CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Imagine Dale Earnhardt Jr. holding the pit sign that he had so much trouble seeing at Daytona International Speedway. Or Greg Biffle running around the side of the No. 16 Ford with the air hose he ran over at California. Or Jeff Gordon changing the tire he blew when he approached pit road at Las Vegas with a little too much speed.
Can't happen in big-time Sprint Cup racing, right?
Well, not if you're one of the big guys. But if you're 1986 Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine working for a start-up team with a limited budget, anything is possible.
Bodine served as the catch-can man Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the No. 64 car with which he attempted to qualify for the Daytona 500 three weeks earlier. This weekend he'll be back behind the wheel at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where in 1997 he set the track record with a speed of 197.478 mph.
"We're a very low-funded team," Bodine said. "That means everyone involved has to work. We needed crew members last week as my brother Todd drove the car, so I volunteered to be a catch-can man.
"I can't jack. I'm not big enough. I can't carry those tires out there. They're too heavy for me. I can't carry that fuel can. So I decided I can pick up the catch can. I did a pretty good job."
At 59, Bodine had to be the oldest over-the-wall member at Vegas.
"Thanks for the reminder," he said. "I don't feel it or act it."
No, he doesn't. He talks as if he can hold his own against some of the younger drivers, even though he doesn't have the equipment to do so.
And for the record, this wasn't the first time Bodine served on a pit crew. He was a gas man for a good friend during the early '70s.
But for most of Bodine's career, he's been steering the car, not servicing it.
"It was strange," he admitted. "But for a ragtag bunch of guys, we did a great job. We didn't have any 16-second stops, but we did OK. It's just a shame the engine failed toward the end of the race."
Stories such as these are the product of the tough economic times. Larry Gunselman may not have fielded a car had the price to put it on the track been as high as in years past.
"It's a great story," Bodine said. "It's one of the more interesting stories this season, with new teams popping up and giving jobs to mechanics and crew members that are out of work."
It would be an even better story if Bodine makes Sunday's race.
"I don't think I can break that record again," he said with a laugh. "I'm not even going to try. Our goal is to qualify for the race and then be respectable."
And if the crew needs help on a pit stop? Nah, Bodine won't carry the story that far.
"I'll already be over the wall as a driver," he said. "I just hope I can keep it between the walls and not in the wall."
David Newton
