(born
April 18 ,
1949 in
Chemung, New York ) is the oldest of the three Bodine brothers (
Brett Bodine and
Todd Bodine ) who are all
NASCAR drivers. Geoff currently lives in
Cornelius ,
North Carolina .
Geoff'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 5 years old.
Geoff was quite an accomplished driver before he hit the big-time in NASCAR's premier division, the
Winston Cup series (now
Nextel Cup series) with his first start in
1979 . By this time, Geoff 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. Geoff had 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 ), as well as many 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 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. Bourcier, Bones. "Back to his Roots", ''Stock Car Racing'' (ISSN 0734-7340), Volume 24 Number 1, January 1989. For these fifty-five victories, Bodine is credited in the
Guinness Book Of World Records with "Most wins in one season".
Geoff's racing background also included wins in the Late Model division,
Busch Series division, and others. He has six Busch Grand National wins to his credit.
Geoff is best known for his NASCAR
Winston Cup (now
Nextel Cup ) 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. Geoff's biggest win came at the 1986
Daytona 500 . The season opener,
Daytona 500 , is 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 . Geoff's final win in NASCAR's highest division came in the "Bud At The Glen" in August of 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.
Geoff 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. 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. Geoff 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 . For the foreseeable future, this will remain true. 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 197mph.
Geoff was the victim of a vicious, fiery accident at
Daytona International Speedway in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series race on
February 18 ,
2000 . Geoff was on the outside of three trucks(one of which was driven by Kurt Busch, who was a rookie at the time) on the front stretch tri-oval during the 57th lap when
Kurt Busch and the others below him made contact and swerved into his truck. This caused Geoff's truck to become airborne and hit the catch fencing, completely destroying it (and rupturing the fuel cell in the process), leaving nothing but the roll cage intact. It then barrel-rolled down the track where it was hit several more times by other trucks before coming to rest on its roof. 13 other trucks were involved in the accident, making it one of the largest wrecks in NCTS history. As a result of the impact, Geoff broke his right wrist, right cheekbone, a vertebrae in his back, his right ankle, and also suffered a concussion. Nine fans were also injured in the accident.
,
2000 .]]
Bodine missed more than half of the 2000 Winston Cup season recovering from his injuries, starting only 14 of 34 races and finishing 45th in points with no poles, wins, or top 10 finishes. Amazingly, Geoff returned to the track that had nearly claimed his life to finish third behind
Elliott Sadler and the race winner
Ward Burton in the 2002
Daytona 500 . However, including that race, Geoff Bodine only made 18 starts in the NASCAR Winston/Nextel Cup Series between 2001 and 2004, with only one top five and two top 10s, both in 2002. He attempted to make the Brickyard 400 in 2004 driving for Gary Trout Autosports, but did not qualify and did not attempt to qualify for any other races that year.
Geoff's creativity and innovation are not just limited to NASCAR racing. Geoff is the co-owner of the Bo-Dyn
Bobsled Company. His bobsled interest started during the
1992 Winter Olympics when the U.S. Bobsled Team was having a tough time during competition. Geoff learned that the sleds being used were all imported and not built locally. He felt that he could help the team win with better bobsled technology derived from his racecar engineering background and experience. With these beliefs, Geoff took a few runs in a bobsled at
Lake Placid, New York to confirm his feelings and to learn more about the sleds.
Bo-Dyn Bobsleds (Bo for Bodine, "Dyn" for Chassis Dynamics) was created in 1992 by Geoff and his good friend and chassis builder, Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics. Geoff founded the USA Bobsled Project to help create a winning bobsled for the U.S. teams. The U. S. National Team first used their sleds in 1994. Ten years after Bo-Dyn's inception, the U.S. team won three medals in Bo-Dyn Bobsleds during the
2002 Winter Olympics in
Salt Lake City . Every January at the Lake Placid, New York track, a charity run is held with the US bobsled team and NASCAR drivers to raise money for the sled project. Participants have included
Todd Bodine (one of Geoffrey's brothers) and
Tony Stewart .
Geoff Bodine now goes by Geoffrey and enjoys giving back to the community that supports him. He has served as a volunteer fireman and is now a board member of the
Make-A-Wish Foundation .
Bodine was briefly mentioned in the movie Days of Thunder for coming in third when Cole Trickle won his first race at Darlington.
The Winston Cup teams for which Geoff Bodine has driven, the sponsors for each year, and the sponsors for the Craftsman Truck Series teams for which he has driven.
Note: In mid-
1993 , Bodine purchased the race team of the late
Alan Kulwicki and toward the end of the season, took over as driver. Bodine raced as a driver-owner through
1997 .
- Performance Connection- 1982
- Spectrum Furniture- 1982
- Gatorade - 1983
- All-Star Racing- 1984
- Levi Garrett - 1985-1989
- Budweiser - 1990-1991
- Motorcraft- 1992-1993
- Family Channel (#7 car, six races)- 1993
- Carolina Opry (#7 car, one only) - 1993
- Exide Batteries- 1994-1995
- QVC - 1996-1997
- Philips - 1998
- Power Team- 1999-2000
- Line-x -2000(Daytona 250 truck race only)
- Smirnoff Ice- 2001
- Miccosukee Gaming & Resorts- 2001-2002
- Discover Card- 2002
- Hills Bros Coffee- 2002
- Hooters Restaurants- 2003
- Race El Paso-2004
- Brut After Shave-2004
- Lucas Oil Products- 2004
- Mach One Inc.- 2004
