Todd Bodine confident he can win second Truck series title

By Rea White - Associate Editor

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Todd Bodine won three races and finished third in the final 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings in 2008.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- StumbleUpon
15 Comments

Todd Bodine is happy to have won the recent Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, but he’s already taking aim at a bigger goal: the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship.

Bodine won the fourth annual bobsled challenge, an event created by his brother, Geoff, to raise money for the U.S. Olympic team. Although he has competed in all four of the bobsledding challenges, he still seems to be excited about having the chance to get on the course each time - and to raise funds to help the bobsled team.

"The main thing is, it's a great cause," Todd Bodine said. "That's why we all go there. We do have fun for sure, but we understand what we're there for, to raise funds for the project and to help our athletes. We do have fun at the same time."

In the finals, Bodine actually got to pilot one of the official Bo-Dyn sleds used by the teams in competition. He says those were even faster and more fun to use than the sleds normally used. And while the competitors from NASCAR and the National Hot Rod Association did have a brakeman in the sled with them, they were the ones who did all the driving.

"We have to drive them," he said. "Contrary to what it looks like on TV, you do have to drive them. They don't just go down the track. You do have to steer them and run the right line to go fast and not flip them and those kind of things. It's not nearly as easy as it looks on TV. It's a blast. It's an absolute blast."

But with the bobsled fun behind him, Bodine is now setting his sights No. 30 Germain Racing entry into the championship hunt in the Camping World Truck Series this season, though the team is currently seeking financial backing.

"We are looking for sponsorship. We have a couple of things working, but nothing's done," he said. "We need to get some sponsorship to be able to run the full schedule and keep that Germain 30 at the front of the pack. That's the plan. Hopefully, we can follow it through."

Bodine admits that the national economic downturn makes it more difficult to court sponsors these days. But he also believes conditions will eventually improve and that NASCAR will weather the storm. He just hopes that his team does so and finds itself in the heart of the championship battle once more.

Bodine, the 2006 Truck series champion, saw a lot of promise in his team last season as he won three races and finished third in the standings. He closed the year with seven consecutive top-10 finishes and nine top-10s in the final 11 races of the year.

"At the end of the year we gained about 200 points on [runnerup] Ron [Hornaday] and [champion] Johnny [Benson]; we just ran out of time," he said. "We ran really strong. We actually did some testing in December, learned some things that are going to help us even more, [so we can] come out of the box strong and be a championship contender again. This will be our [sixth] season, and we've been in the championship hunt every year, and we're going to come out shooting again for the championship."

Bodine says his team is intact, from crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. through his crew that travels to the track each week. In a season when there is so much flux and uncertainty in the series, that could give Bodine an edge if his team can land the needed sponsorship.

"Same people, same pit crew, that's the great thing about our race team is every year we've gotten better," he said. "We've got the same group together. We keep the same group together, and we just keep refining it and getting it better every year, and that's what makes us so consistent.

"… That's how you get good, is staying consistent and not having any turnover."