Todd Bodine Looking for Victory at Pocono

 

 

By Dino Oberto

 

             When the green flag drops on the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) Pocono Mountains 125 this coming Saturday afternoon, the field will be stacked with a solid mix of series’ regulars as well as several NASCAR Sprint Cup stars making it anyone’s guess as to who will take the history making checkered flag. 

             With a track as unique as Pocono, you may want to go with a driver who has a respectable amount of laps at the Tricky Triangle as well as being a seasoned veteran with the trucks and in that case you need not look any further than current NCWTS point leader Todd Bodine.            

             A native of Chemung, New York, the 46-year old journeyman has one pole in 13 Cup Series starts at Pocono and, with the track being about a 90 minute drive south of his hometown, he also has many close ties to the Mattioli family run facility.

“I’ve been going there since I was a little kid watching (brothers) Geoff and Brett. I changed tires on pit road with Brett’s modified and then was fortunate enough to race there in the Cup Series and even had a pole there,” said Bodine who drives the #30 Toyota Tundra for Germain Racing. 

“Our family has a lot of history there and aside from Watkins Glen it’s the closest track we have to call home. The fact that the three of us grew up going to Pocono it’s very much a home track for us. Victories are hard to get anywhere but to be able to get one at Pocono would definitely be icing on the cake. I know it would be a very special win, we’d have a lot of family and friends there.”

             With a distance of just 50 laps, Bodine, the 2006 NCWTS champion, feels that Saturday’s race will be fan pleaser from start to finish.

“Well, I think you're going to see a heck of a race. I know everybody is saying that. You know, the way the trucks are and the drafting that's involved, the way Pocono is, long straights with a little bit slower corners, drafting is going to be very large, it's going to be critical,” said Bodine who has amassed 18 career truck victories.

            “I think a lot of the veteran drivers like myself and (Mike) Skinner and (Ron) Hornaday, guys that have competed there in the Cup Series, we're going to have a little advantage for a while. But I think that the guys in the Truck Series are good enough and the teams are good enough that they're going to catch up.”

             There are other factors aside from track experience that will play a role. With no notes to fall back on, teams will be thrashing throughout Friday’s practice sessions to find a decent setup. Plus with that short a distance there won’t be the benefit of making adjustments during pit stops.

“50 laps is short, it's a sprint race. You don't have time to mess around. The guy that hits the setup perfect is the guy that's going to win the race. We're going to have one shot at adjusting the truck. It's a one-stop race. That's why it will be a green-flag stop. The one that gets the setup on the money is going to be the guy that wins the race,” said Bodine.

NASCAR is also implementing a new qualifying procedure for the trucks. Beginning with Pocono the order in which trucks will qualify will be based on their practice speeds from final practice on Friday. Times will be inverted, allowing the slowest truck in practice to be the first out in qualifying on Saturday morning, with the fastest truck going out last. Trucks will be released from pit road in approximately 25-second increments. Two laps of qualifying will be allowed with the fastest lap counting. Once a truck comes onto pit road its respective qualifying lap is complete. No drafting will be permitted. 

Pocono marks the midway juncture for the NCWTS and Bodine brings with him a comfortable 177-point lead. Although maintaining that is paramount to a second championship, he still has a ways to go before thinking about uncorking any celebratory bottles of champaign. 

           “Our philosophy is simple: prepare every week to win the race. You go to the racetrack to win the race. If you can't win the race, then you do the best you can. You do the best you can with what you have and get the most points you have. That's how we go about it. Every week we go to win the race.

            “177-point lead is large, substantial. But when you got guys like Hornaday, (Tim) Peters and Aric (Almirola), there all right there. If we have a couple of bad races, they're going to be right on it. We can't let up. We have to keep doing what we know how to do and that's running in the top five and the wins will come along the way.”