Bodines' Travelogue

And so it's come down to this, a merry three-and-a-half-month trek around at least three-and-a-half corners of these great ol' United States, as Todd and Janet Bodine took us all along on what's turned out to be a championship tour.

This isn't meant to demean the families and significant others of any of the other championship contenders, but the Bodines have proven to be a little bit of extra-special during this period.

Todd will be cruisin' in style this offseason in his '39 Studebaker rod.

The Bodines' Travelogue was a simple act of sharing their experiences, on and off the road and on and off the race track, with their fans.

Sharing comes pretty simply for Todd and Janet Bodine, whether it's sharing some homemade grub Janet had whipped up on the grill in the motorhome lot or sharing the expertise Todd has built up with two Truck Series championships in the past five years and more than three decades in the sport, on top of a childhood growing up at his parents' race track, Chemung Speedrome.

Todd Bodine's plenty serious -- you have to be, to wrangle a 65-foot motorcoach with a Tundra pickup attached, up and down the road. But he's also plenty able to relax, which makes him just about a perfect mesh with the Hillmans -- Germain Racing general manager Mike and Todd's crew chief, Mike Jr.

And that makes this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway the perfect finale to a season that had many more highs than lows.

The highs started right off the bat, with a pole at Chicagoland and an amazing spin-and-win victory at Kentucky in August. Through all that, Todd proved he'd tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they might.

The lows included losing his mother in October and watching dear buddy Ron Hornaday flip, right on front of him, at Talladega. But through it all, Tootsie pops prevailed.

And now, it's down to the finale, and one last chance to really let it all hang out with nothing to prove but the possibility of getting victory No. 5 on the season.

So driving the coach through that morass that is South Florida traffic certainly qualifies somewhere between middle-of-the-pack and a low, but once it reaches Homestead, ol' Short-bus -- Germain Racing's former show car coordinator Bill Jeter, whom Todd claims is the best coach driver in any series -- is back on call.

It wasn't a question that Todd and Janet would share this special weekend with Short-bus -- once the coach was in place. After all, there's going to be a pretty big party to clean up after Friday evening.

And once the cobwebs clear it'll be time to attack that 1939 Studebaker hot rod in-the-making. But that's another story.

Related:
• Week 1: Never a dull moment as family treks in search of title
• Week 2: At Bristol with friends, family and a fan knocking at door
• Week 3: On the road without the coach leaves a lot to be desired
• Week 4: After win at Kentucky, time to stop and reflect -- and shop
• Week 5: Pushing aside Cup dalliance to focus on stretch run
• Week 6: Night spent at hospital with Hillman limits free time in N.H.
• Week 7: Couple marvels at crew chief's tolerance, wine and dine the crew
• Week 8: Downtime means traveling, changing plans, preparing for future
• Week 9: Preparing for holidays, Hornadays and happy days
• Week 10: Gambling and plenty of partying caps hiatus; on to Martinsville
• Week 11: Todd faced with loss of mother; sends thanks to fans, friends
• Week 12: Scary moments on the way to, and at Talladega
• Week 13: Final preparations to celebrate second championship