Brett Bodine taps brother to crew chief

DOVER, Del. -- When in trouble or needing help, it's always easy to turn to family for help -- just ask Brett Bodine.

For this weekend's MBNA All-American Heroes 400 at Dover International Speedway, Bodine will have his older brother, Geoffrey, serving as his crew chief. Brett, driver of the No. 11 Hooters Ford, doesn't have a full-time crew chief at the moment and said turning to his brother seemed like a natural call.

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"He's the smartest guy I know who doesn't really have a job this weekend," Brett said. "I needed the help this weekend and I'm without a crew chief right now.

"The driver has his responsibility to make calls. But, you have to have somebody there to lead you around and give you direction. I have a great group of guys working with me.

"I just needed that one extra person with more ideas. Geoffrey is definitely the smartest guy I know."

For Geoffrey, winner of 18 Winston Cup races, this comes at a good time, as he isn't entered in this weekend's race. He has been driving the No. 09 James Finch-owned Ford on a sporadic basis this year.

He's also pitched in for brother Todd in the No. 26 Ford when scheduling conflicts arose between the Busch and Winston Cup Series.

This isn't the first time Geoffrey has helped out his sibling Brett in this manner.

"In the mid-80's, I was Brett's crew chief for an ARCA race in Atlanta," Geoffrey said. "We should have won that race. But, the crew chief was looking at tires on a caution and didn't realize they had given the one to go and we couldn't pit."

"So, we had to pit him under the green and he lost the race. My debut as a crew chief didn't go really well.

"This is a little harder than it was back in the old days and a little more complicated. But yeah, I'll be trying to redeem myself this weekend."

It was a short-lived effort for both brothers as the No. 11 Ford team failed to qualify for the race.