For almost the past half century, the Wood Brothers and their No. 21 have been a part of the NASCAR scene. For the last half of that period they were dominant. Hard times have fallen on the Stuart, Va., clan, and that makes many of us sad.
The Woods won 97 GN or Cup races during this time. In 1976, they scored NASCAR’s unofficial “triple crown” when they swept the Daytona 500, the World 600 and the Southern 500 with David Pearson at the helm.
When they were on top of their game, like their favorite rivals, the Pettys, the Woods was an all-family operation. This wass before computers, engineers and specialists. They did it all themselves.

Ford, despite all its financial woes, should step up to the plate and help this team, which has done so much for the manufacturer’s reputation. It will be a very sad day when No. 21 is no longer in action.

Every lap of racing has come under the blue-oval banner. Ford has been a very aggressive competitor in racing. There were times if it wasn’t for the Wood family, Ford would hardly be talked about in NASCAR.
The recent years have been very difficult for the Woods. Now, they can’t even make a race anymore without the help of Bill Elliott and his champion’s provisional.
Single-car teams just can’t cut it anymore.
The Wood team is actually responsible for the big raise in NASCAR point money. Even after the Winston Cup was started in 1972, the Woods only ran on super speedways and at Martinsville. They found they were losing money otherwise. NASCAR and many of its promoters bristled because Pearson would finish in the 20s in points, but would be the biggest season money winner. NASCAR got RJR to up the point ante as an incentive to run the full season, which the Woods didn’t do until the mid-80s.
Everything the Wood Brothers have done has been with high class. For years it was fashion for rival teams to whine when another manufacturer seemed to have the edge. The Woods never participated in this.
Ford, despite all its financial woes, should step up to the plate and help this team, which has done so much for the manufacturer’s reputation. It will be a very sad day when No. 21 is no longer in action.
Regular readers know I don’t exactly do handstands for sponsors. I feel that many use racing as a tax deduction, and all they care about is having their drivers blather their name in every other word when on TV.
Therefore, I am handing much praise to the folks at Lucas Oil, who seem to be a very positive benefactor for racing. They seem to do everything right at Lucas and they support venues that the Fortune 500 teams ignore.
• Thanks to those who remembered my birthday last Monday. I’m toasting Gabe (Kotter) Kaplan and S.J. Evonsion. We were all born on the same day.
• Older and less wise at 25 Emerson Place Valley Stream, N.Y. 11580. E-mail to Racewri771@AOL.com.