2010
06.14
06.14
Awsome Bill from Dawsonville
One of the reasons the Wood Brothers have endured for 60 years in the tough business of NASCAR racing is their ability to keep their heads held high and their focus on the future even when race day results don’t meet their expectations. Bill Elliott drove the team’s FordParts.com Ford Fusion to a 29th-place finish in Sunday’s Heluva Good Sour Cream Dip 400 at Michigan International Speedway, which was far from the Woods’ and Elliott’s usual standards for Michigan. But team co-owners Eddie and Len Wood still were able to find bright spots as they looked forward to applying the lessons learned at Michigan to the car they’ll run at Chicagoland Speedway on July 10.
For starters, the Wood Brothers crew was able to file away some valuable data on the suspension of their car, particularly in regards to the rear sway bar. After struggling with a loose-into-the-turns condition for much of the race, the crew unhooked the rear sway bar, and the car’s performance improved dramatically. “We started 35th on that last restart and were able to drive up to 29th,” Eddie Wood said. “We weren’t running race-leading speeds, but we were a lot faster.” The chassis lessons learned on race days are invaluable, since NASCAR doesn’t allow testing at tracks where the sanctioning body’s major series compete.
The only other way to fine-tune set-ups is through computer simulation, and gathering good data for simulation is particularly difficult regarding the rear sway bar. “The simulation package we use isn’t modeling the rear bar correctly. We had the same issues at Charlotte two weeks ago. Unless we develop more confidence in it, we may not use the rear bar at Chicago.” Wood said.
The Woods also were encouraged by the performance of their over-the-wall pit crew, which churned out consistently good stops throughout the race. “It looks like we were back on track there,” Wood said.
The new FR9 Ford engine offered another check mark on the positive side of the ledger. The Woods have run the FR9 all season, but it was under the hoods of all the Ford entries this weekend. It was no surprise to the Woods that the FR9 cranked out horsepower without a problem in all the Fusions, including the No. 21. “The engine performed really well,” Wood said. “It ran cool all day with a lot of tape on the grille.”
One might not expect a 28th-place qualifying at Michigan International Speedway to bring smiles to the faces of the members of the team that is tied for the most Sprint Cup wins there or to the driver who leads all active racers in victories there, but that was exactly the case Friday afternoon.
Bill Elliott in the Wood Brothers No.21 FordParts.com Ford Fusion ran a lap at 187.251 miles per hour, considerably faster than his best practice run of 185.763 mph, and he did it with the weather working against him. Because of a mid-day rainstorm, Elliott wound up making his qualifying run under a broiling sun, while many before him ran under the cooler temperatures that prevailed immediately after the rain. Generally, the cooler the air, the faster a car runs. But Elliott was making good time, even in the heat.
Among the go-or-go-home drivers who went out at the end of the qualifying session during the hottest time of the day, Elliott was at the top of the class. “It feels good,” Elliott said. “The guys worked hard and put a good car under me. It is always a task to get through these qualifying days, especially with where we are in points.” Because Elliott and the Woods are running a limited schedule, they’re not among the top 35 teams in car owner points; a group that is guaranteed a starting spot for races no matter how fast or slow they are in qualifying.
Now Elliott and the Woods are turning their attention to preparing a car that will be competitive in Sunday’s 400-miler. “We will see what Sunday brings,” Elliott said. “Qualifying is one thing, but we will go through tomorrow and figure out where we stack up for Sunday. “I am definitely looking forward to the race though.”
Sunday’s Heluva Good Sour Cream Dip 400 is set to get the green flag at 1 p.m. with TV coverage on TNT. Fans watching at the track and on TV should remember to watch for a car carrying the blue-and-white FordParts.com colors. The famed No. 21 normally carries a red-and-white Motorcraft/Quick Lane paint scheme, but this week the team is helping raise awareness of FordParts.com, which allows repair shops, body shops, fleets, and do-it-yourselfers to shop online 24/7/365 days a year for Genuine Ford and Motorcraft parts from the dealer of their choice.
When it comes to true blue backers of the Blue Oval automaker, there are few that can match the Wood Brothers of NASCAR fame and the Tasca family from the NHRA drag racing series. Appropriately, the two teams will switch from their familiar red paint schemes with the Motorcraft/Quick Lane logos to the blue-and-white colors of FordParts.com for this weekend’s NASCAR races at Michigan International Speedway and the NHRA Supernationals at Englishtown, N.J. Bill Elliott will drive the No. 21 Ford Fusion at Michigan, while Bob Tasca III will wheel the Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny Car at Englishtown, putting the FordParts.com name before more than 150,000 fans on site at the two tracks. Millions more will see the new colors during ESPN’s coverage of the NHRA meet and on TNT’s broadcast of the NASCAR race. Eddie Wood, co-owner of the No. 21 FordParts.com Fusion and a member of the middle generation of the Wood Brothers racing team, said he’s proud to be participating in a joint effort with another multi-generational member of the Ford racing family. “It’s really cool for the Tascas and us to come together to do this,” Wood said. “The paint scheme looks really good, and it’s an honor to be a part of raising awareness of a new offering from Ford Motor Company.” The special paint schemes are Ford’s way of using its motorsports efforts to promote the varied services the company offers through FordParts.com. FordParts.com allows repair shops, body shops, fleets, and do-it-yourselfers to shop online 24/7/365 days a year for Genuine Ford and Motorcraft parts from the dealer of their choice. Once a part is ordered, consumers have the flexibility of choosing in-dealership pick-up or having the parts delivered to their home or shop. The FordParts.com Internet site features an electronic parts catalog containing more than 22,000 technical illustrations and nearly 300,000 part numbers. Users have access to a VIN search to ensure fast and accurate location of the correct parts, and there’s access to inventory at dealers as well as customer-specific pricing. David Hyder, crew chief on the Wood Brothers’ Ford, also is a fan of the paint scheme and the promotion, but his focus the past two weeks has been on what’s under the blue-and-white skin of the No. 21 Fusion. It’s the same chassis the team used at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this year and at Homestead-Miami Speedway last fall, where Elliott charged through the pack in the closing laps to finish 16th after qualifying in the top 10. “We didn’t learn as much as we’d have liked at Charlotte, but we’ve worked really hard on this car,” Hyder said. “I’m optimistic about this weekend.” Sunday’s Heluva Good Sour Cream Dip 400 is set to get the green flag at 1 p.m. with TV coverage on TNT. Contact: Jordan Wood Wood Brothers Racing 7201 Caldwell Rd Harrisburg, NC 28075 (704) 456-1421 jordan@woodbrothersracing.com
NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Bill Elliott isn’t sure if he ever has been to Berlin Raceway, and the closest fellow competitor A.J. Allmendinger has gotten to the Marne half-mile is through a video game.
Neither of the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers is going to miss being a part of the track’s 60th season, though.
“Michigan was my second home, if not my first,” said Elliott, the Dawsonville, Ga., native who raced for the Jackson-based Melling Racing team during his dominant years in the 1980s. “I know Michigan has great race fans, and I’m looking forward to coming up and meeting them.”
Elliott plans to sign autographs somethime during the June 15 special event that will include Kyle Busch. Allmendinger will race in the Modified feature, and he has checked out Berlin, which is included in an ARCA racing video game.
“You feel that you are halfway confident with a track by playing the game, but then you get to the race track and you figure out you have a lot more to learn,” Allmendinger said.
Mike Blackmer returns for his second year as a promoter, and he is taking an aggressive approach after a disappointing first season at the Berlin helm. Last year included seven rainouts, which contributed to a 30-percent dip in attendance from 2008. The brutal economy did not help, either.
Blackmer is banking on star power, a beefed-up weekly program that includes the addition of a Modified division, as well as a slew of ticket promotions and lower prices at the concession stands to bring back the fans.
