Geoff Bodine

Geoffrey Eli Bodine (born April 18, 1949) is an American former motorsport driver and bobsled builder. He raced at the NASCAR Cup Series from 1979 to 2011, earning 18 wins and a best season finish of third in 1990.

Bodine was born into a racing family as his father and grandfather, Eli Bodine Jr. and Sr. built Chemung Speedrome just a year after he was born. He is the oldest of the three Bodine brothers (with Brett Bodine and Todd Bodine), and sister Denise. Bodine began learning his racing skills at this track in the micro-midget division when he was only five years old. He had such an itch to race that he disguised himself as a lady and entered an event known as the Powder Puff Derby when he was 15. By this time, Bodine was well known as a Modified driver in the Northeast, racing against popular drivers such as Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Jimmy Spencer, Ron Bouchard, and others. Bodine earned Modified championships at Stafford Speedway, Shangri-La Speedway, Spencer 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), 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), and 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 and Ralph Hop Harrington 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

Bodine is best known for his NASCAR Winston Cup career, and in his first full season in Winston Cup came in 1982 he earned Rookie of the Year honors. His first Winston Cup pole that year on his nineteenth start (1982 Firecracker 400) and scored his first Winston Cup victory two years later on his 69th start at Martinsville in 1984. This win was also the first win for Hendrick Motorsports, which was the team Bodine was racing for at the time. Bodine's biggest win came at the 1986 Daytona 500, NASCAR's premier 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 (now Budweiser Pole Award).

Cup career highlights

After a few tumultuous years in Winston Cup, Bodine saw his career launch off the ground when he ran the No. 5 car for Hendrick Motorsports. He spent over 28 years in the sport, with his most successful years being between 1984 and 1996. Bodine 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, which he ran for several seasons after buying the assets of Alan Kulwicki's race team after his death in 1993. He has 565 starts, 37 poles, eighteen 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 197 mph.

Rivalry with Dale Earnhardt During the late 1980s, Bodine and seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt became embroiled in a rivalry. An incident in the 1987 running of The Winston triggered harsh feelings when Earnhardt knocked Bodine and Bill Elliott out of the way to win the $200,000 purse. NASCAR later fined Bodine $1,000 and put him on probation for three weeks. Six days later, the rivalry intensified when Bodine tagged Earnhardt in a Busch Grand National Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Bodine and team owner Rick Hendrick claimed the wreck was unintentional, but NASCAR disagreed, fining Bodine another $15,000 and extending his probation to the end of 1987. Bodine later appealed and the penalty was revoked.

At the same Busch race in 1988, Earnhardt spun Bodine, and the New Yorker later retired from the race, later going over to Earnhardt's Cup car and drawing an "X" in the air over the car with his hand. The following day, while being passed by Bodine in the 1988 Coca-Cola 600, Earnhardt wrecked Bodine's car, leading NASCAR to assess a five-lap penalty on Earnhardt. Bodine's car owner, Rick Hendrick, claimed the penalty was too light, while Earnhardt's car owner Richard Childress thought the penalty was too harsh.

Daytona crash

While competing the inaugural Daytona 250 Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway, on February 18, 2000, Bodine was involved in a vicious, fiery accident on the 57th lap of the race while driving the No. 15 Ford F-150 for Billy Ballew.

The crash started when then-rookie Kurt Busch, Rob Morgan, and Lyndon Amick were racing three-wide through the tri-oval front straightaway. In the exact moment Bodine moved to get around the outside of the trio, Morgan was turned across Busch's nose into the side of Amick's truck, who was at the bottom. Amick's truck was damaged in the contact, which caused it to veer hard right, pushing Morgan into Bodine who was on the outside. The contact between Morgan's front right tire and Bodine's front left tire caused the front of Bodine's truck to vault upwards over the outside retaining wall, sending his truck into the catch fencing nose first, at a speed of nearly .

The force of the impact completely tore the front of the truck into pieces and ruptured its fuel cell, leaving only small parts of the roll cage intact. Just as Bodine was coming back down to the track, it was hit driver's side by Lonnie Rush Jr., which caused it to roll down the frontstretch. As it tumbled, it got hit yet again, this time by Jimmy Kitchens, which ignited the fuel that was spilling out of the tank. Bodine rolled nine times before coming to rest on his roof. The accident was so severe, the announcers, crew members and fans all believed that Bodine had been killed. Thirteen other trucks were involved, making it one of the largest wrecks in NASCAR Truck Series history. As a result of the collision, Bodine suffered fractures in his right wrist, right cheekbone, a vertebra in his back, and his right ankle; he also suffered a concussion. Kitchens was also hospitalized after his contact with Bodine. However, he suffered no serious injuries. Nine spectators were also injured in the crash.

