Todd Bodine keeps on trucking

By Monte Dutton

Todd Bodine is the reigning champion of the Camping World Truck Series. In the past six seasons, he has won two championships and never finished lower than fourth in the season standings.

Though he is coming off a third-place finish at Darlington Raceway on March 12, Bodine faces challenges in defending his 2010 championship. It remains a struggle to secure enough sponsorship for his Germain Racing Toyota.

"We're not even close to set," Bodine said. "Tire Kingdom ... I think they're going to do four more (races). Valvoline's going to do a couple, and now we have one with Georgia Boot. We've still got a lot of races that we need to get sponsorship for.

"It's going to get better. I keep saying that since the end of last year, but it's going to get better. I think, by the end of the season, you're going to see a lot of things happening with sponsors, and a lot of these corporations are going to start cutting loose with some of their marketing money and swinging it our way."

Bodine, 47, is the youngest of three racing brothers. Unlike Geoff and Brett, Todd has never won at the Sprint Cup level, though he has finished in the top five seven times. With 21 career Truck victories, Bodine ranks fifth all-time.

"So far, our luck has just been horrible," Bodine said of the current season to date. 'Our philosophy is to go every week, do the best we can and what happens, happens. You can't control everything. We're pleased with our performance.

"The state of the series is pretty obvious. We've got probably the best field of trucks that we've ever seen in the history of the series, and we have a lot of younger kids coming in. The experience level may be down a little bit, but we've got a lot of kids who have a lot of talent and a lot of future and a lot of promise. The state of the series is strong ... really strong."

The winners of the season's first three races — Michael Waltrip, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne — do not compete for the championship. Bodine takes little consolation in that.

"We're here to win, not to finish second,' he said.

***

Monte Dutton covers motorsports for The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette. E-mail Monte at nascarthisweek@yahoo.com.

2011 King Features Synd., Inc.

Comments From Our Readers: