All Of It – Geoff Bodine’s God Story

This is the Truth Network I say this calls for action and now! It's like a symphony Just keep listening Every tune will start To figure out your heart Everyone plays a piece And there are melodies Each one of us Oh, it's glorious All of it today on The Christian Car Guys show, all of it Daytona 500 champion Jeff Bodine tells the rest of the story So, you know, how cool is this? We have Jeff Bodine with us live from North Wilkesboro Speedway to share the rest of the story and I love what Jeff shares on Amazon about his new book He says, my book will teach the non-race fan about auto racing and for all readers it will show how true faith in God and accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior might give them a miracle when they need one. So welcome Jeff! So fun to have you on this morning.

Well, good morning, yes. It's a little wet up in North Wilkesboro so actually we're not even there right now. We're waiting for the rain to go away but, yeah, we were up there yesterday and saw some action around the track the way the track looks great, looks very competitive and plus we're up there selling all of it to race fans and they seem to be enjoying the book, so we're glad they're enjoying it Yeah, we are too and we're so excited to hear more about it I have my good friend Jerry Mathis with us, he's our Christian Body Shop guy and huge race car fan, or NASCAR fan especially Jerry, I know, you said you once had a chance to meet Jeff? Yeah, and I was trying to think and I think it may have even been at North Wilkesboro through Junior Johnson that was in the middle when you were at the epic battles with Dale Earnhardt and Waltrip and cool to have you back at North Wilkesboro, that's for sure Well, I'll come back to this, probably one of the most notable things for people who are on the fringe of NASCAR that know Jeff Bodine for is one incident that happened at Charlotte and you can probably tell me what that incident is before I even mention it Well, I happened at Charlotte Absolutely Yeah, with Dale Earnhardt, boy we wish you were still here No, we had a lot of great racing there, we had some rough racing there we had some controversy of course and yeah, you know, I guess they're all pretty exciting but the race, you know, we all used to race Saturday races, all us cup drivers and we raced the Saturdays race at Charlotte and Dale spun me out coming off turn two didn't hit anything, just blew the tires, we changed tires, went out and raced side by side and everyone knew I was going to wreck him, of course I didn't I scared him a couple of times, made him go a little high but then Sunday's race, I gave him a little bump coming off turn two just to let him know I was there and going into turn three he forgot to turn and put me in the wall and wrecked me and that night I got a call from my team owner Rick Enrick and said, hey, you need to meet us at the airport in the morning we got a little meeting in Daytona Bill France got Earnhardt and I together of course with Rick Chilis and Rick Enrick and a lot of officials at the big table in Daytona Beach and he kind of chewed us out a little bit and of course that story is in the movie Days of Thunder absolutely, yeah, yeah and that really happened on the way to dinner after we got told how we were going to race the rest of the year we weren't in two cars like in the movie I hate to spoil the movie for people but Bill France gave me a set of car keys and said we needed to ride together and we were fouling Bill France, Rick Enrick and Richard Chilis and Earnhardt whacked me in the shoulder and said, hey, give him a shot I said, what? He wanted me to go up there and run into him I wish I had, I said, man, we just got our bus chewed out I tell you, I'll pull over and I'll let you do it he said, no, no, no, no, that's alright, keep going he wanted to get me in trouble again I wish I had gone up there and done it but I was a lot younger back then I was pretty intimidated by the meeting and so we didn't do it but they just made a little crazier in the movie but yeah, there was a lot of time that in Charlotte that we bumped fenders yeah, I'm gonna ask you about one because I've often wondered my opinion is you lifted a little bit to let him by passing the grass, which was only half the car was in the grass I mean, I was sitting right there and it happened right in front of me and I always said, Bodan had to lift to keep that from being catastrophic oh, no, that was Bill Elliott and Earnhardt oh, was it?

