second time in as many races Saturday, the field didn’t complete a lap without trouble. Rookie Austin Dillon, driving the black No. 3 that Dale Earnhardt made famous, started wiggling as he drove in the third turn and wrecked into Johnny Sauter.

The collision triggered a nine-truck wreck that included Busch, Setzer and Ted Musgrave. In the Nationwide race earlier in the day, Chrissy Wallace crashed on the opening lap.