Bodines' Travelogue

Downtime for racers and their families isn't much different than downtime for anyone else, and so it was for the Bodines as the four-week hiatus in the Truck Series schedule -- between Las Vegas and Martinsville -- continued.

Plans were made and plans had to be changed as Janet Bodine got hit with a case of the flu, which interrupted a planned visit to South Bend, Ind., home of her beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the site of the Studebaker National Museum.

Todd Bodine spent some time with Larry Karnes, owner of Larry's Pizza in Pennsylvania.

The latter is of particular interest to Todd after he recently became the owner of a 1930s vintage "Studie" that he plans to make a project of for at least this winter if not for the coming years.

Week eight of the Bodines' Travelogue meant returning from an all-around-successful trip to Las Vegas, getting things ready for Charlotte race week and preparing the motor coach for an upcoming jaunt to Martinsville, a quick trip to Janet's hometown in Pennsylvania and then a test session at "Little Rock," the Martinsville copy at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.

Sick, but not of short-tracking

Todd Bodine: As I told you last week, I kinda got hammered in the casinos at Vegas. Janet won $2,000 and I lost a $1,000.

Janet Bodine: But we had fun, anyway.

Todd Bodine: And the best part about it, Austin Dillon went off at 40-1 odds, and Janet put 100 bucks on him to win. Of course, we know he kicked our butts.

Janet Bodine: I hear Todd talking all the time about RCR and how good their stuff is, and I've been watching Austin every week and I think he's one of the calmest drivers, for a rookie, who's out there. It was an easy choice.

Todd Bodine: That kinda made up for not winning the race.

Janet Bodine: Anyways, as usual Las Vegas was a lot of stuff to do and a short time to do it in, which is the only thing that sucks about it.

Todd Bodine: Even though it was a week's worth.

Janet Bodine: But we got home and Todd did get to go see Timmy Peters' race -- the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 -- at Martinsville last weekend. Team Onion was a partial sponsor for Timmy's deal, so that was pretty cool.

Todd Bodine: Timmy ended up finishing sixth, so it was a good time. It's always a lot of fun going to Martinsville, especially for an event like that where you can just kind of enjoy it and not have the pressure of racing.

Janet Bodine: And I heard they had their best crowd ever for that race.

Todd Bodine: They had a great crowd -- I'd say around 18,000, which is pretty good for a Late Model Stock Car race. And they had 85 cars, with 42 of 'em starting the feature. That is the Daytona 500 for those guys -- it's beyond a big deal for them. The weather was great and it was a nice day.

Janet Bodine: And even though I wasn't there, it was a show, from what I heard.

Todd Bodine: It's the biggest race for Late Model Stock Cars, so everyone that's involved is all excited and all jacked-up. The heat races are usually pretty wild, but this time the heats were fairly calm but the feature was pretty bad.

Janet Bodine: The numbers don't lie.

Todd Bodine: Forty-two cars started and I guess only 18 or 20 finished. There was some helmet throwing and I heard one guy wanted to go into the care center and kick someone's butt; he was on a stretcher at the time.

Janet Bodine: All in a day's racing on a short track.

Todd Bodine: Most of the ones that didn't finish were kinda all torn up. But their season's pretty much over -- except for one more big race they have at South Boston Speedway next weekend. (Continued)