BODINE: Returning To Roots At Pocono
07-29-2010 8:36 am

On the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule, Martinsville Speedway has served as the "adopted home track" for Todd Bodine for years. Now that Pocono Raceway is on the agenda, Bodine will truly be racing at home. A native of nearby Chemung, N.Y., Bodine has made appearances at Pocono for years and looks forward to racing at "The Tricky Triangle" in Saturday's Pocono Mountains 125.

"When I heard that we were going to race there, I was tickled," Bodine told The Citizens' Voice, a Wilkes-Barre, Pa., newspaper, of when he learned Pocono Raceway had been added to the Truck Series schedule.

Truck Series teams are very familiar with the tri-oval race track. Pocono Raceway was a key test track for Truck teams before NASCAR changed its testing policy at the end of the 2008 season.

"For a crew chief, Pocono as a race track presents a lot of challenges, but you are basically looking for the same result — the Germain.com Tundra has to turn through the center of the corners or it's not going to be fast. What we have with Pocono is a new track and new rules. NASCAR has set out an eight-degree camber rule for the left front and a minimum air pressure requirement for the left front tire. The camber is significantly less than what many crew chiefs would chose to run, so it adds another unique aspect to a track that's already one of a kind," said crew chief Mike Hillman Jr.

Hillman and Bodine prepare for Pocono Raceway as the leaders in the Truck Series standings. Bodine has a 177-point lead of fellow Tundra driver Aric Almirola while Germain Racing leads Kyle Busch Motorsports by a narrow eight-point margin in the owners standings.

Bodine will race chassis TRD-122. This season TRD-122 has been to Martinsville, Dover and Iowa.