Todd Bodine: The Cup Series Chewed Me Up — And I Let It

Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes two-time NASCAR Truck Champion Todd Bodine to the Download this week to chat about their shared family history and his path to the pinnacle of stock car racing. Born into a racing family, Todd found himself in racing at an early age thanks to his father’s involvement with Chemung Speedway.  Todd’s older brothers Geoff and Brett would both rise from the NASCAR modified ranks in the Northeast to having opportunities in Charlotte for some of the top teams in the 1980s. Todd explains that after he assisted his father with work at Log Cabin Speedway in Virginia, he would follow Brett to Connecticut and begin his own racing career. When a big crash destroyed his car and his owner ran out of money, Todd packed his bags and headed south to Charlotte to join his brothers.

It was there that his shared family history with Dale Jr. began, as he would take a job working in Robert Gee’s garage on Rick Hendrick’s Busch Grand National cars. Race fans will remember Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s fierce rivalry with Todd’s older brother Geoff in the 1980s, which became the inspiration for the famed “Days of Thunder” movie starring Tom Cruise. Dale Jr. and Todd share their perspectives on the numerous family run-ins during that time, and Todd remarks that he just saw two drivers racing hard for glory. The conversation also covers Dale Jr. and Todd’s time spent together racing in the Busch Series in the late 1990s. The two would add their own chapter to the Bodine/Earnhardt feud when they had a run-in at Pikes Peak in 1999. Todd brings Dale Jr. a souvenir from the incident, and the two are able to have a good laugh all these years later.

 

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