Geoff Bodine (Donutsverse)

Geoffrey Edmond Bodine (born April 18, 1949 - February 18 2000) was an American motorsport driver and bobsled builder. He was the oldest of the three Bodine brothers (with Brett Bodine and Todd Bodine). Bodine Was Killed In A Violent Crash At Daytona Bodine's racing career seemed to be on track right from the start as his father and grandfather, Eli Bodine Jr. and Sr. built Chemung Speedrome just a year after he was born. He began learning his racing skills at this track in the micro-midget division when he was only five years old. He had such an itch to race that he disguised himself as a lady and entered a Powderpuff Division Race when he was 15.
== NASCAR Modified driver ==
Bodine was quite an accomplished driver before he hit the big-time in NASCAR's premier division, the Winston Cup series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series) with his first start in 1979. By this time, Bodine was well known as a Modified driver in the Northeast, racing against popular drivers like Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Jimmy Spencer, Ron Bouchard, and others. Bodine earned Modified championships at Stafford Speedway, Shangri-La Speedway, Spencer/Williamson Speedway, and Utica-Rome Speedway. He has won many of the big races in Modifieds including the Lancaster 200 (1978, 1981), Race of Champions (1972 - Trenton, 1978 - Pocono), the Stafford 200 (1978), the Trenton Dogleg 200 (1979), the Thompson 300, the Spring Sizzler (1980 - Stafford Speedway), Oswego Classic (1981), Cardinal Classic (1975 - Martinsville Speedway), Oxford 250 (1980, 1981), and other modified events.
In 1978, Bodine won more races than any other Modified driver in recorded history. Driving cars owned by Dick Armstrong with Billy Taylor and Ralph Hop Harrington as crew chief, Bodine started 84 feature events and won 55 of them. Among the most prestigious of these victories were the Race of Champions at Pocono, the Spring Sizzler at Stafford, the Budweiser 200 at Oswego, both major events at Martinsville, the Thompson 300, and a sweep of the six-race Yankee All-Star League series.[2] For these fifty-five victories, Bodine is credited in the Guinness Book of World Records with "Most wins in one season".
Bodine's racing background also included wins in the Late Model division, Nationwide Series division, and others. He has six Busch Grand National wins to his credit.
== NASCAR Winston Cup career ==
Geoff is best known for his NASCAR Winston Cup (now Monster Energy) career. His first full season in Winston Cup came in 1982 when he earned the Rookie of the Year title. He earned his first Winston Cup pole that year on his 19th start (1982 - Firecracker 400) and scored his first Winston Cup victory two years later on his 69th start at Martinsville in 1984 (This win was also the first win for Hendrick Motorsports, which was the team Bodine was racing for at the time). Geoff's biggest win came at the 1986 Daytona 500 season opener. NASCAR's most prestigious single event. Other career highlights include the 1987 International Race of Champions championship, the 1992 Busch Clash, the 1994 Winston Select (despite a first segment spinout), and the 1994 Busch Pole Award (now Budweiser Pole Award). Geoff's final win in NASCAR's highest division came in the "Bud At The Glen" in August 1996 when fortuitous pit stop timing led to Geoff taking the lead in his QVC Thunderbird while the other drivers pitted. Bodine managed to hold off the field the rest of the way beating Terry Labonte to the line by 0.44 seconds to claim the checkers.
=== Cup career highlights ===
Bodine has driven for some of the best car owners in NASCAR, including Junior Johnson, Bud Moore and Rick Hendrick as well as owning his own cars, which he ran for several seasons after buying the assets of Alan Kulwicki's race team after his death in 1993. He has 565 starts, 37 poles, 18 wins, and nearly $16 million in winnings during his Winston Cup/Nextel Cup career. He was honored as one of "NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers" during NASCAR's 50th anniversary celebration. Bodine has always been a great innovator and brought many ideas to Winston Cup. He introduced power steering and full-faced helmets to Winston Cup. He was also the last driver to win a race and lap the field, in the fall 1994 race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He holds the track record at Atlanta Motor Speedway from his polesitting run after the track was repaved in 1997, with a speed of over 197 mph.
=== Daytona crash ===
While participating the inaugural Daytona 250 Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway, on February 18, 2000, Bodine was involved in a vicious, fiery accident on the 57th lap of the race while driving the No. 15 Line-X-sponsored Ford F-150 for Billy Ballew.
The crash started when rookie Kurt Busch, Rob Morgan and Lyndon Amick were racing three-wide through the tri-oval front straightaway. In the exact moment Bodine moved to get around the outside of the trio, Morgan was turned across Busch's nose into the side of Amick's truck, who was at the bottom. Amick's truck was damaged in the contact, which caused it to veer hard right, pushing Morgan into Bodine who was on the outside. The contact between Morgan's front right tire and Bodine's front left tire caused the front of Bodine's truck to vault upwards over the outside retaining wall, sending his truck into the catch fencing nose first, at a speed of nearly 190 mph (310 km/h).[3]
The force of the impact completely tore the front of the truck into pieces and ruptured the fuel cell, leaving only small parts of the roll cage intact. Just as Bodine was coming back down to the track, it was hit driver's side by Lonnie Rush, Jr., which caused it to roll down the frontstretch. As it tumbled, it got hit yet again, this time by Jimmy Kitchens, which ignited the fuel that was spilling out of the tank. Bodine rolled nine times before coming to rest on his roof. The accident was so severe, the announcers, crew members and fans all believed that Bodine had died. Thirteen other trucks were involved, making it one of the largest wrecks in NASCAR Truck Series history. As a result of the collision, Bodine Was Killed When He Went In The Wall He Died A Gruesome Death