Lack of funding may keep Bodine out of '09 title hunt

FONTANA, Calif. -- The highs that Todd Bodine experienced after winning the season-opening Camping World Truck Series race last weekend at Daytona quickly disappeared when that success failed to translate into a single call from a potential full-season sponsor.

"Not a one," Bodine said Friday at Auto Club Speedway, site of Saturday's San Bernandino County 200 (3 p.m. ET, FOX).

So Germain Racing's No. 30 Toyota comes into this weekend with two goals. One is concrete: Win the race and remain atop the points. The other is more abstract: Find a way to keep the team in operation after Atlanta.

Bodine made huge strides on the first goal by running the fastest lap in Thursday's final practice. His 15th and final lap was clocked at 171.278 mph, almost a tenth of a second faster than second-place Ron Hornaday.

Speeds:Practice 1 | Practice 2

"We knew we were going to Daytona," Bodine said. "After that, we didn't know. We weren't sure we were coming out here to California, and obviously winning the race and making a little bit of money allowed us to make it here. We've got GEICO on the truck this week so that's probably going to allow us to go to Atlanta.

"We're taking it race-to-race. We're definitely not in it, by any means, for every race. Right now, we don't know what's going to happen."

What's it like to know that you have a team fully capable of running for the 2009 championship, but lacking the funding to guarantee being there every week?

"It stinks," Bodine said. "The crew's done a great job preparing just like as if we were going to run every week, running for the championship. It's tough not knowing from week to week if you're going the next week. That's the hard part.

"The guys have done a great job of not letting it bother them. When I'm on the track, it doesn't bother me. You go do your job. It's when you get away from the track and think about it, that's when it gets to you. So we try not to think about it."

Bodine said the key is worry about the things you can control, and not about the things you cannot.

"There's enough pressure and things going on, you just have to concentrate on the job at hand," Bodine said. "We have people to worry about sponsorships. That's not for me to do. My job is to drive the truck and go as fast as it can go."

With three wins and a third-place finish in the points last season, the team -- co-owned by brothers Bob, Stephen and Richard Germain -- assumed they would carry that momentum into 2009. What they didn't count on was losing their financial backing.

"The Germains have poured their heart and soul into this team and it is hard to not know what the future holds," Bodine said. "We thought we were pretty much set with Lumber Liquidators and in mid-December, they called us and told us they weren't coming back. That really caught us off-guard. It's hard to start in December, trying to find a sponsor for February."

Bodine said there's an all-out effort to try and procure money to keep the team operating for the rest of the year, but as each day passes, the chances of finding something grows more and more difficult.

"We've got a lot of people working on it and a lot of things going on, but it's a tough economy to try to be finding anything," he said. "Plus, it's tough to get corporations to make a decision in such a short period of time. It usually takes two or three months to get a decision out of a corporation like this, to spend this kind of marketing dollars. That alone makes it difficult on us."

So Todd Bodine and Germain Racing race as hard as they can, not knowing where -- or when -- it will end.

"Right now, that's all we know," Bodine said. "We're kind of taking it week-to-week."




Man, I hope Bodine can find sponsorship soon. Lots of members have him as their segment driver and will be screwed in the final 2 races of the first segment.  I can't believe after winning the Daytona 500, coming in 2nd this week and should be leading in points when Kyle Busch misses his first race, that the team can't find sponsorship. Hopefully someone steps up soon.