August 8, 2007
By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

Geoffrey Bodine was born Apr 18, 1949 in El Mira, NY, the oldest of three brothers (Brett and Todd who also compete in the NASCAR ranks). The family lived in Chemung, a small town approximately ten miles east of Elmira. Geoffrey started diving Micro-midgets in 1955. Some reports have him racing go-karts as early as age 5. The boys’ father owned the Chemung Speedrome, a racetrack in upstate New York, while they were growing up. It was there Geoffrey began racing late models. He began building his own cars and moved to into racing Open Wheel Modifieds full time with the Northeast Modified Series. Bodine finished second in national modified standings in 1977. In 1978 he set a record that is still in the Guinness Book of Records today by winning 55 of the 74 modified events he competed in across the country.

In 1979, he made three starts in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. In 1981, he made another five starts scoring one top ten finish. Bodine ran fulltime in 1982 driving the #23 Buick for Bahre Racing, and together they amassed four top fives, ten top tens and qualified on the pole twice. That year Bodine won the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year title.

In 1983, Bodine drove the #88 Gatorade Pontiac collecting five top fives, nine top tens and one pole.

In 1984, Bodine began driving the Rick Hendrick owned #5 All-Star Racing/Northwestern Security Life Chevrolet and scored three wins (Martinsville, Nashville, and Riverside), seven top fives, 14 top tens and three poles. In 1985, Levi Garrett came on-board to sponsor the #5 Hendrick owned Chevrolet to enjoy ten top fives, 14 top tens and three poles. In 1986 Geoff won the Daytona 500 and again at Dover. For the season, he collected two wins, ten top fives 15 top tens and eight poles.

In 1987, he had three top fives, ten top tens, and two poles. During the Winston All-Star event, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, and Bodine were involved in a rough and rowdy race for the win. Bill Elliott clipped Bodine at the start of the race. Earnhardt took advantage of the contact between Bodine and Elliott to take the lead of the event. Later in the event, Elliott and Earnhardt had a scuffle with Earnhardt being forced into the grass in the front-stretch dog-leg. Earnhardt kept the car straight and emerged back on the track in front of Elliott. Earnhardt retaliated against Elliott by taking him high into turn-four. Elliott blew a tire from the contact and Earnhardt won the event. On the cool down lap, Elliott swerved his Ford in front of Earnhardt. Contact was made as Earnhardt slid the car to a stop. An angry Bodine, who had been clipped by Elliott on the start of the race, hit Earnhardt as well thinking Earnhardt was the one that had gotten into him. Bodine later admitted he had struck revenge on the wrong guy. NASCAR fined Earnhardt for retaliating against Elliott in turn-four. They also punished Bodine and Elliott for the after-race altercartions with Earnhardt.

In 1988, Bodine won at Pocono, collecting one win, ten top fives, 16 top tens and three poles for the season. In 1989, Bodine won at North Wilkesboro totaling one win, nine top fives 11 top tens and three poles for the season.

In 1990, Bodine left Hendrick to drive the #11 Budweiser Ford Thunderbird for the legendary Junior Johnson. That year he won three times (Pocono and twice at Martinsville), had 11 top fives, 19 top tens and two poles. He finished the season a career high third place in the points chase. In 1991, Bodine won at Charlotte, six top fives, 12 top tens, and two poles.

In 1992, Bodine left Johnson’s team to drive Bud Moore’s #15 Motorcraft Ford scoring back to back wins at Martinsville and North Wilkesboro, seven top fives and 11 top tens.

Also in 1992, Bodine became instrumental in the design and development of the four- and two-man bobsled used by the U.S. men and women's teams in the 2002 Olympics. Together with Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics in Oxford, Conn., Bodine and Cuneo set about designing a sled for the American bobsled team. Once completed the two- and four-man sleds were then given to the teams. With the “Bo-Dyn” sleds, the U.S. won three medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"I thought that was wrong when I found out the teams had to buy their own equipment," Bodine said. "Now they don't have to worry about getting financing to compete in the Olympics. We supply the sleds, mechanics and technicians to keep them tuned up, so to speak, to make them better.”

