RELATED STORY - BOBBY BODE TALKS ABOUT HIS WILD WEEKEND IN HOUSTON

Bobby Bode last competed on the NHRA racing scene on April 16 at the SpringNationals in Houston.

His last run down the dragstrip is one fans likely remember.

Bode advanced to his first nitro Funny Car final round before losing a nailbiter to Matt Hagan when he had a fiery explosion right before the finish line when the body of his Funny Car blew off.

Hagan clocked a 3.982-second at 326.63 mph to defeat Bode’s 4.046-second run at 282.95 mph.

The loss stung but Bode said his team led by his father Bob is moving forward.

“We planned on going to Richmond (May 13-15), and then we lost the body (of the car in the Houston),” Bobby said. “That's what set us behind. We got a new body now. We had a spare one, so now we have two.”

After a career-best performance, Bobby said sitting out races has been tough. He spent time taking finals and completing his sophomore year at Arizona State University in Tempe. The business major then signed up for a summer class.

Bobby and his team will return to the track for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, June 23-26 in Norwalk, Ohio, at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.

“Yeah, it has been a little bit (tough),” Bode said. “The Virginia race, I was watching it, and it was really hot there. All the cars kept smoking the tires, so I think if we were there we would've been in the mix. I’m excited about Norwalk. It's a pretty cool track. It has the ice cream for a dollar. So, it is already good in that aspect without even racing, then, when you factor in the track and the grandstands are really nice, it's a pretty cool facility.”

When Bobby lost to Hagan in the finals, Bobby’s fiery demeanor drew the attention of Hagan’s team owner NASCAR legend Tony Stewart. Stewart proceeded to give Bobby a boom box that one of his sponsors had given him and then he ordered Bobby a new helmet.

“The boom box is in my apartment, and it has really good quality,” Bobby said. “If I turned it all the way up, I'm pretty sure all my neighbors could hear it. There's quite a few of my friends out here who know about (Tony). Then I told them, yeah, not only did I get the helmet and stuff from him, but he gave me a cool boombox. They were like, ‘Oh, that thing's big! It's cool.’”

Bobby acknowledged the whole experience in Houston was quite the whirlwind experience. 

“It was hard for me to struggle with all that (getting ready for my finals during the Houston race), then having the great weekend I did, I was just really tired,” he said. “I missed my flight home and spent all day in the airport, and it was hard to go right from that to doing my accounting homework. Then, I see all the assignments I missed, and have to make those up and email all my teachers.”

Making headline news in drag racing is something that Bobby didn’t imagine at least just days before he turned 20.

“Not at all,” Bobby said. “It didn't really hit me till a couple weeks ago when everything started to sink in. I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm going to school, I'm driving the car, I got to the finals. I don't know. Everything started to sink in a couple weeks ago.”

Add in the fact that Bobby and his father and with some help from veteran racer Tim Wilkerson do all the tuning on the Bode Funny Car.

“Me and my dad, we do most of it, then Tim helps us once in a while, whenever we're really screwed up,” Bobby said. “It just gives me more confidence as the driver because I'm the one who is knowing what's in there and everything. So, it gives me more confidence that it's going to get down the track, thinking of where I can smoke the tires, and being ready for it. Yeah. I just think it goes hand in hand with each other.

RELATED STORY - AN INTERVIEW WITH TONY STEWART 

I always try to take good care of the parts. Whenever we burn a piston or scuff a piston, it just makes me mad because then we can't reuse it. Or if we burn a pair of cylinder heads off the car. That's a lot of money, and then we don't have that when we need it later in the season. Yeah. It just makes me mad when I see that. It just aggravates me.”

Bobby said after Norwalk, his team plans to race at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, April 18-21 in Brainerd, Minn. Because Bobby is starting his fall semester at ASU at that time and he said his father Bob will drive in Brainerd.

Bob won his lone nitro Funny Car Wally when he beat Jack Beckman in the 2010 finals in Brainerd.

“I’m starting classes then and he wanted to keep his license up,” Bobby said about his dad driving in Brainerd. “He hasn't driven since late 2020, so it's been almost two years. It all fit in. He told me he wanted to drive, and I was like, ‘I'm not going to stop you.’ It's your car. I've driven it quite a bit lately. Yeah. I don't have a problem with it.”

Bobby said he plans to be driving at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, Aug. 31-Sept. 5 in Indianapolis.

“Winning a race would be cool,” Bobby said. “We're not going to try for the top 10 or anything. We're not going to enough races for that, but we're going to go. I think we have six more races left this year, and we're just going to try and run hard at those six. Yeah. Hopefully, it'd be cool if we could get a win.”