Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine had one of the fiercest rivalries that NASCAR has ever witnessed. Both were relentless drivers who settled for nothing less than victory — often resulting in on-track clashes as each tried to take the other out. Decades after the days they spent banging fenders, the story of their rivalry has been brought to light again.
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Geoff’s youngest brother, Todd, was recently invited to appear on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast — The Dale Jr. Download. The duo spent a few precious minutes discussing the intense rivalry.
Junior admitted he never understood why his father and a driver as skilled as Geoff clashed so often, seemingly without reason. The timing of their clashes on the track made no sense to him.
He remembered one Cup Series race in which Dale Sr. and Geoff were racing for seventh place in just the third or fourth lap. The former had spun his competitor out on the back straightaway and received a five-lap penalty. Junior is still aghast at the show of hatred.
When the mic got to Todd, he expressed a different point of view. “I look at things way differently than most people,” he said. “Dale’s wrecking my brother, and they’re racing and doing these things. It was almost a sense of respect, maybe for your dad and Geoff. The way they raced each other so hard.”
He continued, “I never disliked Senior because he was wrecking Geoff. It was more like these two guys are hard a** racers. They’re racing hard. I think that’s why me and your dad always had a different relationship. I never felt that way about him. Never held it against him.”
Dale Sr. and Todd Bodine: A surprising friendship
Dale Sr. was a rancher and loved riding horses. Todd owns a ranch in Mooresville, North Carolina, five miles from Dale Sr.‘s ranch. He narrated how the Intimidator would ride a horse along with his daughter, Taylor, and come over to his place to just hang out. He fondly remembers this happening four or five times a summer.
Geoff himself wrote in a 2015 column that detailed his relationship with Dale Sr., “Dale and Dale Jr. rode over one day and we jumped on the horses and went for a little ride together. By the way, he didn’t bump me or spin me out on horseback. We just had a good time.”
Many fans feel personality is what is lacking the most in NASCAR today. It is what starkly separates these two from the more gentlemanly racers of today. Perhaps they can take a page out of the Earnhardt-Bodine book of rivalries and entertain fans even better.