Plus, he has partnered with Brann’s to cater group outings. Port City Racecars has increased sponsorship for Late Models to give the points leader bonuses after the June 5 ($1,500), July 31 ($2,000) and Sept. 11 ($3,000) races. He also is offering more money to the Super Stocks — $1,000 for feature winners compared to $800 previously.
“I’ll be honest, I’m pretty fortunate to be sitting here today, promoting Berlin Raceway,” Blackmer said. “2009 was probably the worst year that I went through in 15 years. Three months after we purchased the race track, my company, Boyne Machine Company, where we do a lot of automotive work, lost 50 percent of our work last year. We went from 25 employees down to five.
“But I am more pumped up this year because I am seeing the times turn right now. In the last 60 days, we are back up to 20 employees. The buzz out there this year is better than it was last year at this time. I think people are looking forward to racing and coming back to the race track.”
Blackmer said he is able to lower food and alcohol prices now that he has taken over concessions from Whitecaps Racing Inc., the previous operator. In addition, beer is available for $1.50 and $3, instead of $5.50 and $6 from last year.
Allmendinger will be so busy he might not have time to hit the concession stand when he visits. He is scheduled to race the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation Modified, his first race in a Modified.
“It’s for a great cause, to raise money for children,” Allmendinger said. “It’s a great thing to be a part of, and to go out and try something new is exciting for me, to try different types of race cars. Hopefully, I won’t look horrible and will be able to run up front.
“I pray for no rain at Michigan (International Speedway) the Sunday before the (June 15) race. I plan to come up that Monday and test (at Berlin).”
NASCAR’s longest race was just that for Bill Elliott and the crew of the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion. Elliott started the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway from 25th place, but he and the team fought handling issues throughout the race before winding up 27th behind race winner Kurt Busch.
“We were too tight at first, and we got it freed up, but then it didn’t have good drive-off off the corners,” Elliott said. Still, the No. 21 hung onto the lead lap for much of the race before dropping behind in the second half. Elliott was able to capitalize once on the “wave-around” rule that allows drivers ahead of the race leader after pit stops to circle around the track and stay on the lead lap.
But Lady Luck let Elliott and his team down later in the race as the timing of the caution flags worked against them. “We were just a lap or two away from getting a lap back two more times,” team co-owner Eddie Wood said. “We just didn’t have any breaks go our way.” But Wood was proud of the way his crew kept working on the No. 21 on a long, disappointing night.
“We chased the race track all night,” he said, explaining that track conditions at Charlotte change dramatically over the course of a race that starts in the hot afternoon sun and runs until several hours past sunset. “As the race track changed, we chased it the best we could.”
Elliott and the Wood Brothers return to Sprint Cup action on June 11-13 at Michigan International Speedway, where the familiar red-and-white Motorcraft/Quick Lane paint scheme will be replaced by the blue-and-white colors of FordParts.com.
FordParts.com allows repair shops, body shops, fleets, and do-it-yourselfers to shop online, order and receive Genuine Ford and Motorcraft parts through one site for Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicles. Once a part is ordered, consumers can choose in-store pick-up or have the parts delivered to their home or shop.
Contact: Kim Hall
Wood Brothers Racing
7201 Caldwell Rd
Harrisburg, NC 28075
(704) 456-1421
kim@woodbrothersracing.com
After spending much of Friday’s Sprint Cup practice session at Charlotte Motor Speedway among the top 10 on the speed chart, Bill Elliott and the crew of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion opted for a more conservative chassis set-up for qualifying and wound up with the 25th starting position for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. Elliott’s lap at 184.344 miles per hour tied him with Dale Earnhardt Jr., but Earnhardt will start one position ahead, as he is higher in NASCAR car owner point standings.