Incredibly, Bodine missed only ten races of the 2000 Winston Cup season while recovering from his injuries, returning at Richmond International Raceway on May 6 and finishing thirteenth in a 400-lap race. However, Bodine's struggles over the ensuing months led to his dismissal from the team in September. In a feat of great accomplishment, he returned in the 2002 Daytona 500 to finish third behind race winner Ward Burton and second-placer finisher Elliott Sadler. However, including that race, Bodine only managed to make eighteen starts in the NASCAR Cup Series between 2001 and 2004, with only one top-five and two top-tens both in 2002. He attempted to qualify for the 2004 Brickyard 400 driving for Gary Trout Autosports, but was unable to and made no more attempts at any other races that year.

Racing twilight Geoff, brother Todd, and Larry Gunselman started a race team in 2009. Geoff attempted to qualify the No. 64 Toyota for the 2009 Daytona 500. In 2010, Geoff returned to the Camping World Truck Series for the first time since 2004 with Team Gill Racing at Atlanta. He finished 26th with engine problems despite qualifying an impressive eighth. In 2011, he drove for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the Sprint Cup Series, alternating between the Nos. 35 and 36 teams, with sponsorship from Luke & Associates.

Retirement In October 2012, Bodine announced through TheRacingExperts.Com that he was retiring from NASCAR after 27 seasons. Bodine said he wanted to spend time with his family and do charitable deeds.

In June 2012, Bodine opened a Honda Power Sports dealership in West Melbourne, Florida, where he currently resides.

As of August 2014, Bodine is a Driver Analyst for The Racing Experts, the website that announced his retirement in 2012. He is a contributing columnist with articles published monthly.

Bodine has a book coming out in 2024, titled “All Of It,” per his social media pages.

Bo-Dyn bobsleds

Bodine is the co-owner of the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Company. His bobsled interest came about while watching 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 domestically. He felt that he could help the team win with better technology derived from his race car experience, engineering background, as well as the abundant design and construction resources offered to him through his NASCAR connections. With his interest captured, Bodine took a few runs in a bobsled at Lake Placid 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, and during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, American bobsledder Steven Holcomb piloted a Bo-Dyn Bobsled named "Night Train" to gold. Every January from 2006 to 2010 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 Bodine's brothers) and Tony Stewart.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500

Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish 1979 Race Hill Farm Team Oldsmobile 16 29 1981 Bahre Racing Pontiac 14 22 1982 Buick 34 42 1983 Cliff Stewart Racing Pontiac 2 30 1984 All-Star Racing Chevrolet 9 8 1985 Hendrick Motorsports 17 7 1986 2 1 1987 8 14 1988 15 14 1989 10 4 1990 Junior Johnson & Associates Ford 3 9 1991 19 32 1992 Bud Moore Engineering Ford 16 3 1993 6 3 1994 Geoff Bodine Racing Ford 39 11 1995 40 20 1996 38 34 1997 25 34 1998 Mattei Motorsports Ford 25 31 1999 Joe Bessey Motorsports Chevrolet 30 39 2000 DNQ 2002 Phoenix Racing Ford 35 3 2005 GIC-Mixon Motorsports Chevrolet DNQ 2009 Gunselman Motorsports Toyota DNQ

