THIS WEEK IN FORD RACING

Brooklyn, Mich. — The Wood Brothers have been in NASCAR for three generations now—starting with brothers Glen and Leonard in the 1950s to Glen’s sons, Eddie and Len, to Eddie’s son, Jon—so, Father’s Day, which is also race day at Michigan International Speedway, does take on an extra special meaning. Glen Wood recently underwent successful hip surgery and is recovering back home in Stuart, Va., but Leonard, Eddie and Len talked this week about the importance of family and racing.

The Wood Brothers dominated at Michigan International Speedway a generation ago; starting with the first NASCAR race there in 1969, the Woods, in a nine-year stretch, scored 10 victories and 18 top-10s in 18 races. Driver David Pearson, from 1972-78, won eight times and had 13 top-fives in 13 races. The Woods never started outside of the top eight from 1969 through 1980, winning nine poles in that span.

EDDIE WOOD – CO-OWNER, NO. 21 LITTLE DEBBIE FUSION
YOUR DAD, GLEN, JUST HAD A SUCCESSFUL SURGERY. AS YOU GET OLDER, DOES FATHER’S DAY AND WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR YOU TAKE ON A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT MEANING TO YOU?
“Yeah. When you’re young, nothing matters. Dad just had surgery on his hip and is doing really well, so it is special. As you get older all that means more than when you were younger, especially now that I’m a dad. Yeah, it’s a pretty special day.”

ON FOLLOWING HIS DAD INTO RACING.
“I just kind of grew up and it started off as a little bitty thing, you know, working after school and stuff like that, and then all of a sudden, you’re 40 and that’s what you’re doing, and then you’re 50 and you’re still doing it. But that’s the way of life that I remember when I was a kid. And that’s exactly what we’re doing now. I mean, you’re gone all the time at race tracks, and when I was a kid, I can remember I used to go race at Atlanta and leave on Monday, practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday change motors, and later on it got to where it was Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So, now it’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and it works pretty well, but you didn’t run as many races.

"We didn’t run as many races as we do now. But it was always the way we’d do it, the way we did it and the way we do it now, it hasn’t changed that much. When it comes time to leave for the race track, you leave, it doesn’t make any difference what’s going on. That’s what you do, that’s what he did and now that’s what Jon does and Len’s son, Keven, when it comes time to go racing, everything else stops and you go race. It’s just always been that way, I don’t know any different.

"I was just at Nashville Saturday at the Busch race, got to Charlotte at 3 a.m. and then left at 6 a.m. to go to Pocono. It’s just the way it is. My dad did it and he did the same similar thing. They used to drive to races. And we used to also, but not like they did. They’d spend a week to get to California to race in Riverside. I don’t know how they used to do that. People talk about the good ol’ days of racing—we may be in ’em right now. It is harder, the aggravation level is a lot higher, but it is what it is. We may be living the best days of it and we just don’t know it.”

THE WOOD BROTHERS DOMINATED AT MICHIGAN IN THE ’70s. WHAT STANDS OUT ABOUT THAT TRACK AT THAT TIME FOR THE YOUR TEAM?
“I don’t know. Everything we had really clicked up there. It was us, the Pettys’ or Junior’s car, usually one of those three would win the race. It was always fun, I like to go to Michigan, it’s a good place, close to Ford Headquarters and Edsel [Ford II] and all the Ford people, it’s kind of like their home track, and it kind of feels like our home track.”

LEN WOOD – CO-OWNER, NO. 21 LITTLE DEBBIE FUSION
OBVIOUSLY, YOUR DAD, GLEN, HAD A LOT TO DO WITH YOU CHOOSING RACING FOR A LIVING. CAN YOU PUT INTO WORDS WHY YOU FOLLOWED HIM INTO THIS SPORT? WAS IT HIS PASSION FOR IT?
“That’s all I ever knew. He didn’t force any of us into this. We were raised around racing and it was just kind of assumed that was what you would do. He worked extremely hard and put everything he had into it. We try to do the same now.”

