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T. Bodine singled out for causing crash Posted: Saturday February 15, 2003 6:45 PMDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- After finishing last season on probation, Todd Bodine might be headed back there. Bodine triggered a three-car accident with two laps to go in the Busch Series season opener Saturday at Daytona, bumping Jimmy Vasser from behind as the cars entered Turn 3. Vasser spun and pushed Jason Keller into the wall, then Mike McLaughlin plowed into Vasser's car. Vasser and McLaughlin weren't injured, and Keller was taken to a hospital for a CT scan to check for a possible concussion. Keith Barnwell, Keller's team manager, said the tests were simply precautionary. After the race, Bodine was required to attend a meeting in the NASCAR truck. He left visibly shaken. "I tried to be patient and run a clean race, and I run right into him," said Bodine, his voice breaking with emotion. "I don't blame anybody, but he let off. I did nothing wrong. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. "The tape shows I ran into him, and I did, but a lot of things had to happen for me to get into him. It wasn't like I just ran right into the back of him. It really hurts to have people think of me this way." Vasser, an open-wheel driver making his first NASCAR start, had been running in the top five before the incident. "It's the bad side of racing, wipeouts," Vasser said. "We were racing. Nobody does anything on purpose. I feel bad, the guys have a junker and they had a pretty good race car. I had fun up until that last lap." Earlier, Vasser helped cause a wreck, scraping the outside wall on the frontstretch and veering into Randy LaJoie. LaJoie then hit Michael Waltrip and sent him spinning into the inside wall. "I got stuck up against the wall one time there and LaJoie was next to me and I don't know if I got into him or he got into me, but I guess it caused a wreck behind us," Vasser said. "I certainly didn't mean that."
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