Wood Brothers Revealed A “Shocking” Thing About The Future Of The Whole Racing And NASCAR Is The…

Wood Brothers Revealed A “Shocking” Thing About The Future Of The Whole Racing And NASCAR Is The…

We’re going to be competitive’: Wood Brothers Racing embraces future as NASCAR hits Martinsville

Wood Brothers Racing returns this weekend to Martinsville, where its storied past and promising future will be on display. NASCAR’s oldest team, established in 1950, is opening a Hall of Fame at its Stuart, Virginia, museum on May 22. The exhibit will feature five significant race cars in its history, along with trophies and even T-shirts that its drivers have won over the past eight decades.

Glen Wood, the legendary team’s patriarch who died six years ago, made his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Martinsville. The track less than 30 miles from their headquarters in southwest Virginia holds importance to the team, and perhaps none more than this year, as the team celebrates its 75th anniversary. “Ninety percent of of the NASCAR industry considers the (Coca-Cola) 600 their first home weekend, and it will be our second,” team president and former driver Jon Wood said. “The way all this has come together is, I mean, you couldn’t have planned it any better, and you certainly wouldn’t have predicted it. Everything that’s happened, not just Josh (Berry), but the way that the sport has embraced our history, and they want to support that and highlight that. It’s been a really, really neat thing to have happen, and we want to give back as best we can.”

The Observer caught up with Jon Wood and chief operation officer and fellow co-owner Len Wood ahead of Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville. This interview has been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.

‘It’s very important to always be the Wood Brothers’ Shane Connuck: As certain teams expand to three-car teams, how do you see this unique single-car team with its Team Penske alliance fitting into the future of NASCAR?

Jon Wood: We catch a lot of flack from the anonymous race fans, particularly on social media, who just like to complain. And the first thing they’ll say is, well, that’s a Penske car or, well, you guys are most like whatever — they’ll say something, and it’s in reference to our Penske alliance. The landscape in NASCAR has changed so much, especially with the Next Gen car that if you’re not aligned with one of the big three — Hendrick, Gibbs or Penske — you’re gonna run bad every week. You can make it, with the implementation of the charter system that gives us financial stability, but you’re not going to be competitive. And so for us to be competitive, and to make it make sense with our Ford alliance, because we would be considered the Ford factory team if you asked Edsel Ford. To make it make sense for them, we have to be competitive. We have to give every last dollar that we can spend to be fast. To do that, it required this Penske alliance. Some of that means leaning on them more than others. But we still have our own people. We still have our independence in some areas, and then in other areas, we heavily rely on them. It’s no secret. It’s not like we’re not trying to hide that. It’s a feature, it’s not a symptom, and we’re proud of that. We’re proud to have that level of trust with them that they know we’re not going to be giving away the trade secrets and whatever the case may be that another team would have concerns with giving full access to a partner. It’s more of a partnership than a than a customer relationship.