Bodine

LAS VEGAS -- Todd Bodine brought his unsponsored Ford to Las Vegas looking for a name to paint on his hood. He found one.

Checker Auto Parts will sponsor the No. 66 car Sunday in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Saturday's announcement came a day after Bodine, the youngest of the three racing Bodine brothers said next week's race in Atlanta looked unlikely for the two-car team.

Original team sponsor Kmart withdrew its support following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in January. Sunday's race, though, will be the first without Kmart colors on the car.

"I read about Todd being on the pole in the newspaper yesterday and thought it was a shame that a team in that position didn't have a sponsor," said Maynard Jenkins, Checker's chairman and CEO. "I hope this helps the team secure a primary sponsor for the balance of the season."

Haas-Carter Motorsports is fielding both Bodine and Joe Nemechek in Sunday's race.

"We knew that having a car on the race track was what we needed to do to attract potential sponsors," said co-owner Travis Carter, who oversees the day-to-day team operation. "We're still working on other sponsor opportunities for these cars for the rest of the year, but I want to thank Mr. Jenkins and Checker Auto Parts for coming to our rescue here.

"When you're in a situation like this, it's important anytime you can offset expenses."

What recession?
Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a virtual sellout, with all 135,000 grandstand and suite tickets sold and most of the estimated 12,000 infield tickets expected to be gone long before polesitter Todd Bodine leads the field to the green flag.

With tickets in such hot demand, John Bisci, a member of the LVMS media relations staff, keeps a wary eye out for possible fraud.

Last week, he saw that someone was auctioning off a week of racing in Las Vegas. The problem was the offer included seats on Wednesday and Thursday, when the track is still closed, grandstand seats on Friday and Saturday and, since Sunday is a sellout, "seats in the grass."

"The only grass we have in the infield is the tri-oval," said Bisci, referring to the area between the frontstretch of the racetrack and pit road. "I don't think NASCAR would allow us to sit anybody out there in a lawn chair."

Eddie Gossage, general manager of Texas Motor Speedway, which will host a Winston Cup event on April 7, said all 154,861 seats are already sold, with another 60,000 to 70,000 infield spectators expected.

"We had a sponsor call us the day before the Daytona 500 and give back a block of 800 tickets," Gossage said. "They thought about it that night and decided it was a mistake. When they called back the next day, I had to tell them it was too late, the tickets were gone already.

"We had another big sponsor call last week wanting 900 tickets. We had no seats left, so they bought infield admission. I guess those people will just have to lean up against the fence to watch."

Looking down on NASCAR
Two Winston Cup drivers got a whole new look at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week -- from 20,000 feet overhead.

Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler took rides in an F-16 fighter jet from Nellis Air Force Base, just across Las Vegas Boulevard from the track.

"It was a whole new thing," said Busch, a Las Vegas native. "You're used to G forces in the car, but this was like having somebody weighing 10 tons in your lap."

Busch, who qualified his No. 97 Ford third for Sunday's race, said that while the downforce was new, the back-and-forth forces were not much different from a Winston Cup car.

Sadler, who drives the No. 21 Ford, took part in a 325-mph pit stop as his F-16 was refueled in air.

"That was amazing man. I've seen shows and photography of it, but have never experienced it myself," he said. "And it wasn't like the refueled was flying straight the whole time. It was in turns. We were in turns.

"That was a pretty good pit stop. I don't think NASCAR would like a pit road speed at 320 mph."

Pit stops