Team co-owner Eddie Wood said he felt like the team’s No. 21 Ford potentially had more speed, but he agreed with crew chief David Hyder’s decision to tighten up the car for Elliott’s run against the clock. “We tightened it up with air pressure just before qualifying,” Wood said. “A lot of cars were getting loose, so that was the right thing to do. “At Charlotte, if you get loose, you can lose a lot of time.”
Since they raced the same chassis at Texas Motor Speedway last month and in the Sprint Showdown last weekend at Charlotte, Elliott and the Wood Brothers crew are upbeat about Saturday’s final practice sessions and NASCAR’s longest race on Sunday. “We’re getting ready for the Coca-Cola 600,” Wood said. TV coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 begins at 5:45 p.m. on Sunday on FOX, with the green flag set to fly just after 6 p.m.
Throughout his career, Bill Elliott, driver of the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford, has seen the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway evolve into a much different challenge for drivers and crews than it once was. His first start in the race, then known as the World 600, was in 1976.
At that point, the then-20-year-old newcomer had made just three starts in a well-worn Ford Torino that his father had purchased for about $5,000. Going into the 600 that year, Elliott’s longest stretch in a superspeedway race had been 32 laps at Rockingham, as two engine failures and a broken driveshaft had taken him out early in his first three appearances on NASCAR’s elite circuit. But things went much better at Charlotte. “We were running pretty good and the motor blew up,” Elliott said. Like many a car back in the day, Elliott’s Ford, driven earlier in its racing life by Richie Panch, made it past the 500-mile mark, but broke in the final 100. Still, he had run well enough to finish 23rd, ahead of three drivers who were running at the finish.
The big winner that day, like many other days in that era, was David Pearson in the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Mercury. He led 230 laps, but had to weave his way through a late-race crash to take the win over Richard Petty, the only other driver on the lead lap. Pearson, however, had to share the headlines with Janet Guthrie, the Indy car driver who was lured south at the last minute by the speedway’s promoter, H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler and became the 11th female to race in NASCAR’s top division.
One of the main recollections Elliott had from that day about his future team was that he was impressed by their hauler. “It was a cab-over Ford with a ramp on the back for the race car,” he said, adding that it would be several years before he came to know Glen and Leonard Wood and the rest of the Stuart, Va.-based team.
Elliott, like his blue No. 9 Torino and like many of his fellow drivers, was pretty used up after his first 600. The next day, when he arrived at the former elementary school north of Dawsonville, Ga. that served as the team’s race shop, his father’s small Ford dealership and a salvage yard, he was so sore he never even got out of his pick-up truck. He simply pulled into the yard, rolled down the window and made some small talk, then eased on down the road. “It was pretty tough,” Elliott recalled. “I wasn’t used to running those races.” Elliott pointed out that when he first started racing in the series now known as Sprint Cup, the overall lap speeds were slower than today, which made for more time inside a hot race car. In 1976, Pearson turned a lap at 159.132 miles per hour in the Wood Brothers Mercury to win the pole at Charlotte. Last year’s pole speed was 188.475 mph.
Elliott said that today’s races, with their higher speeds, place a different demand on the driver and car. “It’s physically harder today because you’re running the corners so much harder,” Elliott said, adding that the changes inside the car to improve driver comfort have helped tremendously. But he’s also better prepared, even at age 54, thanks to a rigorous workout program and to his years of experience. “I’m more seasoned today,” he said. “It’s not that difficult.” His cars are well prepared too. The Wood Brothers Ford has had just one mechanical failure at Charlotte, including the 600 and the 500-miler later in the year, since 1991.
Elliott said he looks at an additional 100 miles at Charlotte as more of an advantage than a challenge. “I enjoy the endurance type of racing better than the shorter races,” he said. “I think the extra 100 miles is a benefit with my style of driving.” He’s also encouraged that he’ll be running the same Fusion he drove in his last two starts, at Texas Motor Speedway last month and last Saturday at Charlotte in the Sprint Showdown. He said his David Hyder-led crew can take what the team learned at Texas and in the Showdown and continue to improve the car. “I don’t know what to expect in qualifying, but I think we’ll be good in the race,” he said.