Yeah, you're right, you said, yep, you're right you're right, it wasn't Bill Elliott now, in the All-Star race and it might have been that one yeah, I think the weekend before, yeah, because it was I don't know, it's like everybody was getting their grudges laid out on the track and stuff you know, one thing about NASCAR that I really miss is just the rawness of it early on, I think we've kind of got out of a lot of that and, you know, just used to be it used to be real characters, yeah it's turned woke it's not a good thing you know, in the All-Star race the last ten laps, they used to have a last ten lap shootout Bill Elliott was on the pole, I was outside Earnhardt was behind me, lined up too abreast I got a little jump on, Bill on the last ten laps, going into turn one and we had a fast car and I knew if I could get in front of him I could hold him off for ten laps well, I got in the middle of turn one and two and I got spun out, around I went I didn't hit anything I was pretty good at spinning out and not hitting things and I said, who did it, who did it? and Rick Henrich got on, Earnhardt did it, Earnhardt did it well, so we finished the ten laps and well, I won it, and Earnhardt won and I went up to congratulate him and I body slammed him and this is how I was body slamming him, Rick Henrich said no, it was Elliott, Elliott hit you of course of course, then Bill ran into Earnhardt so we both got in trouble you know, Earnhardt, Bill was mad because of the passing of grass and I was upset because I thought he spun me out so that was pretty exciting but Bill and I both got in trouble that day I tell you what, it's some pretty exciting times back then that's raw, it sounds completely that way so the cool thing is that we get to see how God enters into this picture as we get into the story which I'm very excited to hear about that and so what year was that, those stories happening, Jeff? well, the beginning was when I was born, you know, we small town of Chemung, New York, farm boy chickens and dairy farm then my parents and grandfather built a racetrack when I was a year old and so you can imagine back in those days we didn't have this little thing I'm talking to you on cell phones or anything, any technology like that so we were outside all the time working playing football or baseball in the side yard but being a farm kid and having that dirt track you know, I helped my father he built me a little race when I was five and we believed in God back then but my goodness, we were farm kids and they'd race Saturday night so Sunday we were cleaning the racetrack up and so we didn't go to church a lot we did some, but not a lot we really didn't know what all that meant back then of course then I started racing the big cars and you know, success and things just started to happen and going and meeting the right people at the right time you know, we won a lot of races you know, I was designing and building my own cars we came up with a lot of new ideas for racing I hate to jump in on you Jeff but we got to go to a break and so yeah, that happens in radio I'll get to the good stuff here in a minute okay, we know you are it's interesting because my family is all from that Chemung area, the Dilmore family there's a bunch of graves up there that I've visited on time too so that's kind of cool, be right back with a lot more of Jeff Bodine and all of it yes, we are featuring Jeff Bodine today on the Christian Car Guys show as he tells the rest of the story but I should also tell you that that is Tim Wilson with the NASCAR song but the One Voice Children's Choir 29 million views on YouTube I mean, that's how popular that is and it's really, it just kind of takes you there is that your story affects so many other people's story you have no idea and as we were listening to Jeff in the first segment you couldn't help but notice how all these different drivers they played into the whole symphony that was happening in NASCAR at the time which clearly, you know, the people of NASCAR today ride on the shoulders of a lot of greats, right Jerry?

Oh absolutely and one of them is Jeff, that's for sure and so when we left our hero Jeff we were in Chemung, New York how fun is that? and your dad had a track and you started to design cars? Yeah, you know, I didn't realize this for quite a while but you know, I designed cars and built them, raced them, drove them of course when you drive a car that you built and owned, you tried to be careful so I learned how not to wreck because you don't get paid wrecking and of course I had a family so I needed to make money we raced, we'd go after all the big races and you know, through those years which was many, you know, I thought it was just me man, I was smart, I was really doing good I finally got my cup ride and full time was 1982 and man, I had everything family, two sons, a wife cars, trucks, whatever I had dogs and cats just the perfect life, I thought well I woke up and I wasn't very happy I said, oh, how come I'm not happy? you know, I've got everything I ever dreamed about you know, a career in NASCAR and oh God so good he sent some Jehovah's Witnesses to my door one morning and they knocked on the door, opened up, let them in and they had brochures and all that stuff and we talked a while after they left, I said, well, hmm now I know what's been missing in my life I said, you know, God's been missing I haven't had that relationship with him so I started searching for that and you know, went to some churches actually went to a hall and you know, I'm not a racist guy this might prove it, I went to an all black church near Greensboro, North Carolina but that was what got me realizing that that's what was missing in my life now through the years and racing earlier you know, we'd swear and cost and use the Lord's name as vain that's just what you did back in those days and one of my aunts, Rhonda Lou, came in the shop one day and we were swearing and she said, Jeffrey, you shouldn't use the Lord's name as vain that's wrong and obviously that made an impact in my life because I still remember that but when I started searching for answers you'd be happy you know, I eventually realized it