Although he has only made one Xfinity Series start this season, finishing 26th at Darlington with Joey Gase Motorsports, 57-year-old David Starr has hinted that his racing days are far from over.
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On his Let’s Go Racing podcast, Starr revealed plans to return for additional races later in the year with Gase’s team, though he stopped short of naming specific events.
His recent performances have placed him toward the back of the field, but Starr once had a reputation that made passing him a tall order. So much so, his peers dubbed him “Kidney Stone” — because once they got behind him, he was nearly impossible to get around.
The nickname resurfaced on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, where Todd Bodine shared a dramatic story from their racing days together.
Recalling a race at Loudon, Bodine said, “We’re at Loudon, and he was running good. I don’t know where it was. Probably it was the top-five, I think. And I get through some traffic, and the spotter says, “All right, that’s a kidney stone up ahead.” And well, I go up there and I went to the outside of him and he just broke loose or something.”
Bodine added that their truck had a real shot at winning that day, and they had already fought back through the field. Frustration boiled over, especially among the crew, who took the incident very seriously. As Bodine put it, “If you mess with them, you’re going to mess with all of them. And David messed with me, and it was on and it was on big time… Punches going.”
In the closing laps, David Starr spun Todd Bodine with seven laps remaining, prompting Bodine to retaliate by nudging the rear of Starr’s truck after the checkered flag.
That post-race tap lit the fuse for a full-blown altercation on pit road, where Bodine’s crew squared up with Starr’s. The scuffle escalated fast, forcing NASCAR officials to step in and separate members from both teams before things spiraled further out of control.
NASCAR later lowered the hammer. Starr was fined $10,000, while multiple crew members faced disciplinary action for their roles in the pit road melee following the Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2008.
Bodine’s crew chief, Mike Hillman Jr., received a $2,500 fine and was suspended for one race weekend. Mark Hillman from Bodine’s crew and William Divel from Starr’s team were each fined $1,500 and handed suspensions through the same date.
