On Saturday, while Ryan Blaney and the SKF-branded Ford Fusion will be busy on track at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, folks around Stuart, Va., will gather to celebrate the 90th birthday of the team’s founder, Glen Wood. Wood, a 2012 inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, is like a lot of people who grew up in the hard times of the Depression, but through hard work, accomplished great things in their adult lives. Wood was born in 1925, in the family home in the southern Virginia community of Buffalo Ridge, back in the days when doctors came to their patients’ houses and delivered children while the other kids waited outside. In his youth, the Wood family, like those around them, got by without modern conveniences like electricity. They cooked their food and heated the home with a cook stove and fireplace and used kerosene lamps for lighting. Wood went on to work various jobs, including sawmilling, before he became a full-time racer. He first became interested in the sport when he started attending races at a track near Mt. Airy, N.C. Soon he was keeping pace with the regular drivers and their race cars.
His NASCAR teams have won 98 Cup races and 116 poles and have made 1,428 starts. Some of the best drivers from all forms of motorsports have driven for the Woods, legendary names like David Pearson and A.J. Foyt, to name just two. And, as many of his long-time car owner peers have dropped off the circuit, Wood’s race team has become NASCAR’s longest running. “I’m really proud that it has carried on until today, and I’m hoping we will be back full-time before long.”
Wood acknowledges that his workload is far heavier than what can be expected of people not nearly 90 of age. His ability to handle it surprises him at times. “I stumble out of bed in the morning and it takes me a while to get going, but after a while I feel pretty good,” he said. “I really don’t understand how I can do as much as I do.”(Wood Brothers Racing)(7-18-2015)
