NASCAR needed a good old fashioned helmet throw and Todd Bodine obliged during Sunday's Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono.
While trying to chase down leader James Buescher after a restart, Bodine made contact with Nelson Piquet Jr. on the Long Pond Straight off of turn one and crashed hard into the tire barrier. After climbing out of his car, Bodine chucked his helmet toward's Piquet's truck as he drove by under caution... and missed.
Upon further review of the instant replay, well, it's hard to see how Bodine's anger is appropriate. He moved to the inside while he wasn't clear of Piquet's truck. When he emerged from the infield care center, he didn't repent for the helmet toss.
"I'll take the blame for that whole thing just because I should have known better than to trust an idiot to do the right thing," Bodine said. "You know, I pulled down to draft off of James and I should have known Nelson wasn't smart enough to pull over with me and sidedraft me."
"If it was the last lap of the race I can see that — he thinks he owes me one anyway from Kansas, I think it was. But it's a shame, we had a good truck."
Strong words, even though the anger looks to be misplaced. If Piquet had read Bodine's mind and pulled to the inside as well, he might have taken out Bodine's teammate Timothy Peters, who was to the inside of Piquet. How smart would that have been?
Anyway, we got a helmet toss, even if it didn't hit the bullseye. Huzzah!