Geoff Bodine

Geoff Bodine

Bodine in 2007
Born Geoffrey Eli Bodine
(1949-04-18) April 18, 1949
Chemung, New York, United States
Achievements 1986 Daytona 500 Winner
1987 IROC Champion
1994 The Winston Winner
1992 Busch Clash Winner
Awards 1982 Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year
Named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998)
Named one of NASCAR's Modified all-time Top 10 Drivers
Listed in the Guinness World Records for "Most wins in one season" (55 wins in modifieds
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
575 races run over 27 years
Best finish 3rd (1990)
First race 1979 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Last race 2011 Ford 400 (Homestead)
First win 1984 Sovran Bank 500 (Martinsville)
Last win 1996 The Bud at the Glen (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles
18 190 37
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
94 races run over 13 years
Best finish 19th (1982)
First race 1982 Goody's 300 (Daytona)
Last race 2005 Federated Auto Parts 300 (Nashville)
First win 1982 TranSouth 200 (Darlington)
Last win 1989 County Squire 200 (Darlington)
Wins Top tens Poles
6 39 13
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
22 races run over 5 years
Best finish 20th (1995)
First race 1995 Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic (Phoenix)
Last race 2010 E-Z-GO 200 (Atlanta)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 9 1
Statistics current as of December 20, 2012.
Bodine's Cup car in the 1983 Van Scoy Diamond Mine 500

Geoffrey Eli "Geoff" Bodine (born April 18, 1949) is an American motorsport driver and bobsled builder. He is the oldest of the three Bodine brothers (with Brett Bodine and Todd Bodine). Bodine currently lives in West Melbourne, Florida.

Bodine's racing career seemed to be on track right from the start as his father and grandfather, Eli Bodine Jr. and Sr. built Chemung Speedrome just a year after he was born. He began learning his racing skills at this track in the micro-midget division when he was only five years old. He had such an itch to race that he disguised himself as a lady and entered a Powderpuff Division Race when he was 15.[1] In 2011, he drove for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, alternating between the Nos. 35 and 36 teams, with sponsorship from Luke & Associates.

NASCAR Modified driver

Bodine was quite an accomplished driver before he hit the big-time in NASCAR's premier division, the Winston Cup series (now Sprint Cup series) with his first start in 1979. By this time, Bodine was well known as a Modified driver in the Northeast, racing against popular drivers like Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Jimmy Spencer, Ron Bouchard, and others. Bodine earned Modified championships at Stafford Speedway, Shangri-La Speedway, Spencer/Williamson Speedway, and Utica-Rome Speedway. He has won many of the big races in Modifieds including the Lancaster 200 (1978, 1981), Race of Champions (1972 - Trenton, 1978 - Pocono), the Stafford 200 (1978), the Trenton Dogleg 200 (1979), the Thompson 300, the Spring Sizzler (1980 - Stafford Speedway), Oswego Classic (1981), Cardinal Classic (1975 - Martinsville Speedway), Oxford 250 (1980, 1981), and other modified events.

In 1978, Bodine won more races than any other Modified driver in recorded history. Driving cars owned by Dick Armstrong with Billy Taylor and Ralph Hop Harrington as crew chief, Bodine started 84 feature events and won 55 of them. Among the most prestigious of these victories were the Race of Champions at Pocono, the Spring Sizzler at Stafford, the Budweiser 200 at Oswego, both major events at Martinsville, the Thompson 300, and a sweep of the six-race Yankee All-Star League series.[2] For these fifty-five victories, Bodine is credited in the Guinness Book of World Records with "Most wins in one season".

Bodine's racing background also included wins in the Late Model division, Nationwide Series division, and others. He has six Busch Grand National wins to his credit.

1985 Levi Garrett car

NASCAR Winston Cup career

Geoff is best known for his NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) career. His first full season in Winston Cup came in 1982 when he earned the Rookie of the Year title. He earned his first Winston Cup pole that year on his 19th start (1982 - Firecracker 400) and scored his first Winston Cup victory two years later on his 69th start at Martinsville in 1984 (This win was also the first win for Hendrick Motorsports, which was the team Bodine was racing for at the time). Geoff's biggest win came at the 1986 Daytona 500 season opener. NASCAR's most prestigious single event. Other career highlights include the 1987 International Race of Champions championship, the 1992 Busch Clash, the 1994 Winston Select (despite a first segment spinout), and the 1994 Busch Pole Award (now Budweiser Pole Award). Geoff's final win in NASCAR's highest division came in the "Bud At The Glen" in August 1996 when fortuitous pit stop timing led to Geoff taking the lead in his QVC Thunderbird while the other drivers pitted. Bodine managed to hold off the field the rest of the way beating Terry Labonte to the line by 0.44 seconds to claim the checkers.

Cup career highlights

Bodine in 1996.

Bodine has driven for some of the best car owners in NASCAR, including Junior Johnson, Bud Moore and Rick Hendrick as well as owning his own cars, which he ran for several seasons after buying the assets of Alan Kulwicki's race team after his death in 1993. He has 565 starts, 37 poles, 18 wins, and nearly $16 million in winnings during his Winston Cup/Nextel Cup career. He was honored as one of "NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers" during NASCAR's 50th anniversary celebration. Bodine has always been a great innovator and brought many ideas to Winston Cup. He introduced power steering and full-faced helmets to Winston Cup. He was also the last driver to win a race and lap the field, in the fall 1994 race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He holds the track record at Atlanta Motor Speedway from his polesitting run after the track was repaved in 1997, with a speed of over 197 mph.

