Whelen Engineering Company has stepped in to insure that Todd Bodine will race in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway. Sonny Whelen is a long-time friend of Todd and the Bodine family, and Whelen Engineering is a familiar name in auto racing. Whelen has been the title sponsor of the Whelen Modified Series for several years and also sponsored two SPEED GT cars in the 2008 season.
"We really appreciate Whelen Engineering and Sonny Whelen helping us out of a jam. We weren't going to Martinsville without a sponsor. What Whelen has done for us is greatly appreciated," said Bodine, who has had top-ten finishes at Martinsville in each of the three premier NASCAR divisions, but is still chasing a Martinsville Speedway victory.
While Whelen, who is a key sponsor of the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, will cover the hood and quarter panels of the No. 30 Whelen Tundra for the 250-lap race at Martinsville on March 29th, Germain Racing has the bed top and tailgate (or TV panel) available for sale for the Kroger 250 race weekend and the team is still seeking local, regional and national sponsorship in order to compete for the remainder of the season.
"We would love to think we can bring in a company that needs the competitive action of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the growing audience of SPEED Channel as part of their marketing package. The reality is that beyond Martinsville, we have 21 action-packed races that we need to sell. If we sell them one race weekend at a time, that's fine with us, but, we are at a point where we must sell all of them," said crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. "What Whelen has done for us is terrific. Martinsville is a track where we've come so close to winning and we would really hate to miss the chance to go for it again. We hope we can give Whelen a great race and great results to thank them for their support."
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series calls SPEED home for 23 of 25 races, and FOX Network home for 2 of 25 races. The Truck Series moved to SPEED, now in nearly 78 million homes in North America, in 2003 and has experienced five consecutive seasons of growth on the cable television network. The 2008 Truck Series season on SPEED was the highest rated ever, averaging a .80 and 585,000 households. On the year, 19 of the 22 races on SPEED saw year-to-year Nielsen Ratings increases, 15 in double digits. This year's third race, at Atlanta Motor Speedway where Todd Bodine finished second, earned a 1.29 rating peaking at 1.63 during the broadcast with 1,197,000 households tuning in to watch the Truck Series excitement, according to SPEEDtv.com.
Bodine has steered the No. 30 Tundra to top-five points finishes for four consecutive seasons, including the Series championship in 2006. He and Germain Racing are well-equipped to get your logo plenty of exposure. Visit www.germainracing.com to learn how to become a marketing partner of Germain Racing and tune in March 28th to watch the No. 30 Whelen Tundra in action live from Martinsville on FOX at 2:00 PM ET.
