Finding Eddie Wood the night of Oct. 13, prior to the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway was an easy task.
Wood was in the garage area, directly behind the No. 21 Ford team’s hauler, where one will find him most of the time.
He was talking with someone, but he didn’t mind being interrupted.
The question for Eddie Wood had to do with all the recent mergers of teams and businesses in NASCAR Nextel Cup.

Merging the Wood Brothers and Petty Enterprises would be the magical moment in NASCAR history.

It’s no big secret that the Wood Brothers — from Stuart, Va., and now with a shop in Harrisburg, N.C. — are struggling a bit in an attempt to keep up with the Childresses, Hendricks, Gibbs, Evernhams and Roushes.
So, the question for Eddie Wood was: Why don’t you guys consider a merger with Petty Enterprises?
The Pettys have expressed a desire to move from Level Cross, N.C., to somewhere in Charlotte, where the motorsports work force is more plentiful. Richard Petty, the leader of the Petty clan, has made it plain and simple in recent weeks that in order to keep his team going and competitive, he’s got to have an investor.
Much like the Wood Brothers.
Merging the Wood Brothers and Petty Enterprises would be the magical moment in NASCAR history.
It would be putting the two teams together that have been around the sport longer than any others and bringing the two teams together that have the winningest drivers of all-time — Richard Petty (200) and David Pearson (105). There are 10 Cup titles between Petty and Pearson.
After hearing the proposal, Wood summoned for someone standing just off to the side of the team’s hauler.
 Calling him by name, Wood said, “Now tell him what you and I were talking about a year ago.” The answer was a Wood Brothers-Petty Enterprises merger.
“Now,” Wood said, “why don’t you write it, just like we’ve talked about it. I think it would be interesting to see what people think about it and if it really would fly. Why couldn’t they still drive Dodges and let us still drive Fords, if that’s what they want? We’ve certainly got a building, right now, that’s big enough for both of us, for sure. We could add to it, if needed.
“Bring ’em on, we’ll take ’em. Heck, maybe we’ll wind up switching to Dodges. Who knows? Didn’t Richard drive a Ford one time when he went to drag racing?”
Even Robbie Loomis, the vice president at Petty Enterprises, had a wry smile on his face when questioned about the merger possibility between the Wood Brothers and Pettys. “You’ll be sure and include us in those plans, won’t you?” was Loomis’ answer, somewhat jokingly.
OK, now that’s settled, we need a broker for the deal, someone with connections to Honda or Nissan.
Don’t you know that NASCAR would like Honda and Nissan to follow Toyota? What better way to make an entry than with a Wood Brothers-Petty team?
And I can’t believe STP and Purolator would be far behind with some type of sponsorship-memorabilia campaign, at least for a few races.
It’s a natural!
At least a merger like this would protect NASCAR’s history and not see the Pettys and Wood Brothers go by the wayside like Bud Moore, Holman & Moody, Robert Yates, DiGard and the Stavola Brothers.
Do you reckon this is how mergers actually are brought together — someone just comes up with a master plan and it all takes off from there?