Bodine/Excedrin road heads back to Darlington.

Todd Bodine and Herzog Motorsports head to Darlington Raceway this weekend ready to take on one of the toughest tracks on which NASCAR competes. The site of their first race together, Bodine and the crew have come a long way in a relatively short time.

With just 10 events left on the 2002 NASCAR Busch Series schedule, Bodine and crew chief Tony (Rambo) Liberati look forward to heading back to the tracks that treated them well the first time around. The Excedrin Racing team includes Darlington Raceway on that list, since Bodine and the team, in their first race together, finished eighth there in the spring.

"We ran pretty well here in the spring," commented Bodine. "We probably had a good enough car to finish in the top-five, but we got a little fender damage early in the race and that hurt us a bit. We've certainly come a long way since the spring race here. Rambo and I, and the rest of the crew have learned so much about what we needed to do to make this year a success. This is a great team to work with and I really enjoy being a part of it."

There are few tracks on the Busch Series schedule at which Bodine hasn't experienced a good deal of success, and Darlington Raceway is no exception. With 17 Busch Series starts under his belt, Bodine knows the track inside and out. Bodine, who has a 53 percent Busch Series career top-10 rate, has posted 13 top-10 finishes at the 1.366-mile oval, which means he has finished in the top 10 an amazing 76 percent of the time. In addition, Bodine has scored six top-five finishes at the track.

Liberati and the team have prepared a different Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the event in Darlington, S.C. this time around. HJM-12, the car of choice this weekend, has only seen the track in one other event this season. The car was utilized at Pikes Peak (Colo.) International Raceway in July, but mechanical problems sidelined the car early. Plans are for this particular Excedrin QuickTabs Chevy to be run again at both Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park and North Carolina Speedway depending on its performance this weekend.

"I've raced at Darlington Raceway and have had a bunch of good finishes, but a victory eludes me," said Bodine. "I know that I am capable of a win there and I know the team is capable of a winning as well, but they don't call this 'The Track too Tough to Tame' for nothing."