Daytona Beach, Fla. (May 12, 2023) – Last night’s announcement of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson as one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers completed the list after a several-week rollout. The drivers, honored in celebration of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary, will be recognized during the annual Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway.
Curtis Turner
NASCAR Cup Series News & Notes – Darlington Raceway
The Next Gen car is a collaboration of the brightest engineering minds in racing, with contributions coming from all sides of the NASCAR and automotive industries. The design of the Next Gen car gives the drivers greater control while putting an emphasis back on race strategies, team personnel and vehicle setups. While wind tunnels and computer simulations play an important role in racing, we want the competition to remain focused on the racetrack. (more…)
Statistical Advance: Analyzing the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 5, 2021) – Below is a look at some of the top statistical performers at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia, going into the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 on Sunday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). (more…)
Nashville Not Yet Ready to Approve NASCAR Fairgrounds Race
Before any agreement to bring NASCAR back to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville can be finalized, the parameters of such a deal must be agreed upon by the Board of Fair Commissioners, who are seeking more dialogue on the subject.
The 117-acre fairgrounds property is owned by the City of Nashville and Davidson County. As a result, any decision regarding events or changes to its infrastructure is subject to public approval via the members of the Nashville Metro Council. (more…)
What, Why and Where to Find Racing on TV for February 27-28
It’s Week 3 of the NASCAR Cup Series season and there’s a chance we’ll see something that hasn’t been seen in 70 years.
Should another first-time NASCAR winner cross the stripe in the lead at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it would mark the first time since NASCAR’s inaugural 1949 season that a Cup Series season has started with three consecutive first-time winners. (more…)
NASCAR Cup Series News & Notes – Homestead-Miami Speedway
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season has started in historic fashion becoming just the third season in series history to with two first-time winners to win the first two races of the year; joining the series’ inaugural season 1949 and 1950. Now the 2021 season, has the opportunity to join the inaugural 1949 season as just the second season in series history to start the year with three consecutive first-time winners to win the first three races of the year. (more…)
Wood Brothers Racing Honored with Prestigious FIA Heritage Cup
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 11, 2020) – For 70 years Wood Brothers Racing has excelled in – and transformed – the world of motorsports. As the longest tenured team in NASCAR history, the Wood Brothers have compiled a literal Hall of Fame resume both on and off the track. Beyond their countless trophies and accolades, innovations including the modern pit stop continue to define the Wood’s legacy in racing series across the globe. (more…)
Wood Brothers Racing: Wednesday Night Race at the Lady in Black
Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team head back to Darlington Raceway Wednesday night for an encore performance with the Lady In Black.
DiBenedetto finished 14th in this past Sunday’s The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington, which marked NASCAR’s return to racing after a 10-week hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
With that race in the books, DiBenedetto and the team are working to find more speed for Wednesday’s 500-kilometer race, a rare midweek prime-time TV appearance for the sport. Once again, there will be no fans in the grandstands due to the threat of spreading COVID-19.
DiBenedetto, who will be making his sixth career Cup start at the iconic South Carolina track, said he plans to review the broadcast of Sunday’s race, taped for him by his wife Taylor, to see what can be learned from it.
“I’ll watch the other guys and see what I can pick up as far as how to improve,” he said, adding that he expects crew chief Greg Erwin to make adjustments as well to the Mustang they’ll race on Wednesday. “We’ve got a little catching up to do, but we can do it.”
Wednesday’s race will be the 95th Cup appearance at Darlington for the Wood Brothers, who first competed there in the 1961 Rebel 300 with the legendary Curtis Turner, a close friend of the Woods, at the wheel of the No. 21.
Modern era fans point to the spring race at Darlington in 2003, where Ricky Craven edged Kurt Busch for the win in a door-slamming battle to the checkered flag, as the best-ever finish at Darlington. But for fans of an earlier era, the ’61 Rebel 300 was the gold standard for great Darlington finishes.
Here’s how author and historian Greg Fielden described the late-race battle between the veteran Turner and the youngster Fred Lorenzen in his book, Forty Years of Stock Car Racing: “Fair-haired Fred Lorenzen and old pro Curtis Turner literally fought each other with fists of steel in Darlington Raceway’s fifth-annual Rebel 300 in a death-defying slugfest which decided perhaps the most exciting stock car race of all time.”
Fielden reported that the two “slapped considerable sheet metal” before Lorenzen finally took the lead with two laps remaining, leaving a frustrated Turner to finish second.
