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NASCAR Winston Cup Pepsi 400 Preview -- #11, Brett Bodine

1 July 1997

 #11 Brett Bodine, Close Call Phone Card Ford Thunderbird
 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
 Pepsi 400 Advance
 Daytona International Speedway
 
               BRETT BODINE NOTES & QUOTES: PEPSI 400

 
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Brett Bodine finished ninth in last year's Pepsi 400 at 
Daytona International Speedway. He believes another top-10 finish is quite 
possible in Saturday's 400-mile race a the high-speed, 2.5-mile track. "In 
July at Daytona, speed alone is not the key," says Bodine. "Handling is the 
most important thing in July. The track is hot and slick, and speed along 
will not do the job. I feel good about how our car will handle in the race. 
Quickness through the corners is so important in July."

 - Another reason for Bodine's optimism is under the hood of his Close Call 
Ford Thunderbird. Jack Roush builds the engines that Bodine runs. "When it 
comes to restricted race motors, Jack's engines are among the best as Mark 
(Martin) showed in winning Talladega," says Bodine.

 - Bodine finished 18th in this year's Daytona 500, one of seven top-20 
finishes so far in 1997. He had only eight in all of 1996. 

 - Bodine stands seventh in the number of miles run this season. Only Dale 
Earnhardt, Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd, Terry Labonte and 
Johnny Benson have completed more miles during the first 15 races of the 1997 
NASCAR Winston Cup season. Bodine has finished 6,038.266 of the 6,215,695 
miles run so far this year.

 - Because of his impressive finish record, Bodine stands 21st in the race 
for the the 1997 championship. He is only 118 points out of the top 15. 
"We've made a lot of headway during the first half of the season," says 
Bodine. "We are a lot better team now than we were a year ago. We knew we 
needed to take it one step at a time in getting in position to run up front. 
We knew it was not going to be an overnight thing. We have been a consistent 
top-20 team; now we need to start running in the top 15 on a consistent basis 
and finishing in the top 10 every so often. That's our next step."

 - Bodine's next top 10 this season will be his third of the season and match 
his total for all of 1995 and 1996 combined. "We struggled big time in '95 
and '96, but we are moving forward in '97," says Bodine.

By Sports Marketing Enterprises