NASCAR Cup Series

Bodine to run U.S. Bobsled paint scheme

Published Mar. 2, 2010 11:44 p.m. ET

foxsports

In a nod to the U.S. Olympic bobsled medalists and his pastime, NASCAR veteran Geoffrey Bodine will compete in the E-Z-GO 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a paint scheme recognizing the U.S. medalists.

Bodine will compete in the No. 95 Dodge truck owned by Team Gil Racing and the truck will display the names of each U.S. Olympic bobsled medalists while competing in Atlanta.

Bodine’s interest in bobsledding came to a boil during the 1992 Winter Olympics and, after learning the U.S. was struggling using antiquated equipment produced overseas, he co-founded Bo-Dyn Bobsleds, the company that produced the medal-winning bobsleds used in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“If I hadn’t gotten involved in 1992 in the American bobsled program, people have told me many times there would not be an American bobsled program,” said Bodine. “They were out of money, out of equipment, and out of help. So yeah, I feel proud that we kept it going and ended up with a Gold medal in these games. I’m real proud. I love our country and this is another way for me to show that.”

Using his race-engineering background, Bodine partnered with Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics to produce medal-winning vehicles, a partnership culminating with Gold in Vancouver. The Gold medal won by the U.S. four-man team marks the first U.S. bobsled Gold since 1948.

“To be a part of something the whole population of the United States is really behind – it’s pretty neat,” Bodine continued. “In racing, when I won Daytona I had my race fans and it was great when the couple of people who liked me cheered for me, but in the Olympics it’s a completely different feeling to have the whole country cheering for you. “