Daytona crash

While participating the inaugural Daytona 250 Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway, on February 18, 2000, Bodine was involved in a vicious, fiery accident on the 57th lap of the race while driving the No. 15 Line-X-sponsored Ford F-150 for Billy Ballew. The crash started when rookie Kurt Busch made contact with Rob Morgan on the tri-oval front straightaway. Morgan to swerved into Bodine, sending his truck into the catch fencing at a speed of nearly 190 miles per hour (310 km/h).[3] The force of the impact tore the truck into pieces and ruptured the fuel cell, leaving only the roll cage. As the truck fell apart, it barrel-rolled down the frontstretch and got struck several more times by other trucks before coming to rest on its roof. 13 other trucks were involved, making it one of the largest wrecks in NASCAR Truck Series history. As a result of the collision, Bodine suffered fractures in his right wrist, right cheekbone, a vertebra in his back, and his right ankle as well as a suffered a concussion. Nine spectators were also injured in the crash.

Bodine missed more than half of the 2000 Winston Cup season while recovering from his injuries, starting only 14 of 34 races and finishing 45th in points without any poles, wins, or Top 10 finishes. In a feat of great accomplishment, he returned in the 2002 Daytona 500 to finish third behind race winner Ward Burton and second-placer finisher Elliott Sadler. However, including that race, Bodine only managed to make 18 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series between 2001 and 2004, with only one Top 5 and two Top 10's both in 2002. He attempted to qualify for the 2004 Brickyard 400 driving for Gary Trout Autosports, but was unable to and made no more attempts at any other races that year.

New team

Geoff, brother Todd, and Larry Gunselman started a race team in 2009. Geoff attempted to qualify the No. 64 Toyota for the 2009 Daytona 500. In 2010, Geoff returned to the Camping World Truck Series for the first time since 2004 with Team Gill Racing at Atlanta. He finished 26th with engine problems despite qualifying an impressive 8th.

Retirement

In October 2012, Bodine announced through TheRacingExperts.Com that he was retiring from NASCAR after 27 seasons. Bodine said he wanted to spend time with his family and do charitable deeds.

In June 2012 he opened a Honda Power Sports dealership in West Melbourne, Florida, where he currently resides.[4]

As of August 2014, Bodine is a Driver Analyst for The Racing Experts, the website that announced his retirement in 2012.

Bo-Dyn bobsleds

Bodine's creativity and innovation are not just limited to NASCAR racing. Bodine is the co-owner of the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Company. His bobsled interest while watching the 1992 Winter Olympics when the U.S. Bobsled team was having a tough time during competition. Bodine learned that the sleds being used were all imported and not built domestically. He felt that he could help the team win with better technology derived from his race car experience, engineering background, as well as the abundant design and construction resources offered to him through his NASCAR connections. With his interest captured, Bodine took a few runs in a bobsled at Lake Placid to confirm his feelings and to learn more about the sleds.

Bo-Dyn Bobsleds (Bo for Bodine, "Dyn" for Chassis Dynamics) was created in 1992 by Bodine and his good friend and chassis builder, Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics. Bodine founded the USA Bobsled Project to help create a winning bobsled for the U.S. teams. The U.S. National Team first used their sleds in 1994. Ten years after Bo-Dyn's inception, the U.S. team won three medals in Bo-Dyn Bobsleds during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, American bobsledder Steven Holcomb piloted a Bo-Dyn Bobsled named "Night Train" to gold. Every January from 2006 to 2010 at the Lake Placid, New York track, a charity run is held with the US bobsled team and NASCAR drivers to raise money for the sled project. Participants have included Todd Bodine (one of Bodine's brothers) and Tony Stewart.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500
Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish
1979 Race Hill Farm Team Oldsmobile 16 29
1981 Bahari Racing Pontiac 14 22
1982 Buick 34 42
1983 Cliff Stewart Racing Pontiac 2 30
1984 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 9 8
1985 17 7
1986 2 1
1987 8 14
1988 15 14
1989 10 4
1990 Junior Johnson & Associates Ford 3 9
1991 19 32
1992 Bud Moore Engineering Ford 16 3
1993 6 3
1994 Geoff Bodine Racing Ford 39 11
1995 40 20
1996 38 34
1997 25 34
1998 Mattei Motorsports Ford 25 31
1999 Joe Bessey Motorsports Chevrolet 30 39
2000 DNQ
2002 Phoenix Racing Ford 35 3
2005 GIC-Mixon Motorsports Chevrolet DNQ
2009 Gunselman Motorsports Toyota DNQ

Busch Series

Camping World Truck Series

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

References

  1. Unofficial NASCAR Fan Guide
  2. Bourcier, Bones. "Back to his Roots", Stock Car Racing (ISSN 0734-7340), Volume 24 Number 1, January 1989.
  3. "Bodine, fans escape serious injury in fiery crash". ESPN. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  4. Price, Wayne T. (June 30, 2012). "NASCAR's Bodine slingshots into world of business". Florida Today. Melbourne, FL. Retrieved 2012-07-02.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Geoff Bodine.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Al Unser, Jr.
IROC Champion
IROC XI (1987)
Succeeded by
Al Unser, Jr.
Achievements
Preceded by
Bill Elliott
Daytona 500 Winner
1986
Succeeded by
Bill Elliott
Preceded by
Dale Earnhardt
Busch Clash Winner
1992
Succeeded by
Dale Earnhardt
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