Bodine still looking for opportunities to race
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
November 10, 2001
6:26 PM EST (2326 GMT)
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- All Geoffrey Bodine wants is a chance to prove he can still drive a race car with some of the competitive zeal he’s shown throughout a long career.
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Geoffrey Bodine
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The former Daytona 500 winner and IROC champion turned back the clock Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway with an 11th-hour qualifying effort that put a second Ford Taurus from brother Brett’s shops into the field for Sunday’s Pennzoil Freedom 400.
It proved a couple things. First, that the younger Bodine’s narrowly-funded operation could deliver, and second, so could elder brother Geoff.
It was the second time this season Brett Bodine has put a car on track for his older brother, who once went a stretch of not speaking to his sibling after an on-track skirmish battling for the lead at Indianapolis.
“We were happy at Bristol when we ran the Smirnoff car and ran a lot better -- but I was both happy and relieved yesterday. I think that should show people something -- that we can still handle that pressure and we can still drive,” Geoffrey said of his 35th-place effort.
“This is a tough field to just come in here and try to race against them just once or twice a year, but my brother gave me a good car and Yates built us a great engine -- that's what it takes.
“This is not a two-car team that he has. It’s under-funded so we've really almost done the impossible here. Hopefully, it will attract another sponsor to him and he'll be able to get enough money so he can race. If there's something left over, we'll do something.”
Brett Bodine was more blunt, but no less pleased in his assessment.
“I’m telling you, I've got to be crazy,” he said of his operation, which is still seeking enough sponsorship to maintain his own car for 2002. “This one was way too close. Geoff thankfully really stepped up here and put that thing in the show on speed. I’m just really happy for him and happy for our sponsors -- the Miccosukee Indians.”
Geoffrey Bodine’s career has been in a flux, if not a stall, since he suffered one of the worst appearing crashes in motorsports history in the 2000 Craftsman Truck Series inaugural at Daytona International Speedway. He had raced a limited number of events after recovering from his injuries until he secured a deal to drive Cicci-Welliver’s No. 66 Chevrolet in the Busch Series.
That deal went away last week when Bodine was released in favor of young open-wheel driver Casey Mears, 23, who will drive the car in 2002.
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Bodine lost his Busch ride to young CART driver Casey Mears.
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“It was a shock, a surprise to me,” Bodine said of the news, which was delivered by team manager Clyde McLeod. “I thought I was gonna be in that car next year -- the Phillips folks were happy. I was looking forward to having Casey as a teammate and helping him with his career, but it’s not gonna be, now.”
Bodine said that while his brother hopes to secure enough sponsorship to run a two-car operation that would include him, he would drive anything competitive -- from a truck to a Busch car -- though his first love would be Winston Cup.
“I would pretty much look at anything that is a solid program -- I just love racing,” Bodine said. “I was looking forward to getting back into Winston Cup (but) it doesn’t look like anything is going full time. I just love to race and I will race Busch again if a good opportunity comes up.
“I would even entertain doing Craftsman Trucks -- they’re fun to run and I’ve done that before. Naturally Winston Cup IS the elite, but I just wanna race. I’m a little baffled at why things are so difficult.
His brother is his brother, but he’s also a big supporter.
“We've rolled the dice twice and we've been very, very lucky,” Brett said. “I just thank God I've got a great driver in Geoff because he can direct a team and drive it and get the job done. My hat’s off to him and the guys because they're the ones that did it.”
“I just think I should be considered,” Geoffrey said of his future. “I understand car owners want younger guys and sponsors do, too -- but experience is pretty darned important. There are some teams I think I really could help.”
Bodine said some of his contemporaries and predecessors have given drivers near the end of their career a bad name with sub-par performances, but that’s not his goal.
“It’s not like I’m not competitive,” said Bodine, who has had a fairly successful Busch run this year. “I’m not gonna blame anyone, but what some drivers have done at the end of their careers has hurt me -- they haven’t run strong and have not gone out on a high note.
“I’m not in that position. I race hard and I’m still hungry. Hopefully Sunday I’ll go out and convince people I’m still competitive and want to race hard.
“I’m a young 52. I feel that way, I act that way and I really think I drive that way. I'm just really disappointed because it's not like I didn't win a lot of races before the accident. I won races in everything I was in, and I know I still can with the right opportunity.”
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