Busch Series NASCAR Busch Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Pts Ref 1982 Plessinger Racing 99 Pontiac DAY5 RCH20 MAR4 DAR1 HCY5 SBO CRW RCH LGY DOV8 HCY CLT8 ASH HCY SBO CAR20 CRW SBO HCY LGY IRP BRI HCY RCH 19th 1334 01 Chevy BRI16 1 Pontiac MAR28 CLT HCY MAR 1983 89 DAY2 CAR23 HCY MAR NWS SBO GPS LGY DOV BRI CLT SBO HCY ROU SBO16 ROU CRW ROU SBO HCY LGY IRP GPS BRI HCY DAR RCH NWS SBO MAR ROU CLT HCY MAR 45th 534 50 RCH5 1984 All-Star Racing 15 Pontiac DAY3 RCH CAR24 HCY MAR SBO5 ROU HCY IRP4 LGY SBO4 BRI28 DAR33 RCH2 NWS CLT4 HCY CAR1* MAR8 23rd 1554 Chevy DAR2 ROU NSV LGY MLW DOV CLT SBO HCY ROU 1985 Hendrick Motorsports 5 Pontiac DAY1* CAR3 HCY BRI16* MAR DAR32 SBO LGY DOV CLT SBO HCY ROU IRP SBO LGY HCY MLW BRI DAR RCH NWS ROU 34th 697 15 CLT2* HCY CAR MAR 1986 DAY2 CAR HCY MAR CLT5 CAR MAR 65th 170 5 BRI16 DAR SBO LGY JFC DOV CLT SBO HCY ROU IRP SBO RAL OXF SBO HCY LGY ROU BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR ROU 1987 15 Chevy DAY1 HCY MAR DAR2 BRI LGY SBO CLT13 DOV IRP ROU JFC OXF SBO HCY RAL LGY ROU BRI16* JFC DAR RCH3 DOV MAR CLT39 CAR2 MAR19 37th 685 1988 DAY2 HCY CAR MAR DAR1 BRI LNG NZH SBO NSV CLT29* DOV ROU LAN LVL MYB OXF SBO HCY LNG IRP ROU DAR2 RCH26 DOV MAR CLT2* CAR6 MAR27 31st 1171 Henderson Motorsports 66 Buick BRI25 1989 Hendrick Motorsports 15 Chevy DAY5 CAR MAR HCY DAR1* BRI NZH SBO LAN NSV CLT10* DOV ROU LVL VOL MYB SBO HCY DUB IRP ROU BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR CLT CAR 53rd 469 Bill Davis Racing 1 Ford MAR4 1990 Henry Shaw Racing 01 Ford DAYDNQ RCH CAR MAR HCY DAR28 BRI LAN SBO NZH HCY CLT DOV ROU VOL MYB 97th 79 14 Pontiac OXF24 NHA SBO DUB IRP ROU BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR CLT NHA CAR MAR 1999 Shoemaker Racing 64 Chevy DAYQL† CAR8 LVS17 ATL7 DAR14 TEX NSV BRI25 TAL CAL16 NHA41 RCHDNQ NZH CLTDNQ DOV15 SBO GLN MLW MYB PPR 47th 1093 Joe Bessey Racing 06 Chevy GTY41 IRP MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV BACE Motorsports 33 Chevy CLT17 CAR MEM38 PHO HOM 2000 Cicci-Welliver Racing 36 Chevy DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX NSV TAL CAL RCH NHA CLT DOV SBO MYB GLN MLW NZH PPR GTY IRP MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV CLT CAR14 MEM PHO HOM 89th 121 2001 66 DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX NSH TAL CAL RCH NHA NZH CLT DOV KEN41 MLW17 GLN20 CHI23 GTY19 PPR18 IRP8 MCH40 BRI14 DAR34 RCH4 DOV22 KAN26 CLT33 MEM35 PHO30 CAR18 HOM 34th 1582 2002 Phoenix Racing 51 Ford DAY CAR LVS DAR BRI TEX NSH TAL CAL RCH NHA NZH CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW DAY CHI GTY PPR IRP MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM ATL CAR PHO HOMDNQ NA - 2005 MacDonald Motorsports 72 Chevy DAY CAL MXC LVS ATL37 NSH21 BRI29 TEX38 PHO34 TALDNQ DAR42 RCHDNQ CLT DOV21 NSH31 KEN MLW DAY CHI NHA PPR GTY IRP GLN MCH BRI CAL RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM TEX PHO HOM 66th 545 † - Qualified for Barry Bodine

Camping World Truck Series NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Pts Ref 1995 Geoff Bodine Racing 7 Ford PHO5 TUS SGS2 MMR POR6 EVG I70 LVL BRI2 MLW CNS HPT IRP25 FLM RCH2* MAR15 NWS3* SON MMR26 PHO3 20th 1436 1996 07 HOM33 PHO POR EVG TUS CNS HPT BRI NZH8 MLW LVL I70 IRP FLM GLN17 NSV RCH NHA MAR NWS SON MMR PHO LVS39 53rd 364 2000 Billy Ballew Motorsports 15 Ford DAY24 HOM PHO MMR MAR PIR GTY MEM PPR EVG TEX KEN GLN MLW NHA NZH MCH IRP NSV CIC RCH DOV TEX CAL 94th 91 2003 Alvin Thompson Racing 36 Ford DAYDNQ DAR27 MMR MAR CLT DOV TEX MEM MLW KAN KEN GTW MCH IRP NSH BRI RCH NHA CAL LVS SBO TEX MAR PHO HOM 113th 82 2004 Team EJP 03 Chevy DAY10 ATL21 MARDNQ MFD22 CLT27 DOV TEX MEM MLW KAN 40th 495 Ron Rhodes Racing 48 Dodge KEN27 GTW MCH IRP NSH BRI RCH NHA LVS CAL TEX MAR PHO DAR HOM 2010 Team Gill Racing 95 Dodge DAY ATL26 MAR NSH KAN DOV CLT TEX MCH IOW GTY IRP POC NSH DAR BRI CHI KEN NHA LVS MAR TAL TEX PHO HOM 103rd 85

International Race of Champions (key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.) International Race of Champions results Year Make 1 2 3 4 Pos. Points 1987 Chevy DAY1* MOH5 MCH3 GLN1* 1st 76 1988 DAY5 RSD9 MCH1* GLN12 6th 45 1991 Dodge DAY6 TAL12 MCH5 GLN10 8th 29 1996 Pontiac DAY TAL CLT MCH11 NA 0