From The Inside
by Todd Bodine-Staff Writer and Winston Cup Driver
07/25/2003

Hi Race Fans -

The NASCAR Winston Cup Series headed off to New Hampshire International Speedway last weekend for the first of two stops to the unique facility.  The team headed into the event, hoping to bounce back from a mechanical failure at Chicago, and score our first top ten finish of the season.

When we arrived at the track we had a few additions with us. Gary Cogswell was assigned crew chief for the weekend subbing for Derrick Finley.  Then, on Tuesday, he was named interim crew chief.  Gary Cogswell was my crew chief when I drove for Buckshot Racing back in 2001.  He is not a stranger to us, as he has been working for Travis Carter's other racing entity, Travis Carter Enterprises.  He has been working as crew chief for driver Hideo Fukuyama in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the ARCA RE/MAX Series. 

Mother Nature rolled into New Hampshire International Speedway Friday morning during the course of the NASCAR Busch Series practice, and she decided to spend part of the weekend with us.  The first practice session for the series was canceled, along with qualifying. 

We would be starting the New England 300 from the 32nd position based on 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series car owner points.  NHIS is a track where you would like to start up front, but we weren't going to be picky after seeing several quality teams pack up and go home.

We were able to get our first of two practices session in on Saturday.  We had a good National Guard Ford during the first session.  However, things went the opposite direction in Happy Hour as we made some changes that did not work.  That's what practice is all about. So, we put it back the car back to the way it was in the first session, along with making a few tweaks.  The main problem that we were fighting with the car was that it was tight through the middle of the corners, so that was the biggest handling situation that we were concentrating on.  Our lap times were consistent for the long runs and that was what we were shooting for. All in all, we were pleased.

When we took the green flag on Sunday, the No. 54 Ford Taurus was tight through the middle and off the corners.  However we were going to make some adjustments with the hopes of catching up to the rest of the field.

The 48, 17, and 12 had very stout cars and were about 2/10ths faster than the rest of the competition, so we concentrated on where we fell into the mix and that was somewhere between fifth and tenth fastest.  We were making our way through the pack when we experienced a set back on lap 100.  We had a pit stop that really hurt us.  We went from 19th to 35th.  Here's what happened. We were going to take two spring rubbers out and unfortunately when we tried to do that both of their handles came off with the spring rubbers still in the car.  We had to go back out and then pit again during that same caution to remove them with pliers. 

On Monday at the shop, we addressed the issue and it's now fixed.  Sometimes strange things happen and that was certainly one of them.  We weren't going to let the problem get us down because we had a good car that could make it through the field.  To help make our move up through the pack easier,  Gary Cogswell put a two tire stop into place. It worked.  We moved up into the top 15 after that stop. From there I just kept plugging away. We had some good side by side racing with guys like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Earnhardt Jr, so that was a lot of fun for me.

Closing in on the end of the race, most of the competition pitted on lap 203. We stayed out because we were not in our pit window.  I guess they were getting better gas mileage than us or were gambling on some cautions to save fuel.  We were about 17 laps short.  Since we weren't going to benefit by coming in with them,  we chose to pit during the next caution, and in our pit window, on lap 232. We took two tires and had a decent handling car.  We were good to go and hoped the rest of the way would go green in case some of the teams who were gambling fell short.  They didn't but that's how it goes.  We picked up about five positions based on a good handling car, so I can't complain.  We did all we could with the situation we were given. 

In the end we crossed the line in 19th, completing all 300 laps behind race winner Jimmie Johnson.  It was a good run for the team and a big rebound from Chicago, leaving us hopeful for better things this weekend in Pocono.

The NASCAR Winston Cup Series returns to Pocono this weekend.  The BelCar Racing team heads back to the track with confidence on our side as we crossed the line 11th.

Pit strategy and a pretty good setup played a role in our 11th-place finish. We ended up leading the race since we were the final car to take on gas.  We put a strategy into place and needed a caution for our plan to work. Unfortunately, we ended up being two laps short.  Strategy is important because the quality of competition is so tight and any time you can do something that can set you apart from the other teams as well as gain track position can really help increase your chances for a win. Crew chiefs have their work cut out these days in determining different strategies based on what could happen throughout an entire event.  It's a real art to try and out think 42 other crew chiefs.

Our handling was consistent through all three distinct corners and that's not a bad thing. The last thing you want is to be loose in one corner and tight in another.  You really can't afford to set your car up for a specific corner. All three corners are important. If I had to rate each corner based on difficulty, I would say turn three is the biggest challenge because you have to be able to carry as much speed as you can through the corner to have the momentum going into the long frontstretch.   If you have to let up going through three, you are going to get passed.  Turn one is the easiest corner for me followed by turn two.

We're hoping that we are able to walk away with a top ten performance on Sunday.

The NASCAR Winston Cup Series makes trip number two to Pocono Raceway this weekend for the running of Pennsylvania 500. The green flag drops shortly after 1:00pm EST, with live coverage on TNT and MRN radio beginning at 12:30pm EST.

I am hoping for a great race on Sunday and hope that you will be keeping an eye on the National Guard Ford along with your favorite driver(s).

I'll talk to you next week and thanks for reading!
Todd Bodine 

You can reach Todd Bodine at: tbodine@catchfence.com