MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Danny Bohn’s eighth-place finish during Saturday’s NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 ended up being far more than just a stellar debut for the Freehold, N.J., native.
It became a catalyst for more opportunities for the 31-year-old modified ace.
Bohn confirmed after his successful maiden voyage that he will finish out the year for On Point Motorsports in the No. 30 Toyota Tundra, adding starts at Arizona’s ISM Raceway on Nov. 8 and Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway on Nov. 15 to his end-of-year schedule.
Kickin’ the Tires first reported the news.
Bohn, a past Bowman-Gray Stadium track champion, survived the chaos around him en route to the solid result, an effort that surprised many onlookers but wasn’t as surprising to the driver himself.
“I knew (a top 10) was a possibility,” Bohn noted. “It’s just like I said earlier, we just had to be smart. I came here with a plan … and there was times that I wanted to push the issue and try to pass a couple of extra trucks, but I kept the big picture in mind. The realistic goal was 15th, lead lap, and nail all my pit stops. To come home eighth … the truck was clean; I don’t think I had a dent in it except for the right-rear quarter panel and where someone ran into the rear deck there until the last 150 feet of the race. Then we tore it up a little bit.
“But you know, I think we deserved to finish eighth to 10th, something like that. And we did that,” he added. “I feel like that was where our truck was today. And it was just a learning experience. I wanted to get my feet wet before we started doing anything crazy. So it was a successful first day and first race, and we’ll move on to Phoenix and hopefully we can pick it up a little bit more there.”
Bohn kept his nose clean for the advertised race distance, but it was the final lap of Saturday’s overtime finish which ended up mangling his otherwise-clean truck.
“Yeah, I didn’t get involved in the (big) one on the backstretch; I got tore up a little bit here in turns three and four coming to the checkered,” explained Bohn. “I actually finished it across the line with two flat tires. It’s a shame that we tore it up there in the last hundred feet, but it’s a part of it. There was a hole, there was two trucks coming together … it was a hole in the middle and I shot it and it just closed up before I got there. That’s just part of racing here.
“I think every truck here has some sort of damage on it; it’s how it goes at this place.”
Bohn was quick to point out that the Martinsville event started as a one-off appearance, but now has built itself through the end of the season. He also added that he’d like to spend even more time in the Truck Series going forward if the right opportunity were to develop for him.
“We do plan to go to Phoenix and Homestead; it’s just one race at a time and then we can start planning for next year after that,” Bohn relayed. “This was just about figuring out what we can afford to do … stuff like that. I’d like to try to do the full season, but it takes a lot to get to that point. I wanted to be able to at least do this. So to do this once and finish in the top 10, I think was a home run for us today.
“And then to get the opportunity to go do two more … I would’ve been happy with this, but I’m definitely not going to turn down the opportunity to keep doing this,” he continued. “I had a lot of fun today and learned a lot, and now we’ll move on to the next race.”
Despite his own breakthrough, Bohn doesn’t want to boast to the modified community at-large, however. He’s simply grateful to be a representative for short-track racers at the grassroots level.
“As soon as you open your mouth and start bragging, that’s when you start getting yourself in trouble,” Bohn noted. “I feel like the modified guys are some of the best out there. There’re probably a bunch of them that can come out here and run competitively in this series as well. The way I see it, it’s cool for me to be able to represent those guys. …”
“With Preece, and then me coming through and doing this deal today, hopefully some of these teams can start looking at guys like that and giving them these opportunities as well.”