FONTANA, CA. (April 28, 2003) -- The National Guard car was able to dodge several late-race bullets to finish 25th in the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. While some drivers did not feel as lucky, driver Todd Bodine shrugged it off with a smile.

“All I saw was smoke and then the 10 car of Johnny Benson slide by,” said Bodine who started the race in 34th position. “My crew chief sounded a bit worked up when he came on the radio to tell me how close we were to getting in the accident. I thought the whole deal was kind of wild looking from the driver’s seat. I can feel that way especially since I missed it.”

From the beginning, teams were put on notice that the typical caution-free event would not be in the works. Lap one put an end to that scenario when pole sitter, Steve Park collided with Ryan Newman. Both drivers were forced to park their cars for repairs. As for the No. 54 car, the starting set up was not to Bodine’s liking so when the third caution came out on lap 38, the crew made shock and spring rubber adjustments along with bolting on four new tires and adding fuel.

“We made a pretty big adjustment the first time around,” said crew chief Derrick Finley. “It was something we needed to do so that we wouldn’t get too far behind. If we got the car better on the first stop, then all we would have to do is fine tune it for the rest of the way. Track position here is very important. Cars have a tendency to spread out on long runs, so we wanted to be able to maintain our track position as well as stay within striking distance of our competition. We found that the longer the run, the better our car was against other teams we were racing against.”

By the third pit stop of the race, the pit crew pulled off a 15.74-second stop to help the driver break into the top 25 and stay there for the remainder of the race. However, it was the second to the last caution of the day on lap 230 that forced the team to gamble by staying out versus taking on new tires. The National Guard team chose to stay out in hopes the race would restart with 10 laps to go.  If that were the case, the field would take the restart in single file forcing cars behind Bodine who took on tires to start much further back and in race traffic. Unfortunately, NASCAR called for the green flag to be thrown with 13 laps remaining, therefore the Guard machine was at a disadvantage racing on older tires and alongside cars on the new Goodyears.

“It’s a gamble we had to take,” replied Bodine to the crew after the race. “It could have gone either way because the track was a mess after (Dale) Jarrett, (Larry) Foyt and (Johnny) Benson wrecked.  We’ll take this top 25 and work towards a top 10 next week in Richmond.” 

To Read More About The Auto Parts 500 From California:
http://www.nascar.com/2003/news/headlines/wc/04/27/bc.car..nascar.california.ap/index.html
http://www.nascar.com/2003/news/headlines/wc/04/27/fontana_wrecks/index.html

OFFICIAL RACE RESULTS  OFFICIAL POINTS STANDINGS:

Please click HERE to see pictures from our NASCAR on FOX shoot at Los Alamitos National Guard Armory.  It aired Sunday during the race.
 

By: Traci Hultzapple
Senior Account Manager – BelCar Racing - No. 54 National Guard Taurus
Cox Marketing Group / Mooresville, NC  28117