Germain Racing's Todd Bodine battles through tough 2009 Truck season
Todd Bodine entered the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season having finished no worse than fourth in the standings in four full Truck campaigns, and the streak remains intact.
Buoyed by two wins and 11 top-fives, Bodine finished fourth in the standings – though a whopping 527 points behind champion Ron Hornaday and also well in arrears of second-place finisher Matt Crafton and third-place Mike Skinner.
Bodine opened the season with a win, a second-place finish and a third-place finish but had only enough sponsorship to run the first three races. Several rotating primary sponsors pitched in to allow the 2006 series champion to run the full schedule and remain in the hunt for the championship with his Germain Racing team.
“Copart and everybody, I really appreciate what they've done for us this year in getting us through the year with their sponsorship,” Bodine said. “It's typical Germain Racing - we just never give up. We started the season with a win at Daytona with no sponsor on the truck, and we made it through the season with the help of Copart, Ventrilo and Lumber Liquidators.
“It was a tough year, but we got through."
Bodine gave up a part-time Sprint Cup ride with Gunselman Motorsports midway through the season to focus solely on his Truck effort. The Chemung, N.Y., native had failed to qualify in six of nine Cup attempts.
“Tired of being embarrassed,” he said of why he abandoned the Cup effort. “ … You can’t go in there and just be a smart racer and be able to make the races. Now, if you don’t have five engineers working and your bump-stops and your springs [ready], you’re not going to go anywhere. And the day of a smart racer going in there and being able to compete is gone. And it was embarrassing to go there every week, run the way we did and not make the races, and I wasn’t going to do it anymore.”
Bodine was his usually stout self at the circuit’s larger, high-speed tracks, with wins at Daytona and Texas and top-fives at Auto Club Speedway, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicagoland, Talladega and Homestead.
Keeping a possible title run at bay were three DNFs, including two for accidents. Bodine started and finished the season with several strong runs but struggled throughout the middle part of the year.
Plans call for Bodine to return to Germain in 2010, and the team is searching for a full-time primary sponsor.
Driver: Todd Bodine
Age: 45
Team: Germain Racing
Finishing position: Fourth
2009 stats: Two wins, 11 top-fives, 12 top-10s, one pole, three DNFs
Years in Trucks: Five
Career stats: 2006 series champion, 17 wins, 65 top-fives, 86 top-10s, five poles
