From The Inside
by Todd Bodine-Staff Writer and Winston Cup Driver
10/24/2003

Hi Race Fans –

The BELCAR Racing team headed to Martinsville Speedway last weekend hoping our monkey was off our back. We wanted to continue a stretch of decent runs. Martinsville marked our final short track event of the season, and we had a fresh new look on our No. 54. We all had hopes of a good run.

The Subway/National Guard Ford Taurus was decent in the first practice session. We were dealing with a tight in the middle and tight off the throttle handling issue.

With hopes of finding some speed and get our car to handle better before qualifying, the team made some changes within the springs, shocks, wedge and air pressure.

In time trials we actually picked up about three-tenths from practice, so that was pretty good for us. It's still not that great. We're struggling getting the car to turn and get good forward bite, but we think we know what we've got to do and, hopefully, that run will put us somewhere in the twenties to start. This National Guard team has worked hard.

We wanted to do a little better because Subway was our sponsor last week and, of course, they were sponsoring the race. We wanted to do better for them. We're struggling a little bit, but we're gonna get it. This race team has really turned the corner the last three weeks. We've had some really good racecars and some really good runs and we're getting better every week.

In the first practice on Saturday, we were still battling the same handling woes we faced on Friday. We made some more changes and had one more practice session to gain on the field.

Unfortunately, disaster struck during “Happy Hour”. I went into one and I hit the brake pedal. It was there for a split second and then it went to the floor. You've got to have brakes at Martinsville. The car went sideways and I gave it some throttle to try to keep it down and out of the wall. However, when you're going so fast there that momentum is going to carry you straight.

The corners are so sharp and that's what happened. It's a shame, because we made wholesale changes between practices and the car was really, really good right there. I was really happy with it. It was still a little tight in the middle, but it was night and day from the first practice. That was only our third lap and we had already posted a decent lap. We would just start from the back and do the best we could.

We really weren’t sure what kind of a car we were going to have Sunday. We only had a chance to run a few laps in Happy Hour, and that was to shake down the car for comfort and safety purposes. This car was built the same way as our primary car but that’s never a guarantee that they’ll react exactly the same way.

Fortunately, the back-up car was handling the same way. I radioed in to Crew Chief Gary Cogswell in the opening laps that the car was tight through the middle of the corners and tight off of the throttle. A series of pit stops were ordered to fix the National Guard/Subway car on laps 56, 66, 80, 107, 123, 138, 180, 230, 231, 275, and 355. Each time, car 54 was getting better and better. By lap 300, we had broken into the top 25.

With a little over 100 laps remaining in the Subway 500, the lapped car of John Andretti drove up into the No. 54 National Guard/Subway Ford. The collision on circuit number 385 sent car 54 home early, ending a chance for a top 25-finish or better. As a result, we were forced to settle for 40th place.

John (Andretti) just turned up. I’m not going to blame John for this. I really think his spotter never told him I was out there. Whoever the spotter is didn't want to hear anything about dropping back on the restart to allow one lap down cars to drive up in front of them. My spotter asked his spotter to work with us and he wanted nothing to do with it. It’s just a common driver courtesy. They were five laps down. They didn’t need to be up there holding everyone else back. They were obviously going to be difficult about it and finally NASCAR told them to get out of the way.

I was just biding my time, because we had some close calls early on in the race. It’s just too bad that all of this had to happen. It’s unfortunate for my advertisers, The National Guard and Subway. We are going home with two wrecked cars. It’s the last short-track race of the year and this is not what we wanted.

On the bright side, NASCAR heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. I will once again be doing double duty, as I will be behind the wheel of the No. 48 Innovative Motorsports Chevrolet on Saturday. I scored my career best finish at AMS back in 1994, driving for Butch Mock Motorsports, and I’ve had several good runs since then. We weren’t able to close the deal.

The Winston Cup Series and Busch Series are ready to attack Atlanta Motor Speedway, this weekend. The green flag for the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 drops shortly after 12:30 PM EST, with live coverage on NBC beginning at 12:00 PM EST, with MRN radio also joining at 12:00 PM EST.

The Aaron’s 312 Busch event is set for this Saturday. Live coverage of the race begins at 1:00pm EST on TNT with radio coverage on PRN beginning at 12:30 PM EST.

I am hoping for great races on Saturday, and Sunday and hope that you will be keeping an eye on the Goulds Pumps Chevrolet & National Guard Ford along with your favorite driver(s).

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