Bodine Plays It Safe and Wins

Roger Penske’s California Speedway closed a highly successful first year Sunday with an enthusiastic crowd of around 55,000 watching yet another study in fuel economy.

While Bobby Labonte and Steve Park spent most of the afternoon spinning around the two-mile oval at record Busch Grand National speeds, Todd Bodine chose to linger along in the pack, drafting every car he could catch and coasting through the corners to conserve fuel.

The strategy paid off, just as it did for Jeff Gordon in the California 500 Winston Cup race in June.

Bodine was more than 20 seconds behind Labonte with 10 laps to go when Labonte, who led 80 of the 150 laps, ran out of fuel coming down the front straightaway. In the final few laps remaining, Park, Matt Kenseth, Michael Waltrip, Robert Pressley and Mike Dillon--the other front-runners--made last-minute stops for a splash of fuel.

Each time one of them stopped, Bodine moved up another spot until he was the leader. Even then, he continued to draft behind Ed Berrier, who was a lap behind, until he took the checkered flag for the inaugural Kenwood Home & Car Audio 300.

“We knew we couldn’t race with the 44 [Labonte] and the 3 [Park], so we planned our strategy around smart engine-tuning, working hard on the pickup to get every ounce of fuel out of the [22-gallon] tank, and then I drafted every car I could, and through the corners, I coasted as much as possible,” said Bodine, youngest of the racing brothers from Chemung, N.Y.

“Frankly, I was surprised no more than two or three others pitted when we did the second time. It was our plan right then to go all the way.”

Bodine finished 15.9 seconds ahead of Park.

The winner made his first pit stop on lap 69, a couple of laps after most of the leaders. Ten laps later, during a caution flag caused by a spinning Scott Lagasse, Bodine came in again to top off his tank. After that, he carefully coaxed his Pontiac for 71 laps.

“Seventy-one laps?” Park said incredulously. “That was way outside the window we had.”

That gave Bodine 6.45 miles to the gallon for the final 142 miles, while racing at 145 mph.

“I’m not sure how the 36 [Bodine] car did it,” said Kenseth, the third-place finisher. “My crew chief told me there was no way anybody could make it. We were about 12 laps short. Lucky for us, we ran out at the perfect spot, in the third turn so we could make it to the pits for a splash.”

Labonte was not so fortunate. After he ran dry, he could not get back around and after being the dominant car most of the day, finished 30th.

Instead of the winner’s check for $67,200, which Bodine collected, Labonte got only $14,775.

Curiously, it was Labonte’s brother, Terry, who was victimized by Gordon’s fuel economy in the California 500. He was running second, anticipating victory because he expected Gordon to run out of gas--but like Bodine on Sunday, it didn’t happen.

Only four other cars were on the lead lap when Bodine crossed the finish line with an average speed of 145.083 mph. Only three caution flags, for 18 laps, slowed the pace.

Winners and losers alike were lavish in praise of the superspeedway that Penske built for $110 million on the rotting remains of the Kaiser steel mill.

“The track is just beautiful to drive on,” said Park, who started from the pole after a lap of 175.157 mph on Friday. “It’s so wide-open and it’s fast. There’s drafting, and there’s plenty of room for three or four cars abreast, through the corners. It’s so wide, and so smooth, it’s a pleasure to drive.”

Winston Cup driver Mark Martin, after running in the California 500, told Speedway executive Les Richter, “We ought to drop five dates off [the Winston Cup schedule] and come out here five more times.”

The Southern California motor racing public, starved for superspeedway racing since the demise of Riverside International Raceway and Ontario Motor Speedway more than a decade ago, has responded to the lavish new facility.

Approximately 325,000 fans have attended racing on nine days, three each for the California 500, the Marlboro 500 for open-wheel CART cars, and the past weekend’s NASCAR doubleheader with Craftsman Trucks on Saturday and the Busch Grand National on Sunday.

For the feature attractions, there were 95,000 for the Cup race, 90,000 for CART, 40,000 for the trucks and 55,000 for the Busch cars.

“I think we had a fabulous inaugural season,” said Greg Penske, speedway president. “We set new standards for our industry. What pleased me was that we improved with each event, and we attracted people who had not been race fans before. It’s a credit to our team that most of them are now racing fans.

“I suspect that next year will be even better. We hope to expand, to take care of the needs of our guests and competitors. We proved this year that motor racing in Southern California is alive and well.”

Although no official figure has been announced, it is expected that 35,000 additional seats will be in place for next season’s first race, the Winston Cup on May 3.

“The NASCAR race should be special,” said Penske. “We’ll need more seats. It’s NASCAR’s 50th anniversary and they’re planning all sorts of things. And by announcing our dates early, fans will have an an opportunity to plan their vacations around our races.”

In addition to the May 3 Winston Cup race, the trucks and Busch Grand National cars will return in mid-July and the Marlboro 500 CART race will close the season Nov. 1.