NASCAR BGN: Todd Bodine Designs His Racing Career
20 July 1999
Todd Bodine believes in mastering his trade. His trade is stock car racing, and with 20 years in the sport Bodine now qualifies as an all-around racer. He's done it all when it comes to race cars from building them, working on them and driving them. He has worked as tire changer, fabricator, driver and crew chief in the sport of racing.All of this dialogue makes it obvious that Bodine's destiny has always followed the path of racing. It's hard for him, or anyone close to him, to imagine him doing anything else.
"Todd has always been geared toward establishing a career in racing," said Clyde McLeod, team manager at Cicci-Welliver Racing. "He was very dedicated to doing this for a living. You couldn't imagine him ever doing anything else. He started from the bottom and worked his way up just like his brothers. He was working on race cars long before he ever started racing them."
Although Bodine's professional life has always centered around racing, he has pondered the thought of what his line of work would be if he was not racing. In fact, he has gone as far as to incorporate his dream profession into his racing career. A number of people in the racing field are aware of Bodine's fabrication talents, but a lesser known fact is Bodine's artistic talents.
"When I look at things around me, I am always critiquing their design," Bodine said. "For example, when I look at some of the paint schemes of cars around the garage, I think about how maybe one design is really good or I look at a paint scheme and think about how it could be done better." His list of artistic credits include two of the three cars in the Cicci-Welliver Racing stable, including his own Phillips 66 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Bodine also designed the paint scheme of the Stanley Racing Pontiac.
"When Phillips 66 came on board as our primary sponsor, we immediately went to work trying to come up with new paint schemes," Bodine explained. "Phillips 66 executives submitted a few examples and I submitted the design I came up with. I wanted to create something that kind of jumps off the track so it would be easy to see when running with a pack of cars. After all, that's the purpose of being a primary sponsor. After reviewing all of the possibilities, my design won the vote of approval.
"But I also designed the Tabasco car last year as well as the the Stanley car. So the design on the Phillips 66 car wasn't my first time doing that type of work. When we took the car to the track in Daytona this year, there were a lot of comments about how much people liked the new paint scheme. After watching the races everyone pretty much agrees that the Phillips 66 car is easy to find."
Once the car was designed, Bodine went to work on the Phillips 66 driver's suit.
"Again, there were more than a few suggestions, plus Phillips 66 had their own graphics agency go to work on a few designs," Bodine said. "We knew we wanted something different. When I designed the uniform I wanted it to kind of match the car and I wanted it to be something that wouldn't burn me up in the heat. So I used the same red on black scheme with a white background. It worked and that's what we went with."
Bodine has designed driver uniforms, logos and transporters to list a few of his accomplishments. However, Bodine's artistic abilities have not been limited to the sport of racing. In fact, one of Bodine's greatest artistic accomplishments to date is the new house into which he and his family recently moved.
"We knew what we wanted," Bodine explained of his and wife Lynn's plans for their new home. "This is basically our dream home. I knew what we wanted and put it down on paper. Our architect took it from there."
What he created was a 7,500-square foot manor which is bedded along the backside of the Bodine property in Davidson, N.C. Surrounded by white picket fencing, the Bodine home features four spacious bedrooms, a game room, family room, media room, and pool to name a few of the emenities.
"One of the things that Todd was real good about was making good use of space," Lynn explained. "All the closets are real spacious and have drawers for folded clothes and a lot of room to hang items. That way you don't have as much need for bureaus in the bedroom."
While Bodine's list of design credits continues to grow, so does his creative abilities. While Bodine hopes to continue perfecting his design skills he isn't quite ready to trade in his helmet and driving gloves for canvas and sketching tools.
"If I wasn't racing I would definitely want to be working somewhere doing some kind of graphic design," Bodine said. "Right now, it's a nice hobby. Now, after I finish with my racing career, who knows what will happen."
Editors Note: For hundreds of hot racing photos and racing art, be sure to visit The Racing ImageGalleries and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.