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NASCAR BGN: Todd Bodine looks for another strong finish at Rockingham

17 October 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

"If we could ever get a little luck in our corner we would be in great shape. We're going to Rockingham this weekend and that's usually a good race for this team. I have a win there and this team has finished in the top 10 during our last three races in Rockingham. We need to gather as much momentum as possible to finish the season on a strong note for Phillips 66." -- Todd Bodine

Todd's Thoughts On Racing In Rockingham . . . "Rockingham is my kind of race track. The ability to conserve tires is equally important to having a good-handling race car. We had a good car at Rockingham in the spring. We struggled during qualifying a little which put us pretty far back in the field for the start of the race. But we were able to come up through the field and score a top-10 finish. If we can get a good set-up on the Phillips 66 Chevrolet and get a little luck we should be in good shape. We had a real strong race in this event last year and we hope to duplicate that this weekend."

The Equipment . . . "Hillbilly" is the Phillips 66 Chevy that Bodine will compete with this weekend at North Carolina Speedway. "Hillbilly" is the same car Bodine finished fourth with at Dover one month ago. "Hillbilly's" other top performances in the 2000 season include a third-place finish at Bristol and a fifth-place finish at Darlington during the spring races.

Preparing For Miami . . . The Phillips 66 Racing team spent a few days in south Florida last week getting ready for the season-ending HotWheels.com 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It will be the last race of the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series season and the last Busch Series race for Bodine, who will move to the Winston Cup Series in 2001. Crew chief Donnie Richeson said the team learned that the race this year will be quite a bit different than previous Busch Series events at the 1.5-mile facility.

"The new bodies on the Monte Carlos have pretty much changed everything on the set-up of these cars from previous years," Richeson explained. "It's been the same story all year long at all of these tracks. The cars will be fast in Homestead and it will be different. We were pretty good during the test and we learned a lot."

Text Provided By Penny Copen

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