In 1993, Bodine won at Sears Point, two top fives, nine top tens and a pole. On April 1, 1993 a tragedy struck the racing world. 1992 Winston Cup Champion Alan Kulwicki was killed in an airplane crash on his way to the race in Bristol, TN. In May, Bodine bought the Kulwicki’s team. Bodine signed Exide Batteries to sponsor the #7 for the 1994 season. Hoosier Tire entered NASCAR Racing to compete with Goodyear. Bodine struck allegence with Hoosier and 1994 proved to be a banner year for Geoff Bodine Racing with Bodine enjoying three wins (Pocono, Michigan, and North Wilkesboro), seven top fives, ten top tens and five poles. In 1995, Hoosier pulled out of NASCAR and Bodine’s team struggled to get a handle on utilizing Goodyear tires. He ended the season with no wins or poles, only one top five and four top tens.

Exide Batteries announced they would not be renewing with the team for 1996, but striking a deal with Roush Racing. Bodine signed QVC, a cable television shopping channel, to sponsor the team in 1996. He won at Watkins Glen and had two top fives and six top tens.

Bodine struggled in 1997 failing to qualify for both the Pepsi 400 and Brickyard 400 and turning in some less than stellar performances, scoring only three top fives, ten top tens and two poles. In the fall of 1997, QVC announced they would be dropping their sponsorship of Bodine’s #7 team at the end of the season. Bodine, struggling to provide financing to keep the team afloat, sold the majority ownership in the team to Jim Mattei and John Porter. The terms of the sale were that the team name would be Mattei Motorsports and Bodine would continue to drive.

Three days before the 1998 Daytona 500, Philips Consumer Electronics signed on as the primary sponsor for Mattei Motorsports and the #7. Bodine sold the remainder of interest in the team to Jim Mattei in August. Bodine continued to struggle scoring one top five and five top tens. Mattei announced that Bodine would be released as the driver of the #7 at the end of the season. In December 1998, Bodine signed on to drive the #60 Power Team Chevrolet, owned by Busch Series driver, Joe Bessey.

On February 18, 2000 Geoffrey was the victim in one of the most horrific crashes in NASCAR history while driving in the Craftsman Truck race at Daytona. His truck was pinched against the outside wall, became airborne and then barrel-rolled on the front stretch. Twice other trucks hit him after his truck crash-landed on the asphalt, creating a huge fireball. Bodine was hospitalized with a concussion, a broken wrist, ankle and vertebrae. He returned to racing 10 weeks later missing the first third of the 2000 season. On September 11, 2000, Joe Bessey released Bodine from the #60 after having a dismal season. 44th in the points standings, only 12 starts on the year and no top ten finishes, Bodine was out of provisionals and had failed to qualify for five races.

"He had been looking for sponsorship and the team has been kind of in the dark about it and we lost some key people because of that," Bodine said. "Plus, the Besseys were quite upset that I drove the truck and got hurt. They blamed all their problems on me not driving and thought things would have been different if I had been driving.”

On June 5, 2001 Bodine was named to replace Tim Fedewa as driver of the Cicci-Welliver Phillips 66 Chevrolet in the Busch Grand National Series for the remainder of the season.

In 2002, Bodine teamed up with James Finch’s Phoenix Racing and Miccosukee Resort sponsorship for ten NASCAR Winston Cup Series events (all of the races at Daytona, Talladega and Homestead, as well as Indianapolis, Phoenix and the fall race at Atlanta). His only top five was a third place finish in the 2002 Daytona 500. Bodine parted ways with Phoenix Racing at the end of 2002. In 2003, He ran his brother Bret’s car in the Bud Shootout in February at Daytona. As a past winner of the event, he has a lifetime pre-qualified status for the Bud Shootout. He teamed up with Craftsman Truck Series owner A. L. Thompson for the Darlington race in the Truck Series.

In 2004, Bodine accepted an offer from Steve Prescott of Team EJP Racing to drive the #03 Chevrolet in the Craftsman Truck Series. After five events, the team reduced its schedule due to lack of sponsorship, Bodine left the team accepting an offer from Impact Motorsports owner William Edwards to drive the #98 Lucas Oil Ford in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Bodine made five events in the #98. His best finish was 28th in the Cup Series and tenth in the Truck Series.

In 2005, Bodine agreed to drive Pat McDonald’s gunbroker.com / DoubleDave PizzaWorks / P4OT.com / Vector Security #72 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series in eight events. In his eight starts, Bodine failed to qualify in the top-25 and failed to finish in the top-20.

Career Accomplishments:

1998 selected as one of NASCAR'S 50 all-time greatest drivers

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You can contact Allen Madding at .. Insider Racing News

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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