THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408070248
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
Geoff Bodine stood in his garage in Gasoline Alley, sipping Gatorade and staring at the wreckage of his Ford Thunderbird, oblivious to the muted roar of the stock cars that continued to circle Indianapolis Motor Speedway without him.
A semicircle of reporters and television crews waited patiently for the disappointed driver to tell them how he felt.
But who could put this in words? He had a car that could have won the inaugural Brickyard 400. He could have been the first NASCAR stock-car driver to visit Indy's Victory Lane.
But here he was, out of the race, staring at his wrecked car. And the driver who had wrecked him was his own brother Brett - a brother he hadn't spoken to in months.
What a time to have a simmering family feud burst into the public eye.
He decided to leave.
``There's no reason to go back out there,'' he told Ford motorsports publicist Wayne Estes. ``There's only 50 laps to go.''
And then he was on his way, ignoring the media. When they chased after him, he started running. And he ran the entire 300 yards to his race hauler, never stopping, never talking.
It would be many minutes before he was ready to talk, but Bodine had said it all in a radio interview with pit reporter John Kernan.
``He spun me out,'' Geoff said of Brett. ``Unfortunately, we've been having some family problems, and he just took it out on the racetrack. I love him. He's my brother. But he just spun me out.''
It happened on lap 100. Brett was leading, but Geoff had the faster car. In turn three, Geoff passed his little brother, nudging him as he went by.
In turn four, Brett drove back up on Geoff's rear bumper and hit it, sending him spinning in front of the entire pack. Everybody avoided Bodine except Dale Jarrett.
Geoff finished 39th. Brett went on to finish second.
``I had the better line getting into (turn) four,'' Brett said. ``I tried to get back underneath him and we came together just like we did in three.
``I didn't take it out on nobody. You don't take anything out on anybody on the racetrack. I wasn't worried about anything but trying to win this race. You just misjudge a little bit. That's what I did. . . .''
Brett said he hasn't talked with his older brother in months. They have had several on-track encounters this year. The off-track dispute reportedly involves several family matters. Neither brother would elaborate.
Geoff, after taking a long time to cool off in his race-car hauler, finally was ready to talk some more.
He said it was a racing accident. He wouldn't repeat what he had said earlier, but he confirmed that ``it's been awhile'' since he and Brett have talked.
``Family things are tough to deal with sometimes,'' he said. ``I guess we'll get it worked out.''
The dispute involved ``personal stuff,'' he said. ``I shouldn't have mentioned it, but I did.''
Todd Bodine, the youngest of the three racing Bodine brothers, finished ninth. But after the race, most of the questions he was asked were about the feud.
``It's stupid,'' he said. ``It's really bad when the little brother has to step in and knock some sense into his older brothers. They're being ignorant and being stupid, and they were both that today. And it's been that way for several months.''
Todd said he didn't think Brett wrecked Geoff on purpose.
``You make mistakes whether it's against your brother or Dale Earnhardt or Rusty Wallace or Mark Martin,'' he said. ``And the thing that happened today just happened to be between brothers. I'm going to have to talk to both of them. Hell, if I was in the middle of them, I'd probably be in the wall, too. That's racing.''
There was a note of irony in this episode. The Winston Cup series heads to Watkins Glen next week, which is close to the Bodine family homestead in Chemung, N.Y. Brett said his parents weren't at Indy on Saturday to see the race because ``next week is a big family reunion-type deal.''
TWO DRIVERS HURT: For Jimmy Spencer and Mike Chase, the Brickyard 400 ended with trips to Methodist Hospital.
Spencer pounded the turn three wall on lap 11. He crawled out of his car but appeared somewhat groggy and was nursing his right arm and shoulder. Still, he took time to look at his wrecked car.
Spencer was taken to the hospital for treatment of a shoulder injury, possibly a cracked shoulder blade, and was released Saturday evening.
Chase crashed with Dave Marcis in turn two. Chase was taken to the hospital with a possible neck injury and also was released Saturday evening.
NOT HIS DAY: As it turned out, Rick Mast's time to shine was Thursday, when he won the pole, and Friday, when he basked in the glow of that accomplishment.
Although Mast led the first two laps Saturday, he soon faded and eventually finished 22nd, a lap down.
``We don't know what happened yet, but we'll find out,'' he said. ``It ran like it was on seven cylinders all day, but we weren't.
``During practice (Friday), something happened in the electrical system. We thought we had it fixed, but when the race started, it wasn't fixed. We were about 1,000 rpms down all day. We should have been at about 8,700 rpm and we were at about 7,700.
``It'll take me awhile to get over this deal,'' he said. ``I felt I had a shot to win this race, but bad luck bit us again. It just wasn't our day.''
NEW POINTS LEADER: Although his Brickyard 400 started badly when he tapped the wall coming off turn four, Dale Earnhardt was back in the Winton Cup points lead when it was over.
After finishing fifth, Earnhardt held a 27-point lead over Ernie Irvan, who dropped to 17th after losing a lap late in the race to change a cut tire.
``I scraped the wall and we got behind there at the first,'' Earnhardt said. ``By the time we got our track position back, something else always seemed to happen. We went to the front and to the back so many times today, I lost count. But at least we finished up front and gained a bunch of points.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE RICKY RUDD REPORT
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB