Bodine takes 'wild ride'

[AP] Geoff Bodine's truck goes airborne and bursts into flame as it collides with Rob Morgan's truck in the Daytona 25 Truck Series race. Bodine and nine spectators were injured.

Geoff Bodine serious but stable after 13-truck pileup that also injures nine fans at Daytona.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 19, 2000

DAYTONA BEACH -- The truck flipped six times as it traveled the tri-oval at Daytona International Speedway.

Flames trailed. Debris flew. The engine was thrown 50 yards into the infield after the truck was hit a second time.

"It was," Todd Bodine said, "one of the most violent crashes I have ever seen."

Bodine's brother, Geoff, was at its center.

On the 56th lap of Friday's Daytona 250 Truck Series race, a bump between rookie Kurt Busch and Rob Morgan within a four-truck cluster triggered a chain reaction that gobbled up 13 drivers, injured 10 and put Geoff Bodine in an upside-down machine that had disintegrated except for its roll cage.

Nine spectators were injured when Bodine's truck hit the catch fence that separates the track from the stands. The fence kept the truck on the track.

Bodine was conscious when removed from the wreck and taken to Halifax Medical Center.

Glyn Johnston, director of communications, said Bodine was in intensive care and in serious but stable condition with a fractured vertebra, which will not require surgery, a fractured right wrist, a concussion and a sprained left toe.

"I've never been in a wreck like that in my life," Geoff said in a statement. "I was fully aware of the trouble down inside of me. I saw they were coming into me and then I just went on a wild ride."

"To come out of that with just some broken bones is a miracle," said Todd Bodine, who like his brother is a Winston Cup driver.

Johnston said driver Jimmy Kitchens was hospitalized for observation.

Eight other drivers and four spectators were treated and released from the track's care center. Five spectators were sent to Halifax.

Johnson said a spectator with a fractured left arm and one with facial lacerations will require surgery.

Joe March of Painesville, Ohio, who was sitting in the front row of the crash zone, said the spectator's arm fracture was the most serious injury, though the man was conscious when they wheeled him out of the stands on a stretcher.

"He had a pail of beer in his hand and was looking the other way," March said. "He never saw it coming."

March said Bodine's truck knocked the catch fence toward the stands and into the man, who was walking in the aisle and thrown into a railing.

"He was conscious, but he was out of it," March said.

It was the third time in less than two years fans have been injured at major racetrack crashes.

Three fans were killed and six injured at Michigan Speedway in July 1998, when pieces of tire and suspension went into the stands during a CART race.

Ten months later, three fans were killed and eight injured at Charlotte Motor Speedway when debris from a wreck at an IRL event went into the stands.

John Graham, director of operations, said 150 feet of catch fence and seven 4-inch wide poles needed to be replaced. The race was delayed 2 hours, 23 minutes.

But Graham said the fence, which is 9 feet high and sits on a 4-foot high wall, worked as designed.

"The catch fence kept the wreck out of the stands," he said.

The trouble started when Busch, Morgan, Bodine and Lyndon Amick began jostling coming into the tri-oval.

Morgan, who was in the middle of the pack, was nudged from behind by Busch. Morgan's wiggle caused Amick to shift from the bottom of the track to the top. Morgan was pushed along with him and got in front of Bodine, who went airborne.

"All I saw was a blur in my mirror cut underneath me," Busch said. "I knew there was a truck there and he kind of shoved up underneath me and the real estate ran out real fast.

"I was in the meat of the sandwich and tried to hold my line and stay out of the way, but I ended up rubbing a few fenders and the incident caused a huge crash."

"The problem is the trucks are going fast and they don't have any downforce," Todd Bodine said. "You get the rookies in there and it's inexperience."

The incident obscured a race that featured a record 31 lead changes.

Busch, who escaped with little damage, recovered to finish second, .237 seconds behind Mike Wallace. The top five drivers were separated by .348. The average speed was 130.152 mph and qualifying speeds exceeded 187 mph.

"I was fortunate I was in front of it," Wallace said of the crash. They (my spotters) yelled "caution' and I saw a big ball of fire in my window. It was a bad deal."

So bad that Todd Bodine had some advice for his brother.

"Don't watch it," he said.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.