Bodines' Travelogue

Life on the championship trail certainly ebbs and flows, changing almost as much as the patterns of sunshine, wind and rain and last week's experiences certainly marked that for Todd and Janet Bodine.

Bodine won at Darlington Raceway to open up his widest margin yet in the standings -- 231 points over second-place Aric Almirola. Then came Bristol, a short track that's never been one of Bodine's most successful venues.

Todd Bodine and other coach owners take great pride in keeping their coaches spotless, and during his week at Bristol, Bodine had plenty to clean after storms got the better of his windshield.

But this travelogue centers on the journey including the highways and byways and Bristol has always been a Bodine family favorite. And so a sixth-place finish -- although it came with a 20-point loss to Almirola -- was icing on the cake to a five-day stay at Bristol, which included Truck and Cup races for Todd.

Week two of the Bodines' Travelogue gives a lesson on driving around big vehicles, the joy of kicking back or cruising around in the coach, how sometimes a vacation still means you can give back and what friends are really for.

Aftermath of a victory

Todd Bodine: Winning is great and obviously, with this championship battle we're in, so are the points that come with it -- but getting back to the coach sometimes is when the real bonus comes into play. That's when the fun starts.

Janet Bodine: After the race at Darlington, believe it or not we had pizza from Mangialardo's, an awesome restaurant located in Sayre, Pa. Some of our Pennsylvania friends are originally from there and brought some with them. Todd loves it.

Todd Bodine: If you know any of us Bodines, you know Mangialardo's is a real favorite.

Janet Bodine: We partied it up until about 1:30 -- a bunch of the other drivers came by -- and then we watched the replay of the race on SPEED. Thanks to them we get to actually see the whole race after we've been in it.

Todd Bodine: Janet wanted to get home on Sunday early because we have what our friends call the 'fun park' in our back yard -- cornhole, shuffleboard and a pool. But as always, something had to break. This time it was the driver-side shade on the coach. I had to drive home without it, and that was a tough one.

Janet Bodine: Still, we got home by noon, and unloaded all of our clothes and Todd took the coach to the shop to dump the water tanks and re-polish it.

Todd Bodine: You know, all the fun stuff that comes with hotel-on-wheels ownership.

Janet Bodine: But Bristol was next on the list and we both love Bristol. There is just some kind of feeling when you pull into that track -- it's a race, sure, and that's pretty serious ... but the whole environment is a lot of fun, too.

Todd Bodine: We park in the Nationwide lot, which is in that hollow in the perimeter road that's right behind Turns 3 and 4 of the race track. We've got a spot that's been assigned to us for years, right inside the gate, which makes it an ideal spot to people watch and interact with the fans.

Janet Bodine: We actually had the coolest thing happen. One of Todd's fans was looking everywhere, he said, for one of Todd's T-shirts and he couldn't find one. Somebody told him we had them on our coach and with our coach being parked right next to the gate, he was walking past and he saw our license tag, 'Onion 1', and he thought that just had to be Todd's coach.

Todd Bodine: Talk about a dead giveaway, right?

Janet Bodine: Anyway, the lot we're in, which is actually down behind the Darrell Waltrip Grandstand, is semi-secured, but nowhere near as secure as the Cup driver/owner lot is. So this guy was real polite and real cool about it -- he just knocked on the door. He wanted a large shirt, but we didn't have any left, so he took an XL and Todd signed it for him and he just thought it was the coolest thing that he was at Todd's coach and that Todd signed his shirt.

A tough road to go

Todd Bodine: To get to Bristol we go up I-77 and then across on I-81, down through Abingdon, Va. We don't go the other way, which is still all on highways, but I-26 is real tough on a coach, going up and down hills.

Janet Bodine: And it might be highway driving, but it's never dull.

Todd Bodine: I've been racing for so long, it's become something I just naturally transfer back-and-forth to driving on the street -- and especially driving the coach. I try to be aware of my surroundings, what's around me on all sides and really paying attention to my mirrors and my driving.

Janet Bodine: Remember, the coach is about as long as a tractor-trailer and the last thing you want to get is a surprise.

Todd Bodine: When you're driving something that big and heavy, you're not going to stop right away and you're not going to be able to avoid anything. You always have to be aware of your surroundings -- who's around you and what they're doing.

Janet Bodine: People just aren't aware of what it means to be driving a vehicle that's the size of that coach -- or a tractor-trailer.

Todd Bodine: Absolutely not. I'm yelling at people constantly to pay attention -- just saying 'pay attention, please.' They cut you off, and then they slow right down to nothing in the passing lane. It's just ridiculous how people drive, and I don't think they teach in Drivers Ed any more that there's a travel lane and a passing lane. I just can't see how they do, because people just get out in the passing lane and ride.

Janet Bodine: The funniest part to me -- and we talked about this before, what a competition these coach guys have about keeping their coaches spotless -- but after Todd had busted his butt cleaning and detailing the coach, about halfway to Bristol, we hit these wicked storms. So he had to start all over again.

Todd Bodine: No, hell no, it's not just like racing at Bristol where you're bound to get a few dings and scrapes. If you don't run into rain, your coach won't get dirty on the way there; you'll just get some bugs on the front. So everybody cleans 'em before they leave.

Janet Bodine: And then it rains.

Todd Bodine: Well, I guess it is like taking a gamble, to a certain degree. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't just like racing at Bristol. And so I spent the whole time at Bristol with a dirty coach, because it rained off-and-on and I wasn't gonna clean it again.

Janet Bodine: We were in the lot with a lot of our pals from the Nationwide Series. Michael Annett's driver and Brian Scott's driver and some of the others who had been out in the Midwest with us and it was terrible watching them scrambling around keeping their stuff all cleaned-up. (Continued)