NASCAR-WCS: Long Pond II: Ford Racing - Geoffrey Bodine interview

NASCAR-WCS: Long Pond II: Ford Racing - Geoffrey Bodine interview

Post by pr.. » Mon, 29 Jul 2002 00:54:24

Geoffrey Bodine is substituting for younger brother Todd Bodine in the
No. 26 Discover Card Taurus this weekend while Todd competes in today's
NASCAR Busch Series race.  Geoffrey, who qualified 24th for tomorrow's
Pennsylvania 500, is one of four active drivers with three career NASCAR
Winston Cup wins at Pocono.  He spoke about his opportunity this weekend
and his plans for the future.

GEOFFREY BODINE --26-- Discover Card Taurus:

YOU'VE WON THREE TIMES
HERE.  WHAT ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR ANOTHER CHANCE?  "I'll get deep
here.  Whether it's racing or life, you can't look back at what you've
done.  Those wins are great and, at the time, they were really great, but
we're looking at now and things have changes so much in the last five or
six years.  People look at what you're doing now and not what you did.
What you did is just for the record books, so I remember those wins and I
remember the losses and near misses here, too.  We've had several, so
this has been a really good track for me.  I've led a lot of laps, but
we're looking at today and what we're doing with this team.  I'm pleased
with what we did yesterday.  I was hoping for more, so I was
disappointed.  But the guys thought it was great that we qualified in the
top 25.  That's good in today's world, it really is.  There are a lot of
good cars ahead of me, but there are a lot of good cars behind me, too.
It's hard to be disappointed with what we did, but now it's race time and
this is what's really important -- how we do in this race.  I'm anxious
to get out there and work with Donnie and these fellas to get the right
setup on the car.  I was here the last race and watched what went on and
listened to it, so we're gonna try to improve on what happened last time
here.  It took me a while yesterday to get the rust off of me.  The car
was good, but it took several laps to get used to this track again.  I
think we're pretty close to feeling comfortable out there as a driver --
where to go and what to do.  The limits of the car on these tires change
and when you're not out there every week, you have to find them before
qualifying.  You don't get a lot of laps out there, so it's hard
sometimes to find those limits.  You don't want to go over and mess the
car up, so you try to ease up to it and that's what I did yesterday.
Race practice is a lot easier because you can go out there with the other
cars and judge off what they're doing."

THERE WAS A LOT OF TALK AFTER
THE FIRST RACE HERE ABOUT MAYBE SHORTENING IT TO 400 MILES.  IS THIS ONE
OF THE LONGEST RACES?  "Yeah, they've always been long and they've always
seemed long.  We've always talked about the fact they should be shorter,
but I guess we're talking to deaf ears because nobody is listening.
Nobody understands our reasoning behind that, but this is a hard track on
your car -- your drive line parts because we're shifting and on your
engine because we're turning the heck out of it.  It's *** a race fan
just to sit there for that long, but, believe me, inside that car it'll
wear you down.  It's a lot of work out here, so, yeah, we're all in favor
of shortening this race up.  That would save the car owners some money
and I believe the race fans would enjoy it more.  If you look back
through the years, you'd see a lot of different finishes if it was 100
miles shorter.  But whenever adjustments are made in lengths of races or
anything like that, you just can't go back and look and say, 'Well, I
would have won if it had been shorter' because we all approach it
differently when they set out the guidelines.  Plus, it would be easier
to catch the flights home.  We'd get home a little earlier and wouldn't
have to race our way through the traffic to get to the airport.  But,
yeah, let's shorten the race up.  Let's make it a better and more
interesting race for everybody."

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTIONS TOMORROW?  "I
look to race with the guys up front and get the car up front.  That's
what all this race practice is about -- you put the right setup in the
car so you can keep up with the front cars or even pass them and lead
them around.  Everything is here to do that -- the car, the engine, the
team.  There's a lot of pressure on the driver to get the right feel.
He's the guy that transfers the information to the crew to make the
adjustments to get the right feel and if you don't tell them the right
things, you don't end up with the right setup.  So I'm anxious to get out
there and try to do that for Donnie (Wingo) and all these fellas.  If we
do, then we'll be up front."

YOU WANT TO RACE FULL TIME.  IS THIS
ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO SHOW EVERYBODY YOU CAN STILL GET THE JOB
DONE?  "It is, but that isn't what this is really all about.  This is a
great opportunity to get tuned up for Indy, which we're going to be in
the 09 car for that race.  So this is a great opportunity to get the feel
for these tires and just to be in a racing mode.  When you sit out weeks
and weeks and then you go try to race like it did here, it takes you a
little while to get warmed up.  So that's how I'm looking at this.  As
far as I'm concerned, I don't have anything to prove to anybody.  Results
are proof enough.  We've had some good ones this year already in the
limited schedule that we've run."

WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?  "The kind of
program I'm trying to put together for next year really doesn't include
anyone out here.  It includes the folks that are helping me put the
sponsorship together, possibly with James Finch and possibly with Travis
Carter's other team.  I'm not trying to get any ride that's sitting out
here today.  I'm not trying to knock anyone out of their seat or
influence any owner that's here.  We have our own program that we're
working on.  Now, if somebody comes along and says, 'Hey, we'd like to
have you drive the car,' I'd have to talk to them, but, hopefully, I
won't have to do that.  We'd like to put our own situation together."

-ford-

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