was my faith that was missing in my life like I said, I always believed in God just didn't know what that meant and of course when I got the ride with Rick Henrick in eighty one, two, three, eighty-four, yeah and you know, things really started happening you know, winning races and you know, just accomplishing everything I dreamed about in racing and racing against my hero, Richard Petty that was fantastic, I was more nervous about racing with him than a race I was, he was my hero but driving home one night from the race shop in Charlotte I was living in the little town of Julian, just south of Greensboro it was about one or two in the morning working, I always liked to work on the cars with the guys, being around the shop and I was driving home at probably about one thirty or so at night and it just came to me tears came to my eyes and I just gave myself to the Lord asked him to come into my life and asked him if I could come in his boy, things changed immediately I mean, really, immediately you know, I was happier more at peace earlier in my career it was always kind of like, just perfect you know, winning races, I mean I won more races in one year than any NASCAR driver's ever done so I mean, you've got to be happy with that but that didn't make me happy but when I gave my life to the Lord and accepted Jesus that's when I became happy but my career became up and down you know, that's when the devil comes after you you don't have that faith as long as you don't have that faith and don't show it and don't live it the devil's got you that's what he wants but as soon as you get that faith, that real faith and you know, the Lord knows if it's real or not a lot of people go to church just for show I had a friend one Sunday call me I said, where are you? well I'm in church well he was in church just to put on a show he wasn't paying attention to what was being taught to him but the Lord knows that my faith is real, he knows what's in your heart and he just kept leading me down the road now my road got rough you know, up and down, up and down no, we won races through all that but we had some not so good days too and personally, things were rough I ended up with a divorce and then I had, I bought the team with the late Alan Quickie's team after he was tragically killed I bought that team and as soon as we bought it he had Hooters as his sponsor oh wow they left me oh no so I bought him and lose my sponsorship on that note, we gotta go to another break of course, you know, I'm sure you're like me that's a wow, what a story and I'm anxious to hear the rest of it so stay tuned, we got a whole lot more Christian Car Guy show with Jeff Bodine coming up stay tuned his book, by the way, is all of it there are days of peace and there are melodies each one of us oh, it's glorious Jeff Bodine with us today his book is all of it Daytona 500 champion Jeff Bodine tells the rest of the story of course it's on Amazon if you go to ChristianCarGuy.com you can click on it there it looks absolutely amazing and we've been hearing this story and actually if you follow along in the book if I'm not mistaken there comes a chapter that says in 1993 there was a tragedy and I'm guessing that's kind of where we are right now am I right, Jeff? yeah, that's right that's when the laid down cookie was killed in a plane crash you know, I need to add this too if anyone would like a copy of this book a signed copy they can go on teambodine.square.site teambodine.square.site comes out the house we live in near Melbourne, Florida and my wife Lori gets it and I autograph it and she'll send it back to you but yeah, when Allen was killed Felix Sabatus, a team owner and a very popular man here around Charlotte he was the executive of Allen's Will he said, you need to buy that team and I said, oh man well, everyone knew I was a hands-on driver and the late Payne Stewart was trying to think about buying the team but Mr. Quickie wanted a racer to have it and of course he chose me to do that and we got the team that had a sponsor of Hooters that Allen had and before I even got in the car Hooters left me because they wanted a certain driver to drive it I was driving for Bud Moore until I could drive the 7 car we had another guy driving it and so they left me so I ended up putting out a sponsor buy a team, no sponsor that's a tough position at the end but I knew it was going to work out didn't know how or when but it did and we got sponsors and we did good we won the all-star race in the 7 car that year 94 when I was driving right to Charlotte that was the first win for me with the team and just a stone's throw from the racetrack was Allen's job which we took over so that was a really great night and things were going up and down I got a sponsor later two years later and they cheated me out of a lot of money a lot of money and of course the money came out of my pocket to keep the team going and then I got some investors in the team and their plans were to get rid of me and take the team over which they did and my son was driving back then Barry, he was really a natural driver but he saw me, he was fighting for me in Daytona in 2001 when I was driving a truck the first truck race in Daytona actually Barry was going to drive it but they asked me to because I had won there and I had more experience and we were going to win the race we were really fast but there was a racket ahead of me and it threw me up into the catch fence with those big cables that kept me from going into the grandstand killing people, thank God but it tore the front off of the truck ripped the roll cage off the top I tumbled and flipped ran into me and ended up what was left of the vehicle on the side in the straightaway going into turn one and some fans in the grandstands took some photos and it shows me my upper body is laying on the racetrack in fire and thank God a fireman came out and put the fire out but then it shows a clear picture of me laying on the asphalt and when I first saw that I said, God, how did I survive? and Garcia said, excuse me I was there I was there protecting you and there's no, you know I survived a wreck that you can't survive everyone everyone thought that I was