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Crash has not scarred racer's will

By JOANNE KORTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 19, 2002

DAYTONA BEACH -- Two years ago, Geoffrey Bodine was badly injured in a horrific and fiery crash at Daytona International Speedway. Most considered him lucky to survive.

Bodine

Sunday, he finished third in the Daytona 500.

"I didn't have anything to prove because I knew with good equipment I could do the job," said Bodine, 52. "But I guess I did prove that the wreck didn't take anything out of me. From Day 1, I wanted to get back in the race car."

Bodine, the oldest of three racing brothers, broke his right wrist, fractured a vertebrae and suffered facial lacerations in the 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck series opener. All that remained of Bodine's truck was the frame.

And its driver.

Before Sunday, Bodine had raced 16 times since the accident without finishing in the top 10. Sunday, he started 35th in the No. 09 Ford.

Patiently biding his time, Bodine worked his way to the front as many made their way to the garage. Two large wrecks -- one involving 18 cars, the other six -- eliminated half the field. In third sitting out a red flag with six laps left, Bodine schemed about winning.

Third was satisfying enough.

"I'm not over the hill yet," said Bodine, who earned $644,187. "I still love this. I still have my nerve. I'm not going to ride around out here just to be here. I'm too proud for that."

Bodine will race at least three more times this season. Owner James Finch has a Winston Cup commitment from sponsor Miccosukee Indian Gaming in South Florida for Talladega in April, Daytona in July and Homestead in November.

VIEWERS, START YOUR TVS: The Daytona 500 drew its highest ratings ever for start-to-finish coverage and was the most-watched auto race since 1984.

NBC's telecast, its first airing of the race under a six-year deal with NASCAR, drew a 10.9 rating Sunday with a 26 share, a jump of 9 percent from the 10.0 rating for last year's Daytona 500 broadcast on Fox.

The record for NASCAR's season-opening race was the 10.4 that CBS received in 1979, the first time the Daytona 500 was shown live in its entirety on network television. Sunday's race had the highest rating for any auto race since the 1984 Indianapolis 500 got a 12.9 rating on ABC.

Each rating point represents about 1.05-million U.S. television households, while share is the percentage of in-use TVs tuned to a given program.

GORDON GIVES GROUND: Jeff Gordon admitted he should not have tried to block Sterling Marlin after a Lap 195 restart. Contact took both out of contention.

"I should have just given up when he got beside me and still had a battle and shot to win the thing," said Gordon, whose No. 24 Chevrolet spun from the contact. "Sterling and I knew how important that restart was, and he got a jump on me. I tried to block him and messed up both of our days."

Marlin emerged with the lead, but was penalized by NASCAR for getting out of his No. 40 Dodge during a red-flag stoppage to fix the bent right-front fender. Even if he had not broken the rules, the tire rub likely would have kept him from winning.

Marlin was not mad at Gordon.

"If I had been in his shoes I would have tried to do the same thing," Marlin said. "It was just hard racing. This is the Daytona 500 and you're going to try to win the thing. It pays $1.3-million to win. You'll do a lot of things for a million-three."

STAYING PUT, ON THE GO: Two things happen the day after every Daytona 500: The winning car is put in the Daytona USA exhibition for a year and the winner is whisked away to New York.

"We're going to do what NASCAR wants us to do, but I fit in better in the little hills in Virginia," said Burton, an avid outdoorsman. "We're going to New York. We'll try to fit in there."

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

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