ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (November 10, 2003) – A never give up attitude paid off for the National Guard crew as they crossed the finish line in 16th place at the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at North Carolina Speedway. The result was bittersweet after two prior disappointing finishes for driver Todd Bodine despite having a competitive race car.

“Last year, the team found a good set up for our cars,” said Bodine. “We raced fast but fell out because of right-front tires going down. We really wanted to finish this race because we knew we had something for them.”

Once the National Guard car was unloaded at Rockingham, it was fast. In the first practice session, Bodine and his team recorded the third quickest lap. The team was hoping to repeat the practice effort in qualifying but was forced to settle for 27th place after recording a lap time of 23.844 seconds or 153.548 seconds.

"I think there was an inconsistency of tires,” according to Bodine. “We unloaded really good.  We made some minor adjustments and then went right back to where we unloaded. We put the stickers on and it was terribly loose in practice. So we made some very minute adjustments in tire pressure for qualifying and put another set of stickers on and it pushed so bad it was ridiculous."

When the green flag waved for Sunday’s main event, the Guard car slid back in track position due to a loose in and pushy loose back to throttle condition. Despite the handling problem, car 54 was recording lap times as fast as the leader on lap 42.   

The first chance to visit pit road occurred under caution on lap 77. In 16.58 seconds, wedge and air pressure changes were made to help fix the car. The changes worked helping Bodine to climb from 25th place to sixth on lap 117.  

The turning point for the team occurred on lap 241 when the caution flag came out due to Mark Martin’s engine coming to a halt. At the time, car 54 was on pit road for a wedge adjustment, four tires and fuel. In an attempt not to get caught on pit road and losing a lap, the team tried to quickly get Bodine back out on the race track before the leader crossed the start-finish line. Unfortunately, there was a miscue. The right side tires were not completely changed. Bodine went a lap down and was forced to come back down pit road to complete the stop. The incident caused the team to go two laps down.

“Rockingham is known for putting teams down a lap because of inopportune caution flag periods,” said a disappointed Crew Chief Gary Cogswell. “I have gotten burnt so many times here in the past that when I heard the caution was coming out, it almost made me sick. But I have to hand it to this entire team, it was incredible to watch how they dug in and fought back. Todd did the same thing too. He drove his heart out.”

“We had a good car at the time we had our problem in the pits,” elaborated Bodine. “Instead of settling for the situation and finishing what could have been a top 30, we all regrouped to record a very respectable finish. The longer the runs, the faster we were against the competition. There in the end, we were as good as the top-five runners. We would have liked to finish up there with them but it just wasn’t in the cards for us.  

“We are doing exactly what we need to be doing to finish out our season. We are improving our entire efforts with good qualifying and race runs.”

Bill Elliott ended up taking the victory while Matt Kenseth clinched the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup championship.

“I want to personally congratulate Matt Kenseth and his entire race team for winning the championship,” said Bodine at the end of the race. “He will be a great ambassador for our sport.”
 

Official ResultsWC -- StandingsWC  --  Images Link1 -- Images Link2
Read More About The Event:  -- Rock Notebook -- Race Story
 

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