Geoffrey Bodine will say it flat out, with not the faintest hint of doubt in his voice, that his greatest accomplishment in racing has been the simple act of surviving.

He survived being from outside the South before being from outside the South was cool in NASCAR. He survived the politics that come hand-in-hand with being involved in the sport. He survived owning a team. And he survived one of the most vicious wrecks ever endured by a driver.

So, most definitely, survival is a big thing for Bodine.

"I'm still here and things are fine," Bodine said. "A lot of my friends aren't here, and some of our friends that are here are still dealing with things from accidents. Yeah, winning races is great. Winning Daytona was great. But surviving and doing something good with what racing gave me, that's what makes me most proud."

Bodine splits his time these days between a couple of interests. First, there's the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project that's been a central focus of his for 15 years now. Secondly, he's trying his best to get the word out about MonaVie, a nutritional beverage distributed through network marketing. He's on the road constantly, working on one project or the other.

First involved in bobsledding in 1992, Bodine continues to put together sponsorships for the sled he helped design. Those who use the Bo-Dyn sleds do so for free, making financial backing for the program obviously essential. To promote the project, challenge races involving a number of NASCAR and NHRA competitors were held in January 2006 and again this year in Lake Placid, N.Y.

MonaVie, on the other hand, is a blend of the Brazilian acai (pronounced ah-SIGH-ee) berry and 18 other fruits. The product seems to have become a particular passion of Bodine's, after coming back to it several times during the course of a 30-minute interview.

"Our food supply today is full of toxins, and our bodies are pretty sick," Bodine said. "We're sick. Kids are being born sick. We're all dying way too early and getting diseases. Put good nutrition in your body and your immune system works like it's supposed to, like God intended it to. It'll actually repair your body."

Again, it seems to be a part of that common thread that weaves its way through a chat with Bodine ... survival.

Bodine grew up in Chemung, N.Y., the son of a racetrack operator. He drove his first race at age 5, and eventually graduated to the North's motorsports staple, Modifieds. He ran his first few Cup races in 1979, and a few more in 1981 before making his first concentrated effort at NASCAR's premier level with car owner Cliff Stewart in 1982 and '83.

After that, he struck a deal with a Charlotte car salesman intent on starting a team from the ground up. Essential to the deal was not necessarily the new owner, but the opportunity to work with legendary crew chief Harry Hyde.

The car salesman's name was Rick Hendrick.

Bodine won the first race of his career at Martinsville in 1984, in just his eighth race with Hendrick and Hyde. It was the first victory for the team then known as All-Star Racing and now, of course, as Hendrick Motorsports. Both Bodine and Hendrick were on their way.

"I feel a part of all Rick's successes and Hendrick Motorsports' successes," Bodine said. "I helped get him started, that's for sure. I was his first driver. Harry Hyde and myself, I guess we put him on the map. He was just a car dealer that got involved in NASCAR, and Harry and I went out and won our eighth race together. That got it all started for Hendrick Motorsports."

Geoffrey Bodine, circa 1999

Enduring Performance

Geoffrey Bodine won the 1996 Bud at The Glen for his lone Cup victory in his native New York and the last of his career.

• Complete story, click here

At first, in the years with Stewart, Bodine was essentially an oddity, a driver who'd grown up somewhere other than the South. Then, when he started winning -- he would win Martinsville and two other races that first year with Hendrick -- there appeared to be a distinct change in the reception he got both from fans and inside the garage.

There were chants of "Yankee, go home!" during driver introductions. It probably didn't exactly help matters that Bodine wasn't one to back down from a challenge.

"From the competitors, [acceptance] was kinda mixed," Bodine said. "As long as you're not competitive and don't beat drivers, they love you. But as soon as you start racing with them and winning some races, they change their attitudes about you. You go through that in your career. Early on, everybody really liked me being around. Then, when we started winning races, it was like, 'Man, I wish he wasn't here.'"

Stories of Bodine's clashes with Dale Earnhardt have become legendary. The two men were seen as diametrically opposite as they could've possibly been, Earnhardt the good ol' country boy who made good as opposed to ... well ... as opposed to a damn Yankee. If that sounds harsh, it was a different time and a different place in NASCAR.

Bodine says that all of his on-track encounters were "special," but the one he most remembers was a weekend at Charlotte in which they locked bumpers during both the Busch and Cup events. The smash-'em-ups cost both drivers summonses from none other than Bill France Jr., a not-so-polite invitation to Daytona for a confab that eventually became a scene in Days of Thunder.

