Mixed family fortunes for Bodine clan.

When the dust settled after Saturday's Pepsi 400 at the Daytona International Speedway, two of the three Bodine brothers were celebrating top ten finishes while the other was surveying a completely mangled racecar.

2002 has been a tough year for all three Bodine brothers both on and off the track and Geoffrey, Brett and Todd all entered Saturday's Pepsi 400 hoping that they could bring some much needed cheer to their hometown of Chemung, New York.

For Geoffrey and Todd the seventeenth round of the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship would bring a much-needed fillip while for Brett it would provide an unfortunate, and costly headache.

In what is slated to be his penultimate ride for the #26 Travis Carter DiscoverCard team, Todd Bodine rallied to a fine seventh place in the Pepsi 400 after successfully avoiding a spate of late race incidents. Making the finish even more special was the fact that earlier in the race Bodine was involved in an incident on pit road with Kurt Busch and Robby Gordon that resulted in one of the #26 pit crew suffering minor injuries. The result was easily Bodine's best finish of the year and the best result for his cash-strapped team boss Travis Carter.

"In plate racing you can never give up," stated Bodine. "We had a pretty decent car before that deal on pit road that knocked our rear end forward. We got a bad push after that, but Donnie (Wingo) kept working on it and when that mandatory caution came out, we came in and when we pulled the rear end back all the way.

"It still wasn't back to where it was. We still had some push. The front end is tore up and the car is tore up on just about every corner, so to come out of here seventh, we're pretty happy with it. Especially with Billy (Curwood) getting hit on pit road. He's OK, that's the main thing. Discover Card had a suite here tonight and we got a seventh place for them. It was a bad night, but it turned out good."

The incident on pit road occurred during the first round of pitstops on lap 18 when some of the cars towards the tail end of the lead draft elected to make some timely adjustments and get new tyres. "The best I can figure, the 31 was behind me and he was trying to pull out after I pulled in," said Bodine of his viewpoint. "My guys were already out there. Whoever was in front of me, the 97 I think, hit him and turned him right into my guys. We were fortunate that nobody was really hurt.

"This is big. We've had a lot of problems with plate races. Normally we get caught up in the big wreck, but tonight we didn't. We made it through and got a decent finish."

Todd's older brother Geoffrey was unable to match his third place effort in the Daytona 500 behind the wheel of the Phoenix Racing Ford but he still gave his small James Finch-led team a finish they could all be proud of as he crossed the line in tenth place.

"Unfortunately, we never got the car driving good until the end," said the wily veteran who started on the outside of the front row. "I saw that big wreck coming, so I did back off and, thank God we missed it again. At the end, that thing was absolutely fast. I'm just thankful we didn't get in any of the wrecks. I thought I might wreck in the tri-oval when I got sideways, but we saved it and I'm just real thankful we're all in one piece and finished 10th. We'll just go to the next race and try again."

The 'big wreck' the eldest of the Bodine trio referred to sadly claimed middle brother Brett who had been on course for a seasons-best finish in his underfunded Hooters Ford.

On lap 135 Dale Jarrett and Jeff Burton tangled heading into turn one and triggered a wreck that swallowed up no less than 14 cars. Running in the middle of the lead pack, Bodine had nowhere to go and speared into the spinning cars of Mike Skinner, Jarrett and Joe Nemechek. However as the #11 Ford rolled towards the apron, flames erupted from the bonnet and Bodine was forced to bail out, thankfully without injury.

With the car totaled, not to mention singed, Brett was a spectator for the rest of the night and dropped to a 38th place finish.