Herzog-Jackson Motorsports re-hired Todd Bodine as its driver for its #92 Busch Series car, but the St. Joseph-based racing team is still seeking a primary sponsor. Excedrin had sponsored the Herzog car driven by Jimmy Johnson in 2000 and 2001 and by Bodine for most of 2002 but withdrew after last season because of financial difficulties encountered by its parent company. The lack of a primary sponsor hasn’t deterred Herzog-Jackson from trying to put together a competitive Busch team this season, nor has it squashed its hopes to eventually race a Winston Cup car. “We’ve done everything we would have done to prepare for the season,” said Randy Herzog, a partner in the team along with his brother, Stan; father, Bill; and baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. “We’ve upgraded the cars with all the changes mandated by NASCAR and also what technology has shown us we need to have to be more competitive. We tested at Daytona three weeks ago, went to Las Vegas for two days and spent a day at the wind tunnel in Detroit working on our downforce stuff. We’re approaching it like we’re going to sign somebody tomorrow. Some of the people we’re talking about sponsorship want to go directly to Winston Cup. We’re having those conversations at the same time we’re trying to get the 92 Busch car sponsored. You might see us during this season run some combination of races in both series.” Bodine had an inconsistent year in 2002 while dividing time driving the #26 Winston Cup car for Haas Carter Motorsports and the #92 Busch car, an arrangement he’ll maintain this year [the #26 is now the #54 in Cup]. He won the Busch race at Kentucky for Herzog-Jackson and had two seconds, two fourths and a fifth. But he also had a last-place finish after an accident at Dover and several other finishes deep in the pack. Bodine also was placed on probation by NASCAR for causing some accidents in Winston Cup races, notably a huge pileup at Charlotte in October. Herzog-Jackson put Tim Fedewa in their car for three races at the end of last season but decided to re-hire Bodine this year. “Todd’s biggest problem was he was overly aggressive at times,” Randy Herzog said. “I would much rather see that in a driver than try to build a fire under him. He’s evaluated things, we’ve had a lot of discussions, and Todd realized how much he still wanted to drive for us and work with us. We both feel real good about it.”(Kansas City Star)(2-15-2003)