"We ended up getting our butts chewed out by Bill France," Bodine said. "He told us he didn't want to see either one of us do that any more. He said he ran the show and we were gonna do it his way. That was pretty humbling for both of us.

"The rest of that year, there were no confrontations. Dale quit running into people. That was his M.O., the bump and run. He started it. He didn't do that the rest of the year. He didn't do it to me, because we were told not to. He didn't mess with me, and I didn't mess with him."

There was in Earnhardt a prankster's side. According to Bodine, he was the first driver to stay in a motorcoach at the track, and Earnhardt teased him unmercifully about it before, of course, getting his own coach. And then there was the time ...

"All the confrontations we had never slowed him up as far as his joking," Bodine continued. "He'd come up behind you and pinch you. He was a pretty strong guy, and he'd grab me around the neck and choke me. He was always trying to aggravate me, and he did a pretty good job of it. I'm not a big guy, so he could handle me pretty good."

Another time, in the late '80s, Bodine and Earnhardt were running a Late Model event in Louisville, Ky. What took place would turn out to be "probably the funniest thing he ever did to me, and actually the meanest, the one that made me the maddest off the track."

What happened?

"We were out on a balcony, and he got some handcuffs off a guard," began Bodine. You know what's coming next, right?

"He came over to me and slapped the handcuffs on me and locked me to the railing," Bodine continued. "That started a war that night. ... I'm a little claustrophobic, so I didn't like being handcuffed and not being able to get away. It was pretty embarrassing, because everybody was there watching. Everyone thought it was pretty funny except me.

"It seemed like forever, but it was probably only 10 minutes. I told him, 'You get the keys and you get me out of these things right now.' He delayed it and stalled, but I said, 'I'm tellin' ya ... you'd better get me out of here. He finally unlocked the cuffs."

Bodine got his revenge.

"The war was on after that," Bodine said. "Needless to say, when we got on the racetrack, it was pretty wild. I ended up winning the race."

After leaving Hendrick Motorsports, Bodine would drive for Junior Johnson and Bud Moore, two of the most successful owners in NASCAR history. When Alan Kulwicki died in an April 1993 plane crash, Bodine eventually purchased the team from the 1992 Cup champion's estate. Bodine kept the operation afloat until selling to businessman Jim Mattei before the 1998 campaign.

Moving to a team owned by fellow Northerner Joe Bessey in 1999, Bodine entered the inaugural Craftsman Truck Series event at Daytona International Speedway in 2000. It would come to be a defining moment in his career. It's likely that Bodine will be remembered in years to come as much for what happened in the wreck as he will for being a former Daytona 500 champion.

Just past the midway point, the trucks of Kurt Busch, Rob Morgan and Lyndon Amick got together just in front of Bodine as they hurtled down the frontstretch. Immediately, the front of Bodine's machine lifted into the air, sending it then into the fence. It caught on fire, was hit by yet another truck and all the while continued its sickening series of barrel rolls.

Announcers Marty Reid, Benny Parsons and Ray Evernham were left virtually speechless, Reid managing only an "Oh my ..." and then another, before finally saying, "Keep your fingers crossed." His voice shook with emotion.

Bodine suffered a multitude of injuries, including a concussion, a broken right wrist, right cheekbone, a vertebrae in his back and his right ankle. He wouldn't race for Bessey again until late in the season. Today, Bodine says that he was able to talk to his father, Eli, during the wreck.

Eli Bodine had been dead for more than two years.

"It's the greatest wreck I've ever had," Bodine said flatly, without even a hint of irony. "Whenever you survive something, it's pretty good. The bad wrecks are when you don't survive. It changed my career, changed my life, kinda redirected things. ... It confirmed my faith. [God] definitely reached down there that day and protected me.

"Actually, if I had to, if I knew I could experience what I experienced that day, I'd do it again. That sounds kinda crazy, but that's how special it was for me. ... During that accident, I had an experience with my father. He came to me and spoke to me. I told him I was coming to see him, and he told me it wasn't time ... I had more to do. That's pretty darn special."

Two years later, Bodine finished third in the Daytona 500, running a one-off deal for car owner James Finch. It was one of the best stories never to get a lot of press, a comeback story the likes of which has rarely been seen in the sport. Although his last Cup race took place nearly three years ago, Bodine insists that he's not retired.

Not at age 58. Not ever.

"I'm not retired," Bodine concluded. "I want you to put that in there ... I'm not retired. I'm just in between jobs, so if anyone needs an experienced driver, I'm still available."