Field full this weekend with B. Bodine entry

Bodine to drive No. 57 Ford for CLR Racing

CONCORD, N.C. -- The field for the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway will be full after all, thanks to a deal put together today between Brett Bodine and CLR Racing.

	Brett Bodine

CLR Racing and crew chief Joey Cudmore, whose team missed the race last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, put in a call Tuesday to Bodine. Bodine's team wasn't going to enter the race at Darlington because there wasn't a car ready.

Bodine, who has cut back to a limited schedule in 2003, then agreed to drive the No. 57 Ford at Darlington. His appearance helps avoid a short field of cars for a Winston Cup race the first time since the season finale in 2001.

"We called him," Cudmore said. "We were trying to get an experienced driver to give us some good direction and make sure we're building good cars. We've missed a few races with other drivers, but most of them have been rookies. We felt like with Brett's experience, he could point us in the right direction and show us where we stack up."

CLR Racing was started in August 1999 by Ted Campbell, running mostly ARCA events. Within the last two years, CLR moved to Winston Cup and has entered scattered events.

Jeff Fultz attempted to make the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend but failed to qualify.

That, and the assurance of making the race at Darlington, led to getting hooked up with Bodine.

"Originally we weren't, but we missed the race last weekend at Atlanta," Cudmore said. "We felt like we needed to rebound real quick and get to a track. Brett was available, and we thought it would be a good time to work together with him."

The team gets its engines from Robert Yates Racing.

Phoenix Racing, which entered the season-opening Daytona 500, confirmed that the team would not enter a car for driver Mike Wallace.

And Bobby Hamilton Jr., who failed to qualify at Atlanta in Team Rensi Motorsports' initial venture into Winston Cup, will stick to the Busch Series this weekend.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were no other teams entering, so the field will be 43 cars.

Carolina Dodge Dealers 400  Entry List

The last time a Winston Cup race ran without a full field was the New Hampshire 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway on Nov. 23, 2001.

That race was to have a full field when it was scheduled to run, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks postponed the event to the end of the season. By then, one team had folded, leaving the field a car short.

Before that, the last race to start with less than 43 cars was the Oct. 12, 1997 at Talladega Superspeedway, where 42 cars started the DieHard 500.

There were 45 cars entered at Atlanta. Some "extras" entered there but not at Darlington include Hamilton Jr., whose Team Rensi Motorsports team attempted its first Winston Cup race, Fultz and Bodine.

Forty-five cars entered at Las Vegas, too, with 43 at Rockingham and 51 at Daytona. Derrike Cope entered all three of those events but isn't going to race at Darlington.

Some other part-time teams that decided to skip Darlington include Travis Carter Enterprises and driver Hideo Fukuyama, Sadler Motorsports and driver Hermie Sadler, Donlavey Racing and Andy Petree Racing.

Darlington faced a short field last year in the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 before Shawna Robinson and Andy Hillenburg were late entrants.

A few other races averted the short-field fate last year with last-minute entries.

Notably, the first race at Bristol Motor Speedway, which saw the addition of Marcis Auto Racing to make it a 43-car field, and the first race at Pocono Raceway, where Carl Long and Frank Kimmel decided to race only a few days before the event.