Turner expressed his sentiments to reporters after the race, saying: “If I could have caught [Lorenzen] before he got the checkered flag, I guarantee you he never would have finished the race.”
It was the first of seven runner-up finishes at Darlington for the Woods, who have eight victories there. Six of those victories were with David Pearson driving. Cale Yarborough and Neil Bonnett scored the other two.
In Wednesday’s race, DiBenedetto and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team will show that not all heroes drive race cars.
The team will honor Loretta Burton as a Star of Life.
Burton, a paramedic from Youngstown, Ohio, will be recognized for her actions that saved the life of a cardiac arrest patient in April of 2019.
On that day, she and her EMT partner were called to a dental clinic parking lot where they found an 81-year-old male in cardiac arrest. With the help of her partner, Burton began CPR and then continued ALS care on her own.
She was able to establish a return of spontaneous circulation, and the patient was transported to the emergency department of a local hospital. The patient was released a few days later with no neuro deficits or cardiac damage.
This save was a direct result of Burton’s dedication to the patients she serves. That dedication perhaps was demonstrated best when she was the medic on the scene of a car accident involving the man who had earlier tried to shoot her policeman husband. She treated this patient with respect, and he received the best of care.
Burton has been in EMS for 18 years. She began her career as an EMT and continued her education to become a paramedic. She attained the rank of supervisor but reduced her hours to part-time to care for her five children.
Wednesday’s 228-lap race is set to get the green flag just after 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time with TV coverage on FOX Sports One.
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About Motorcraft:
Motorcraft offers a complete line of replacement parts that are recommended by Ford Motor Company. From routine maintenance to underhood repairs, Motorcraft parts offer value with high quality and the right fit at competitive prices. Motorcraft parts are available nationwide at Ford and Lincoln Dealers, independent distributors and automotive parts retailers, and are backed by the Service Parts Limited Warranty of Ford Motor Company. For more information, visit www.motorcraft.com.
About Omnicraft:
Omnicraft is part of the Ford lineup of parts brands: Ford Parts, Motorcraft and Omnicraft. Omnicraft is the exclusive non-Ford/Lincoln parts brand of premium aftermarket parts. With over a century of parts heritage to build upon, Omnicraft provides excellent quality and fit and is a preferred choice of professional automotive technicians. To find out more about Omnicraft, visitwww.omnicraftautoparts.
About Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center
Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center offers extraordinary service for routine vehicle maintenance including tire repair and replacement with a Low Tire Price Guarantee and a full menu of automotive services including oil and filter, brakes, alignments, batteries, and shocks and struts on all vehicle makes and models. Service is performed by certified technicians at more than 1,000 locations worldwide while you wait, and no appointment is necessary. For more information about Quick Lane, please visit www.quicklane.com.
About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 200,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.com.
Wood Brothers Racing
Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glen Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glen’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Matt DiBenedetto in the famous No. 21 racer.
Remembering Ray Lee Wood
For decades people in southern Virginia and beyond knew Ray Lee Wood for the beautiful flowers growing in front of his home in the community of Buffalo Ridge and for the sourwood honey that he collected from his beehives.
They knew of his prized Persian cats and Siberian Huskies, and the goldfish he raised in ponds on his family property.
Others were amazed at his knowledge of the Bible and his loyalty to the Pentecostal Holiness Church.
And there were some that knew the rest of the story, about how Wood was an integral part of some of the grandest triumphs in motor racing history – among them victories in the 1963 Daytona 500, the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and the inaugural American 500 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham in 1965.
Ray Lee Wood, who died May 5 at the age of 92, was the third son of J. Walter and Ada Wood. In the early 1950s, he and his brothers Glenn, Clay, Delano and Leonard, took on the world of automobile racing with the same passion and determination that they applied to every task they ever took on.
Early in the Wood Brothers’ career, they worked on their race cars under a giant beech tree, its limbs serving as support for pulling engines with a chain hoist. Ray Lee Wood spent the last half of his life serving as caretaker of the famous tree, one that attracted visitors including Edsel Ford II.
As the team began competing in the series now known as Cup, Ray Lee changed front tires and helped prepare the Fords initially driven by his brother Glenn but later driven by some of the biggest names in motorsports.
Leonard Wood said his brother could have added his name to that list had he chosen to do so.
“Ray Lee could have been a race driver as well as Glenn,” he said. In 1958, on the sands of Daytona Beach, Ray Lee hit 142 miles per hour on the measured mile in a hopped-up street car, topping the speed chart for that day.