gone you just can't survive it well as they were rolling me to the ambulance now I'm in all this trauma I hadn't woken up I didn't wake up, didn't talk I didn't open my eyes but I felt this little oxygen mass slide off my nose now how do you feel that? with an ounce? just in a serious wreck I'm unconscious but I felt it slide off my nose and as the TV camera is showing him rolling me to the ambulance I reached up with my left hand tried to put it back on my nose well at that point I mean this was live TV everyone saw that I was alive my mom was home crying thought I was dead and she saw that I was alive and my family was there my son was spotting he thought he just saw dad get killed and uh so I mean that's that was a God thing you can't you can't lift that up you can't know the TV camera is showing you you don't even know where you're at I just felt that thing fall off my nose but that was a sign that was a miracle sign everyone saw that oh my God we just saw a miracle he's still alive and that's why on the book I put that if you truly believe and accept Jesus I mean that was my testimony he gave me that miracle to share with people and that's why I do uh that's really why I wrote this book uh it wasn't about racing it wasn't about telling how people cheated NASCAR it wasn't telling about how NASCAR did this and that to me I have a chapter in there about how we used to battle it out and that he really didn't like me Dale Jr. told me that so that's true but the reason I wrote the book was about to get this message out that if you truly believe in Jesus accepting your Lord and Savior you might get a miracle one day but even if you don't get a miracle you're going to be a happier person you're going to be able to deal with the tough times uh you know I mention them in the book because I want people to see that through those times I still had faith and I'm still going I mean I'm still active and I don't race anymore don't drive, heck I'm 75 I don't want to get, I don't want to hit a wall anymore, those walls hurt those walls hurt Hey 75 man I tell you what made me feel old on this side of the mic I'll tell you but you know there was about three times I thought I was going to die in crashes and uh obviously I didn't and the crash in Daytona I thought I was just going to be a little crash or going to knock me out, when I saw it develop it's amazing how your mind thinks in slow slow motion I said well this is going to put me out of the race you know darn it I was mad and then the lights went out and uh but I didn't think I was going to even get hurt there I thought I was just going to bump the wall and put me out of the race but there was other times when I really thought I was going to die and the Lord has saved me for some reason and now I know what the reason is and that's I wrote this book and he gave me that tremendous testimony to share with people and I do that I have a little video DVD that I do talks with men's groups and all of that you know I live in Florida so darn it you know it's hard to get up this way to do any of those talks with men's groups and churches but I show this little video shows when I was five years old up to and of course you know we used to build bobsleds for American bobsled teams and tell that story actually it shows me with the four guys they won a gold medal in Vancouver Jerry was Jerry was wondering about that bobsled right so and interestingly he also mentioned that because you were like an engineer like you loved designing that kind of stuff that was why you ended up with Quicke's team because he was like that as well right correct yeah that's why Mr. Quicke wanted me to have the team instead of Payne Stewart and unfortunately Payne Stewart got killed in a terrible crash so airplane crash yeah it's just it's really amazing that we ended up with this team and you know it I thank God every night for all the tough things that's happened in my life because it's made me who I am made me a stronger person, a better person a faithful person you know if you go through life and nothing happens you're pretty spoiled you don't realize how good God is it's an absolutely beautiful thing again we gotta go to another break but we wanna remind you that you can get an autographed copy of his book if you go to teambodine.square.site there you go go to teambodine.square.site and there you can see an autographed copy you can get and he'll get that to you I'm sure you're gonna want that one more segment coming with Jeff Bodine stay tuned everyone plays a piece and there are melodies each one of us oh, it's glorious today on the Christian Car Guys show we have had so much fun with Jeff Bodine, his book all of it, Daytona 500 tells the rest of the story Jeff Bodine, and so again we're gonna mention that if you go to teambodine.square.site you can get your own autographed copy but as I was listening to that song and thinking about really what God has been teaching me all week and clearly if you've had an opportunity to listen to Jeff's story all through the show, like wow and if you didn't get a chance go back and listen to the podcast cause it's quite a story but as he describes in a later part after he comes to Christ and he gets into some of this suffering, I've been, this is what God's been teaching me, it comes at the end of Hebrews chapter 11 there's the hall of faith and there in the hall of faith he describes all these champions of the faith, but then he lists some people that aren't named which by the way might be you and me because it says in verse 37 all this stuff happened before they were actually getting to go to heaven all that stuff happened before they got what they were looking for and then I love love love what verse 40 says and this will always be in my heart especially after hearing Jeff's story is God having provided something better for us that they without us should not be made perfect in other words, your story, your suffering all the things that you're going through is part of how you're making others perfect and Jeff's book's a perfect example of read this story to see how God uses your faith to share with other people how good he really really is and I can just tell you