MANSFIELD, Ohio — Rookie driver Donny Lia battled his way through the field, taking the lead on the final lap to win Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Park.
Lia, NASCAR’s 2007 Whelen Modified Tour champion, nudged David Starr as he attempted to pass for the lead exiting the second turn on the 250th tour of the half-mile oval.
Lia, Starr and 2006 series champion Todd Bodine ran side by side down the backstretch before Lia pulled his Chevrolet ahead to score his first-career victory in the 27-year-old Long Island, N.Y., competitor’s eighth series start.
He edged Starr, whose Toyota had held the lead since the 80th lap, by .241 second and became the first rookie driver to win on the circuit since August 2003 when now NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor Carl Edwards won in Nashville.
“You know, I got into (David) Starr right there a little bit and hey, that’s last lap racing and I’m sure he owes me one now, but that’s cool,” said Lia. “You know, if it’s the last lap and I’m in his position, then I’m going to anticipate him hitting me anyway, whether I did it today or not. That’s just short-track racing and you know, I just can’t believe we are here right now, it’s just really unbelievable.”
Starr agreed.
“It was just good short-track racing,” said Starr, who was bidding to break a 52-race non-winning streak dating to 2006. “I guess I left a hole open and he got into me in the left rear. We just drove into turn three on a prayer. He (Lia) had the preferred line.”
Lia, who averaged 62.517 miles per hour for the 250-lap, 125-mile distance, became the 10th driver — and first since 2006 — to lead only the final lap of the race. Seven drivers exchanged the lead six times as 15 caution periods consumed 80 laps.
Lia won $45,500 from $513,636 in posted awards.
“I used everything I had there at the end and I couldn’t have driven it any harder,” said Lia, who started 28th, the furthest back of any Mansfield winner. “We just got them on the restarts and got them where we had to get them. We just did everything right today, my crew (and) everybody.”
Starr, Bodine, Terry Cook and Mike Skinner rounded out the top five.
All but one driver in the 36-truck field finished the race — 29 of them on the lead lap.
Bodine assumed the championship lead by eight points over Rick Crawford as previous leader Ron Hornaday, Jr. was involved in a lap-47 accident and spent most of the race behind pit wall as his crew repaired the defending series champion’s Chevrolet. Hornaday was credited with a 35th-place finish, 105 laps behind the winner.
Pole-starter Benson headed the race’s first 45 laps before being passed by Hornaday, whose advantage lasted less than two circuits before his turn-four accident. Skinner, Howard and Dennis Setzer led over the next 33 laps before Starr, who’d pitted for fuel early, cycled back to the front and remained there through multiple restarts.
Bodine made several attempts to pass Starr on late race restarts, but was unable to make the challenges stick. Lia, who ran as far back as 23rd, fought his way into the top five on lap 196, took third on lap 210 and dispatched Bodine’s Toyota at lap 228.
The event’s final caution, for Brendan Gaughan’s spin in turn two, proved to be pivotal as it erased Starr’s five truck-length lead thus setting up the final-lap dramatics.