WHEN HE WAS YOUNG, HE DID OTHER THINGS BEFORE HE RACED CARS. HIS PASSION BECAME HIS VOCATION, IS THAT A GOOD WAY TO SAY IT?
“Yeah, he had a sawmill, and ran the sawmill until, like, 1956. He raced for several years, I guess to where racing became more popular and more profitable than the sawmill did, and that’s when he switched, and that’s about the time Ford Motor Company came in and kind of signed everybody up to deals. So, you know, he hung with it long enough that I guess he felt comfortable enough that we could take it on as well—1979, when he began giving us part of the company. And then around 1983 or ’84, we were like equal partners and, you know, it took a certain period of time, I guess once he gave us part of the company, we figured out this is what we were going to do, for sure. I didn’t want to work in a factory, I didn’t want a regular job, not that this is easy by any means, it’s kind of what we wanted to do.”

DOES FATHER’S DAY TAKE ON A SPECIAL MEANING THIS YEAR, SINCE HE’S HAD THE SURGERY AND IS DOING WELL? AS EVERYONE GETS OLDER, DO THESE TYPES OF THINGS MEAN MORE?
“Probably. We try to be in Stuart [Va., the Woods’ hometown] almost once a week since he’s had the hip surgery. The last couple weeks, we have not been home but when he was coming home from the hospital, one of us was there to take him to the hospital and the next one was there to take him home, trying to be there if he needed us and, of course, he’s, ‘Go on do your business, keep the shop going,’ but we tried to be there. It was about four or five weeks and there was a Saturday night race and we made sure we were home on Sunday and had a little cookout, like a Kingsford charcoal cookout.

"But, like I said, I think he’s getting around much better now and hopefully he’ll be able to come to Charlotte and see us. He came right before like the week before he had the surgery, he come down and said, ‘It’ll be a while before I get back,’ so he wanted to check everything and make sure everything was like he thought it was.”

THE WOOD BROTHERS OWNED MICHIGAN IN THE ’70s, WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT THAT TRACK IN THOSE DAYS?
“Obviously, David Pearson, not just at the track, I mean that whole time, but with Pearson and all, it was a good time to be a part of that team. You know, we did so well and Michigan was one of the best tracks. If you didn’t win at Michigan, you were asking yourself what went wrong.

"A little side story on that, one day, Pearson was going to take me and Eddie back to the motel in Jackson and we hopped in his brand-new red Torino and we headed out that dirt road, out towards those silos at the end of it, towards 127. It’s kind of got humps and valleys and humps and valleys. We were running pretty fast and he was over there just calm as a cucumber and we were glued to our seats.”

LEONARD WOOD – CO-FOUNDER WOOD BROTHERS RACING
ON BECOMING INTERESTED IN WORKING ON THINGS.
“When I was born, my dad was a mechanic. It’s just in my nature and that’s what I’ve always been interested in, and him being a mechanic then that gave a chance to apply. I didn’t try to assist or be a mechanic, I just picked it up cause that’s what I like to do and what I enjoy doing, just working on mechanical things. He didn’t discourage me in any way. In fact, my mother, she was always interested in me making little old things or whatever. Like when I made a go-kart when I was 13 years old. I’ve always been interested in that sort of thing.”

YOU CAN’T THINK OF MICHIGAN WITHOUT THINKING OF WHAT YOUR TEAM DID AT THAT TRACK IN THE ’70s. WHAT STANDS OUT ABOUT THAT TRACK AND THOSE DAYS FOR YOU?
“To go to Michigan where Ford Motor Company is located and to do well up there was just really rewarding. Of course, you want to do good everywhere, but you really enjoy doing good at Michigan for that reason.

"And then, of course, Pearson, he was just unbeatable there if the car was right. His style of driving just fit that track. Of course, Pearson was good at any track he went on, but he really shined at EMAIL THIS STORY TO A FRIEND