LONG POND, Pa.  (July 27, 2003) – National Guard driver Todd Bodine scored BelCar Racing’s first top 10 of the season with an 8th-place finish at Pocono Raceway. It was also Bodine’s career-best result at the 2.5-mile superspeedway and good enough to jump one position in the driver point standings.

“Everybody did an awesome job today,” said Bodine who started the race in 23rd position. “It was an entire team effort. Gary Cogswell did a great job calling the race and the pit crew got the job done in the pits. It’s great to finally get the monkey off our back with the top 10. We always knew we could do it, we just needed everything to fall into the right place.”

Before the green flag waved for the running of the Pennsylvania 500, Crew Chief Gary Cogswell told his driver that by lap 100 of the 200-lap event, a top-10 run would be in the works.  He was right.  When the race restarted on lap 75, Bodine maneuvered his National Guard Taurus into 10th place.  

“We struggled a little bit after we climbed into the top 10,” remarked Cogswell. “We had just completed a two-tire stop and it was worth trying. We wanted to see how it affected the car’s handling. It did what we expected. It helped loosen the car up. It was just more than we would have liked so we ended up losing some track position the longer the segment went on.”

The pit crew had the chance to tighten the car back up by making two pit stops on laps 102 and 119. By working on the track bar and air pressure, Bodine was able to break back into the top 20.  The biggest issue now for the Guard crew was gas mileage. Conservation was now the course of action since Cogswell’s strategy called for only one more pit stop. 

Less than 10 laps later, on lap 124, Jeff Gordon wrecked, bringing out the caution flag. Instead of pitting, the Guard car stayed out. Bodine chose to coast using about one lap of gas for every two circuits under yellow. During this caution period, it was determined that lap 159 would be the ideal time to pit for fuel in order to make it to the finish. But just one lap into the restart on lap 153, Tony Stewart lost an engine. The caution was back out and since the frontrunners were gearing up to come into the pits, Cogswell decided to call Bodine in as well on lap 154.

In 15.40 seconds, the pit crew was able to make an air pressure adjustment, change four tires and add gas. The fast service put Bodine back out in 19th place and since he was four laps short on fuel, Cogswell called the No. 54 back in to top off before the race went back to green. As before, fuel conservation was emphasized.  

Help soon came in form of two caution periods on laps 165 and 181. A total of eleven laps were completed under yellow. It allowed the Guard car to save fuel and race to an 8th-place finish.

"I was thinking,” added Bodine. “'Don't let there be a caution,' because we were pulling away from the guys behind us and running the guys down in front of us. I knew I could hold my own and get a good finish. When the caution came out, Gary said, 'Don't worry about it, you're faster than those guys behind you. You're just as good as those guys in front of you and maybe better.'  We didn't have the best car, but we had a good car.”

“If I had to guess,” smiled Cogswell after the race. “We might have a gallon left in the tank. Todd did exactly what he needed to do. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Ryan Newman battled Kurt Busch for his fourth victory of the year, the most of any driver this season. Rounding out the top five were Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, and Terry Labonte.

Unofficial ResultsWC - StandingsWC: Bodine picks up 1 spot!  Images from the weekend

Read More About The Race:
AP Race Story --- Gibbs Engines --- Ricky Rudd
 

HERE’S WHAT TODD HAD TO SAY AFTER HIS QUALIFYING RUN ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON:
(Qualified 23rd) - "We're real happy with that.  We made a lot of changes before qualifying - educated guess stuff - and the car was a lot better.  We tried something a little different coming here knowing that what we had last time was a 16th-place qualifying car and it looks like that's probably about where we're going to end up again.  But to get that run after what we were in practice, we're pretty pleased with it.  I'm working well with Gary (Cogswell) and trying to get all of our ducks in a row and get better.  I can see some light at the end of the tunnel."  
DID IT COME EASIER TODAY WITH GARY?  "Yeah.  Me and Gary - even from the first race we ran together with Buckshot's car in '01 - we've always just had an instant rapport that you look for between a crew chief and driver.  We've always gotten along.  We've disagreed, but we don't argue about it, we discuss it and figure out how we're going to agree and what we're going to do.  That's what you've got to do.  We're real happy with the situation and we'll just try to get better from here."
 

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