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Todd Bodine
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Todd Bodine (born February 27, 1964 in Chemung, New York) is a stock car racer. Todd is the younger brother of former racers Geoff Bodine and Brett Bodine. Bodine is known for his aggressive driving style and bald head, which has given him the nickname The Onion. He currently drives the #30 Tilted Kilt Toyota Tundra for Germain Racing in the Camping World Truck Series. He competes part-time in the Sprint Cup Series for a team he shares with Larry Gunselman and Geoffrey Bodine in the #64 Toyota.
ne would make his Busch Series debut in 1986, for Pistone Racing at Martinsville.
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Encyclopedia
Todd Bodine (born February 27, 1964 in Chemung, New York) is a stock car racer. Todd is the younger brother of former racers Geoff Bodine and Brett Bodine. Bodine is known for his aggressive driving style and bald head, which has given him the nickname The Onion. He currently drives the #30 Tilted Kilt Toyota Tundra for Germain Racing in the Camping World Truck Series. He competes part-time in the Sprint Cup Series for a team he shares with Larry Gunselman and Geoffrey Bodine in the #64 Toyota.
Early career
Bodine would make his Busch Series debut in 1986, for Pistone Racing at Martinsville. He qualified and finished 27th in the 30-car field, falling out of the race early with an engine problem.
Bodine went on a three year hiatus from the series until 1990, when he would drive eight races for Diamond Ridge Motorsports #42/#81 Ames Pontiac, making his season debut at Martinsville. He started 11th and finished in the 8th position. He then followed that up with finishes of 7th at Orange County and 3rd at Dover Downs.
In 1991, he signed to drive for Frank Cicci In his first full season in the series, he won his first career race, one of 15 top-10s in 1991. Bodine also won his first two poles: Back to back at Dublin and South Boston. He ended the year seventh in points.
1990s
Bodine's career in Cup started at Watkins Glen International Raceway on August 9, 1992 when he was 28 years old. He raced the #34 Ford Thunderbird for Cicci-Welliver Racing, finishing 37th. His first full-time season came in 1994 when he raced for Butch Mock Motorsports. He raced the #75 Ford Thunderbird sponsored by Factory Stores. He missed one race the whole season and scored two Top 5's and 7 Top 10's on his way to a 20th place position in the point standings. He was unable to match those statistics in 1995 as he finished 33rd in the points with only one Top 5 and 3 Top 10s. Following his release from RahMoc, Bodine spent 1996, filling in for Bill Elliott in a four-race span, finishing 10th at Pocono. He also drove three races apiece for David Blair Motorsports and Andy Petree Racing. In 1997, he filled in for Ricky Craven at Hendrick Motorsports at Texas and for his brother Geoff at Charlotte Motor Speedway, before he won the pole at Watkins Glen for Cicci-Welliver in a one-race deal. He finished 35th due to engine problems in that race.
For 1998, he signed with a new team called ISM Racing. Unfortunately, the team struggled due to poor equipment, and by July, the team was closed amid allegations of improprieties by the owners. He went back to Cicci-Welliver in the Busch Series, replacing rookie Mike Cope in the #30 Slim Jim car. He finished 33rd in points despite running 13 races, and posted a string of five consecutive top-five finishes. He also ran part-time in cup for LJ Racing, posting a fifth at Atlanta.
In 1999, his Cicci-Welliver team switched to #66, and he posted ten top-fives en route a fourth-place points finish. In addition, he ran seven races for Eel River Racing at the Cup level, his best finish being 15th at Bristol. In 2000, he won a pole at Talladega as well as the race at Michigan.
2000-2004
He would get back into Cup racing full time in 2001 while racing the #66 K-Mart Ford Taurus which was owned by Haas-Carter Motorsports. Despite getting three poles, he only scored two Top 5's, missed the Daytona 500, and was plagued with 12 DNFs, causing him to finish 29th in points. He also ran half the schedule in the Busch Series, winning two of the first three races of the season with Buckshot Racing, before ending the season driving for Fitz Motorsports. He started 2002 with the 66, but lost his ride after Kmart filed for bankruptcy. He signed on to Herzog Motorsports and won the Kroger 300, finishing 23rd in points. During the season, he rejoined Haas-Carter when Discover Card became the team's primary sponsor. He garnered a fifth-place run at Richmond, and finished 38th in points.
In 2003, Carter partnered with Sam Belnavis to field the #54 United States National Guard Ford for Bodine. Bodine's best finish that year was an eighth at Pocono and he finished 31st in standings. After that year, Belnavis abandoned the operation and took sponsors National Guard and Subway to Roush Racing and the Carter team closed its doors due to lack of sponsorship. Bodine also got a win at Darlington in the Busch Series for Herzog and led the Busch Series points standings but again a lack of sponsorship forced his team to close. He ended the season at Innovative Motorsports. He split 2004 between Mach 1 Racing, Arnold Motorsports, and R&J Racing, his best finish a 23rd at Bristol. He ran five Busch races for GIC-Mixon Motorsports and Marsh Racing, finishing fifth at Homestead.
Craftsman Truck Series
Bodine made his Craftsman Truck Series debut in 1995 driving for Roush Racing's #61 Ford for 5 races. In his debut, Bodine qualified 3rd at Heartland Topeka road course, and finished fourth. His worst finish was at Mesa Marin Raceway, where he finished eighth an 8th place, earned his best start of 2nd and led his first career lap.
Bodine did not run the Trucks again until 2004, when he competed for Fiddleback Racing at Charlotte, finishing 20th and also ran for HT Motorsports's #59 Dodge at Kansas with a 15th. Later, he signed with the new Germain-Arnold Racing team, finishing 4th in their debut at Richmond. After losing in Vegas to Shane Hmiel, Bodine won his first two career races back-to-back at Fontana and Texas. Competing in ten events, Bodine averaged a 13th place finish in his events, despite falling out of three with mechanical issues. Unfortunately, neither Bodine nor crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. were happy with contract issues and the team leadership. So Bodine parted ways with the team and went back to Fiddleback Racing, where he would drive in 2005. Bodine was able to earn four top-10s with the team in ten starts, but inconsistency was weighing him down to 8th place in points. Fiddleback also had no funding and after a 9th place at Michigan the team was disbanded.
Germain Arnold signed to have him come back. He won in his second race with the team at Kansas and rolled to four more victories, including three straight at the end of the season. By winning the final three races of the season, he made a serious run for the title. With four races remaining in the season Todd was fourth in the standings, a dismal 256 points behind leader Ted Musgrave. With Bodine's three wins, he was able to gain one spot to third and an entire 183 points on Musgrave to finish only 73 points behind.
In 2006, Bodine was once again behind the wheel of the #30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota. Bodine won at Atlanta, Gateway, and Texas. Todd Bodine won the 2006 Craftsman Truck Championship on Nov 17, 2006 by 122 points over Johnny Benson it was Bodine's first-ever championship in any division.
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