Todd Bodine making 800th career NASCAR start at Pocono
Jul. 22—Todd Bodine was fine with 794 career starts across NASCAR's three national series. He won races and championships, met a lot of great people and did a lot of great things. He transitioned nicely into his job as Fox Sports analyst for the Trucks Series since 2015.
Marcus Lemonis, however, wasn't happy with 794. The CEO of Truck Series sponsor Camping World wanted to see Bodine reach the milestone 800 starts.
Last October, he issued a challenge on Twitter, asking fans to provide 800 reasons why Bodine should return to racing. Proving the power of social media, Lemonis quickly received far beyond 800 reasons.
And so, Bodine came back this season. He ran five races. The sixth comes Saturday at Pocono Raceway in the CRC Brakleen 150 and will make the 58-year-old driver from Chemung, New York, the 28th in NASCAR history with 800 career starts and the only one with 200-plus starts in each series. He has 241 in Cup; 333 in Xfinity with 15 wins; and 225 in the Trucks with 22 wins and championships in 2006 and 2010.
Bodine, whose nickname is "Onion," is having a blast in his comeback.
"I got into racing because I love it and enjoy it," Bodine said. "When you do it full time for a living, you still enjoy it and have fun but it's a different kind of fun. There's pressure to perform, pressure to win. But these six races, there was no pressure for anything. Just literally go out and have fun. That's what we've done and we have one more to go."
Before he could return, Bodine had to first clear it with his bosses at Fox Sports. He sat down with Lindsey Mandia, vice president of production, and went over the schedule.
"One thing I didn't want to do was race in the playoffs. I didn't want to affect anything or be the reason somebody didn't make it to the next round," Bodine said. "Also my bosses at Fox, they didn't want me racing in the playoffs. They wanted me doing my job on TV in the playoffs."
They came up with nine possibilities, from which Bodine would pick six. He chose Las Vegas, Darlington, Texas, Sonoma and Nashville as his first five.
When he saw Pocono was the final race before the start of the Truck Series playoffs, it was a no-brainer to make the 2.5-mile track in Long Pond his sixth race.
"I grew up at Pocono. I started going there when I was eight years old in 1972 watching my brother Geoff race Modifieds. It's been our second home for the Bodines forever," Bodine said. "Doc and Miss Rose (Mattioli) were very good to us and always treated us as part of their family. I remember going across driver introductions and Doc would give me a big ol' handshake and say, 'Welcome home' and Miss Rose would give me a kiss on the cheek and a hug. So it means a lot for me to be here and to have this happen at Pocono."
There is some symmetry, too. Before this season, the last Trucks race Bodine ran came at Pocono in August 2013.
After Lemonis sent out his tweet, the first person to contact Bodine was driver Stewart Friesen to see if it was for real. The next day, Friesen texted that he arranged with his owner Chris Larsen for Bodine to drive for their team. So Bodine has been behind the wheel of the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota.
"Stewart is the reason I'm in an HFR truck," Bodine said. "They didn't have to do that, but they wanted to do that and that meant a lot to me. I wanted to be in a Toyota and they're a Toyota team, so everything worked out."
It took a few laps his first time back at Las Vegas in March for the feel and instincts to return. But they did, just like riding a bike. Bodine finished 21st in that race. He's also placed 10th at Darlington, 13th at Texas, 20th at Sonoma and 27th at Nashville.
"Fortunately, I've had good race trucks," Bodine said. "HFR is a great race team, they prove it every week with Stewart running up front. Shaking the rust off is a lot easier in good equipment."
Bodine is humbled by the reception he receives, particularly from the younger drivers. They come up and introduce themselves, talk about how they loved to watch him race and are excited for the chance to race against him.
"I think it's pretty incredible that I get to race with Todd Bodine as he is making history," Reigning Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes said. "I remember being younger and watching him at my home track of Kentucky Speedway. In fact, my sister and I still have his signed hero cards from when we were kids. Never did I imagine that I would get to build a friendship in this unique way. When it was first announced, I reached out to Todd to congratulate him and let him know how cool it is. I'm a big supporter of it."
Being just the 28th driver to reach the 800-start milestone is special for Bodine and a testament to the longevity he has enjoyed in the sport.
"Having owners and sponsors that want to keep you around means a lot," Bodine said. "Not a lot of guys get the opportunity to do it. To have as good a career along the way as I have and the championships, it's a pretty neat deal. It's a lot more than I thought it would be."
NASCAR Combined National Series Starts
DRIVER TOTAL CUP XFINITY TRUCKS
Kevin Harvick 1,247 774 349 124
Joe Nemechek 1,197 674 453 70
Richard Petty 1,185 1,185 0 0
Kyle Busch 1,153 626 362 165
Mark Martin 1,143 882 236 25
Michael Waltrip 1,072 784 279 9
Morgan Shepherd 1,027 517 453 57
Terry Labonte 1,017 890 124 3
Jeff Burton 1,005 695 306 4
Dale Jarrett 997 668 329 0
Matt Kenseth 985 697 288 0
Ken Schrader 984 763 116 105
Bobby Labonte 942 729 203 10
Darrell Waltrip 921 809 95 17
Ricky Rudd 909 906 3 0
Kenny Wallace 904 344 547 13
Dave Marcis 888 883 4 1
Kyle Petty 885 829 55 1
Jeff Gordon 878 805 73 0
Bill Elliott 874 828 44 2
Elliott Sadler 855 438 397 20
Greg Biffle 843 516 244 83
Kurt Busch 834 776 30 28
Sterling Marlin 825 748 77 0
Jeff Green 815 270 535 10
Dale Earnhardt 812 676 136 0
Mike Wallace 809 197 497 115
Todd Bodine 800 241 333 226*
*-Pending Saturday's start in CRC Brakleen 150 at Pocono Raceway
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