Jeff I am so thrilled to have had you on the show today and to hear more of this story but I want to make sure you got a chance to share anything that we didn't you didn't have a chance to share yet well oh there's a lot that's why I wrote the book and you know you can't share it all in just a few minutes people read the book and they'll understand the whole story and they'll understand hopefully that how important it is to be faithful to trusting the Lord and you know the number one thing in life is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior because everything else if you don't do that is going to be worthless, useless you can't get to heaven by good deeds now we've done a lot of good deeds but it's with faith that we've done them we introduced with a great lady up near Greensboro, Dottie Rollins we introduced Make-A-Wish to NASCAR back in the late 80's used to do all the Red Cross we could do and we even dressed up at Christmas time after Children's Hospital handed out gifts and now NASCAR back then they were afraid of Make-A-Wish but now they welcome them with open arms and the drivers do too so we're proud of that but yeah without that faith your life is empty it really is mine was for a long time I thought it was all me but eventually I wasn't happy and realized it wasn't all me I had somebody back there leading me along the way giving me the talent giving me the opportunity showing me where to go and now I missed a lot of them you know it's in the book and I might as well say here I was going to kill myself several times through some of these trials that I was going through and the Lord kept me going down the straight narrow road he wouldn't let me run in that median wide open in my Corvette he kept me going straight wouldn't let me jump off the balcony so you know without my faith I would have done one of those things I'm sure there's no question so get that faith and believe and really believe don't try to fake it don't go to church just to go to church go there to learn to learn the word get a good church you can go to where they teach the word I want to just say one thing because what you're saying stirs me man I tell you that's powerful but you know and I think you'll agree with this you know as God lays out our life and stuff there's times before we accepted Christ as Lord and Savior I mean he's still molding us and we're able to take those experiences and and all of a sudden that just builds our platform I a guy that works for me Dorsey in my office raced with you back up in up in New York area and stuff and one of the things he always said he talks about Richie and you and Baldwin and Spencer and stuff and he always say you know one thing about Jeff was he was always genuine and he was real of course he'd say Jimmy Spencer was a nut and crazy you never know what you're gonna get but but my point is when things start happening you know sometimes we don't understand what God is doing and what he's going to orchestrate and there are times and we feel like man you know what God what are you doing in my life what what is my life worth and everything but then if we just just with that faith and and and know that God is going to give us that platform especially when we come to Christ and then all of a sudden those life experiences give us a a voice in the darkness sometimes the people that only going to hear your voice is the one that's going to resonate with them because of what they were going through and what you've gone through and man I just praise God for that I praise God for the book and for you and an opportunity actually to share this with my audience and or our audience or God's audience however the people are listening today I'm so grateful that that you tuned in and get a chance to hear this story and you're on your way to North Wilkesboro and you actually have a title a chapter in your book North Wilkesboro yeah yeah well uh I was the last driver and team owner at the time was the seventh car to win a NASCAR race one lap ahead of everyone and I didn't do it I told everybody they weren't happy with me the other drivers I said look I didn't do it on purpose you guys just weren't going fast enough and so that was a great day for us but it was it was really that happened then some very tough personal times in my life and you know I'm sure God was behind it he he that uplifted my spirits a little bit but my faith is what's kept me going and and it saved me and of course you have friends along the way and you have friends and you lose friends and you know life is tough and today it's really really tough the world is in trouble the whole world we need more faith uh this wokeness whatever that is it's crazy uh so we need to be praying all the time for peace but you know what I mean this is what when when you have faith and you really believe you understand that God's in charge and whatever happens it it's in the Bible tells exactly what's gonna happen to this world and is it starting now I don't know I don't know it looks like it but no one really knows uh but he whatever happens you know it's gonna be good the end is gonna be good but you gotta have that true faith to have that goodness and you know I was very shy kid when I was growing up I'd hide if somebody came in the door even in driver's meetings in NASCAR I wouldn't ever ask the question I was shot but this thank God is he's brought me out he gave me this great testimony to share with people and all the opportunities like this this show you have and I appreciate it uh the Lord appreciates it and uh this is just the beginning yes it is yes it is God bless you thank you so much Jeff for being with us today we want to tell you one more time to get his book which is called all of it you go to teambodine.square.site and then you can get the autocraft copy right and and obviously you know uh what an opportunity to to really see uh you know how life unfolds and a chance to share uh in in his faith to encourage your faith again teambodine dot square dot site as always thank you for listening to the Christian Car Guys show remember slow down Jesus went every walked everywhere he went got it all done in 33 years thanks for listening