Bodine Turns Spin Into Win At Kentucky

By Paul Gohde
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Updated: September 3, 2010

Sparta, KY – Todd Bodine blamed Kyle Busch for a spin during Friday’s Camping World Truck Series Built Ford Tough 225 race at Kentucky Speedway, but he also thanked Busch for helping win his 4th series race of the season.

Bodine, who spun his Germain.com Toyota on lap 82, pitted for fresh tires and fuel, and then won a mileage race with Busch, whose hopes for a late race caution evaporated. Busch then watched Bodine take the checkered flag- stretching a tank of gas for 58 laps- while Busch finished 7th, ending his recent NASCAR winning streak at four races.

Battling for the lead half way through the 150 lap race, Bodine got loose trying to take the lead from Busch. Bodine lost control in turn four and was forced to pit for tires and precious fuel on lap 92; a stop that seemed at the time to spell doom, but eventually gave him enough fuel to make it to the end.

“Our misfortune turned out to be a fortune. I’d like to thank Kyle Busch for driving dirty, sucking me down and getting me spun out. That (stop) gave me enough gas,” said the series points leader. “He doesn’t cut anybody a break. He drives that way in every division in every race.”

Busch, who took exception to Bodine’s post-race comments, confronted the winner in the pits, but no harm was done.

Pole winner Austin Dillon gave up the front spot to Johnny Sauter on the second lap, leading to Bodine, Ron Hornaday and a resurgent Kyle Busch swapping the mid-race lead. Busch, who had qualified fourth, was forced to start in the rear of the field after repairing his Dollar General Toyota due to replacing a front splitter damaged during his qualifying attempt.

Bodine was running second, babying the gas pedal on lap 137 when leader Dillon pitted for fuel, giving the final lead to Bodine. Busch had previously been forced to stop on lap 127 when no late-race caution materialized.

Bodine finished with fumes in his tank, followed by Sauter, Aric Almirola, Jason White and Ricky Carmichael. Busch came home seventh.

Bodine stretched his series points lead over Almirola to 261 points, but was still unhappy despite scoring his 21st career win. “He (Busch) doesn’t have to drive like that to win; but he does. NASCAR won’t do anything about it. He was mad because I called him out on it.”

Imagine how Bodine might have felt if he had lost!

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

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