When the Wood Brothers won the Car Owner’s Championship in 1963 using multiple drivers, Ray Lee Wood was the car owner of record and the Championship trophy bears his name.
When the Woods scored the first of their five Daytona 500 victories, with Tiny Lund filling in for a badly burned Marvin Panch, Ray Lee played a key role in the team’s winning pit strategy.
After the first 10 laps of the 500 were run under the yellow flag because of rain, the Woods saw an opportunity to play a pit strategy similar to those used in road-course races today. They began making their pit stops with the intention of making one fewer stop than their competitors.
They also were hoping to run the race on a single set of tires.
Firestone representative John Laux and Ray Lee were in charge of checking the tires. Both agreed on each early stop that the tires were good to go.
On the final stop, Laux wasn’t so certain. Ray Lee said the tires were good for another 100 miles. His brothers took his advice, and Lund drove on to the checkered flag.
Wood played a similar role in the Indianapolis 500, as he and his brothers pitted the Lotus Ford driven by Jim Clark. Again, Wood checked tires on each stop, and again the call was made to continue. The result was another major win for the Stuart, Va.-based team.
That trip to Indianapolis was a life-changer for Wood.
“When we were up there in Indiana, I felt the calling of the Lord,” Wood said in a 2010 interview. “He had something else for me to do.”
It was the same calling his brother Delano, the family jack man, would feel at the end of the 1983 season.
Not wanting to leave his brothers in mid-season, in an era when good tire changers were hard to find, Ray Lee decided to stay on through the end of that year.
His racing career ended in storybook fashion, with his old friend Curtis Turner driving the Woods’ Ford to victory at Rockingham.
Wood and Turner had become close over the years, and Wood often flew back from races with Turner, so he could be back at work with his grading business on Monday morning.
That race, Turner’s 17th and final Cup win, also was the final NASCAR appearance for Ray Lee Wood, who began spending his Sunday’s at his beloved church, located near his home in Buffalo Ridge.
In the years after that, he never attended another NASCAR race, although he did participate in a Fan Appreciation event at the Wood Brothers Museum in 2011.
His nephew Eddie Wood said that in a family of cool brothers, Ray Lee stood out.
“He had the coolest cars,” Eddie Wood said. “He had lots of girlfriends. He had one of the first color TVs in our county. He was just a happy-go-lucky guy.”
Like his brothers, Ray Lee didn’t do things halfway.
“He started a rose garden, and the next thing you know he had 500 of them, and then a thousand,” Wood said. “He bought two expensive Persian cats, Sam and George, and kept getting more until he had 50 show cats.
“He got into Siberian Huskies and had giant goldfish… Whatever he did, he went at it 100 percent.”
Ray Lee Wood lived in the same house where he grew up, and in his latter years was content with a simple life, far removed from the cheering crowds and checkered flags of his early years.
“He was just laid back, in no hurry,” his nephew Len Wood said. “Nothing ruffled his feathers.”
With his racing career behind him, Ray Lee was close to his sister Crystal and his church family, and remained supportive of the racing side of his family.
“Ray never went back to the track after 1965, but he supported us all the way and always followed our races on the radio or TV,” Leonard Wood said. “He was a great brother and a great all-around person.
“I can’t say enough good words about him.”
Wood Brothers Racing
Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glen Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glen’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford driven by Paul Menard in the famous No. 21 racer.
On This Date in NASCAR History…
Sunday, April 13, 2019 – On this day in history, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. one his first of two NASCAR Cup Series races in his season sweep of Richmond Raceway in 2019. Truex led 186 of the 400 laps and finished 0.178 second ahead of Team Penske’s Joey Logano. Truex would go on to win a series season-most of seven races in 2019. (more…)
On This Day in NASCAR History….
Sunday, April 2, 2000 – On this day in history, NASCAR Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first series career race at Texas Motor Speedway in his rookie season after leading a race most 106 laps. It was the first of his 26 NASCAR Cup Series career wins. And did so in dominating fashion beating second-place finisher Jeff Burton to the line by 5.92 seconds.
Historic North Turn Legends Beach/Road Course Parade
PONCE INLET, Fla — We thought we would hold a surprise for you until now, so I would like to share the fact that NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France will be in the ninth annual Historic North Turn Legends Beach/Road Course Parade on Saturday, February 8, 2020. (more…)