As the laps wound down in the final 20-lap segment of Saturday’s Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Eddie Wood had plenty to be happy about even as it was evident that the team’s famed No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion would not advance to the All-Star race. Wood saw a car that he feels will be formidable when the green flag drops next Sunday to start one of NASCAR’s showcase races, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. After some helpful chassis adjustments on the one pit stop in the non-points Showdown, Bill Elliott and the No. 21 were turning fast lap times as he worked his way up through the field, moving from 19th position with 18 laps to go to 12th in just six laps. Elliott wound up 12th as Ford drivers swept eight of the top-12 finishing positions in the preliminary event for the annual Sprint All-Star Challenge. “Bill’s lap times were really good the last few laps, as good as anybody’s,” said Wood, the co-owner of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford. That’s especially encouraging because the car the Woods used in the Showdown is the same one they’ll run in the 600. And that’s the same car that was fast in the closing laps at Texas Motor Speedway last month. “We learned a lot this weekend, and we got through the Showdown without tearing up the car,” he said. “All in all, it was a good tune-up for the 600.” Wood said that Elliott and crew chief David Hyder were able to use the Showdown to work on both a qualifying set-up for the 600 as well as some adjustments to use in the day-to-night marathon next Sunday. “We were a little too loose in qualifying and then we were a little too tight in the Showdown,” he said. “But now we have a better idea of what we’ll need next week.” Wood said he was especially glad to see that the team’s adjustments on the one pit stop in the Showdown improved the handling and speed of the car, and he was proud to know that the car ran well under a setting sun, since that’s what they’ll have to deal with next week in the Memorial Day weekend classic. “We’re focused on the 600 now,” Wood said.
Over the years, the preliminary event to NASCAR’s All-Star race often has been little more than one last chance for also-rans to make the big show. But this year’s Sprint Showdown on Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway is loaded with talent. The 30-driver field includes four drivers in the top 12 in Sprint Cup points, including Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle, and plenty more of NASCAR’ top drivers and teams. Among those in what is being called the strongest Showdown field ever are Bill Elliott and the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford team. Elliott is a former All-Star winner, from 1986, and the Woods won the race in 1996 with Michael Waltrip driving their car.
Some might look at the Showdown, with its two 20-lap segments, as a good test session for the more lucrative Coca-Cola 600 the next week. But not David Hyder, the crew chief on the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane car. He’s known in the garage as an “all in” kind of racer, one who brings his best effort to the track every week and isn’t satisfied unless his cars are racing for the win. “I’m very serious about what we’re doing here,” he said. “I’ve hand-picked the people on this team, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done. “And we’re constantly changing these cars. If we can find anything better, we’ll do it.” Hyder said the key on Saturday night will be to give Elliott a car that runs its best on new tires due to the race’s short format. “Hopefully we’ll have it so it will take off tight enough that Bill can drive it but not too loose on the new tires,” he said, adding that the Showdown is the kind of race that requires more aggressive driving than a regular Cup race. “They’ll have to drive with both feet,” he said.
Hyder is encouraged because he’s bringing back the same Fusion that Elliott drove at Texas Motor Speedway last month. In that race Elliott turned some of his best lap times of the weekend on a short run in the closing laps. The non-points, comparatively short Showdown will allow Hyder and crew to take some chances they might not try in a regular race. And that’s important since there are no more test sessions at Sprint Cup tracks scheduled this season. “I am trying some different things since this is somewhat of a freebie,” he said. “We’ll put some things on the edge and hope they don’t break.”
You can still vote for Bill Elliott to be the Fan Vote Winner for the Showdown by visiting www.woodbrothersracing.com and click on the Vote for Bill icon. Coverage for The Sprint Showdown and All-Star race begins on Saturday night, May 22 at 7:00pm on SPEED.