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Geoff Bodine
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Geoffrey Bodine (born April 18, 1949 in Chemung, New York) is the oldest of the three Bodine brothers (Brett Bodine and Todd Bodine) who are all NASCAR drivers. Bodine currently lives in Cornelius, North Carolina.
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.
ne 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.
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Encyclopedia
Geoffrey Bodine (born April 18, 1949 in Chemung, New York) is the oldest of the three Bodine brothers (Brett Bodine and Todd Bodine) who are all NASCAR drivers. Bodine currently lives in Cornelius, North Carolina.
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.
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 had 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), as well as many 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 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. 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.
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. Geoff's biggest win came at the 1986 Daytona 500. The season opener, Daytona 500, is 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. Geoff's final win in NASCAR's highest division came in the "Bud At The Glen" in August of 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
Geoff 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. 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 197mph.
Daytona crash
Bodine was involved in a vicious, fiery accident at Daytona International Speedway in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on February 18, 2000. Geoff was on the outside of two other trucks (one of which was driven by Kurt Busch, a rookie at the time) on the front stretch tri-oval during the 57th lap. Kurt Busch and Rob Morgan made contact, resulting in Morgan's truck swerving Bodine's truck. This caused Bodine's truck to become airborne and hit the catch fencing, completely destroying it (and rupturing the fuel cell in the process), leaving nothing but the roll cage intact. It then barrel-rolled down the track where it was hit several more times by other trucks before coming to rest on its roof. 13 other trucks were involved in the accident, making it one of the largest wrecks in NCTS history. As a result of the impact, Geoff broke his right wrist, right cheekbone, a vertebra in his back, and his right ankle, and also suffered a concussion. Nine fans were also injured in the
accident.
Bodine missed less than half of the 2000 Winston Cup season recovering from his injuries, starting only 14 of 34 races and finishing 45th in points with no poles, wins, or top 10 finishes. Amazingly, Geoff returned to the track that had nearly claimed his life to finish third behind Elliott Sadler and the race winner Ward Burton in the 2002 Daytona 500. However, including that race, Geoff Bodine only made 18 starts in the NASCAR Winston/Nextel/Sprint cup Series between 2001 and 2004, with only one top five and two top 10s, both in 2002. He attempted to qualify for the Brickyard 400 in 2004 driving for Gary Trout Autosports, but did not qualify and did not attempt to qualify for any other races that year.
New team
Geoffrey, Todd, and Larry Gunselman started a race team in 2009. Geoffrey attempted to qualify the #64 Toyota for the 2009 Daytona 500.
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 started during 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 locally. He felt that he could help the team win with better bobsled technology derived from his racecar engineering background and experience. With these beliefs, Bodine took a few runs in a bobsled at Lake Placid, New York 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. Every January since 2006 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 Geoffrey Bodine's brothers) and Tony Stewart.
Geoff Bodine now goes by Geoffrey and enjoys giving back to the community that supports him. He has served as a volunteer fireman and is now a board member of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Bodine was briefly mentioned in the movie Days of Thunder for coming in third when Cole Trickle won his first race at Darlington.
Teams and sponsors
The Winston Cup teams for which Geoff Bodine has driven, the sponsors for each year, and the sponsors for the Craftsman Truck Series teams for which he has driven.
Teams
Note: In mid-1993, Bodine purchased the race team of the late Alan Kulwicki and toward the end of the season, took over as driver. Bodine raced as a driver-owner through 1997.
Sponsors
- Performance Connection- 1982
- Spectrum Furniture- 1982
- Gatorade- 1983
- All-Star Racing- 1984
- Levi Garrett- 1985-1989
- Budweiser- 1990-1991
- Motorcraft- 1992-1993
- Family Channel (#7 car, six races)- 1993
- Carolina Opry (#7 car, one only) - 1993
- Exide Batteries- 1994-1995
- QVC- 1996-1997
- Philips- 1998
- Power Team- 1999-2000
- Line-x-2000(Daytona 250 truck race only)
- Smirnoff Ice- 2001
- Miccosukee Gaming & Resorts- 2001-2002
- Discover Card- 2002
- Hills Bros Coffee- 2002
- Hooters Restaurants- 2003
- Race El Paso-2004
- Brut After Shave-2004
- Lucas Oil Products- 2004
- Mach One Inc.- 2004
- Fred's Inc.- 2009
External links
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