Farewell Woodchopper
One of the true icons of stock car racing, NASCAR Hall of Famer Glen Wood, died on Friday morning.
He was 93.
The patriarch of the Wood Brothers Racing team was a race fan long before he was a driver. Wood was 25 and running his own sawmill, named the 00 Frick, when he decided it was time to move from the stands to behind the wheel.
In 1950, Wood and his buddy, Chris Williams, purchased a 1938 Ford for $50, and the legendary team was born.
Wood’s friends and brothers worked on the car. He made his first start at Morris Speedway, which Wood described as “a little quarter-mile track in Horsepasture, near Martinsville.”
“When we finally got to run the race, we got into a little wreck and bent the rear end housing,” Wood recounted at the family’s museum in Stuart, Va., where he insisted on being the tour guide. “We were towing it back home behind our car and of course the wheel was wobbling, the axle broke and pulled the neck out of the fenders. Sparks flew and the car caught fire. It was destroyed from the windshield forward, but we fixed it, and a few weeks later we returned.”
Wood finished third in his second race. He raced at a variety of tracks with help from his brothers—Leonard, Delano and Ray Lee—and is credited with 151 starts between NASCAR’s Cup and Convertible Series from 1953 to 1964. He won the 1960 track championship at Bowman Gray Stadium in a 1937 Ford “backseater”.
Although Wood won 9 features, sowing the seeds of what would become the longest running team in the sport—Wood Brothers Racing—will be his lasting legacy.
Ultimately, Wood’s vision enabled him to step aside and move into an ownership role in 1965. Wood Brothers Racing blossomed into one of the most successful operations in NASCAR as well as the current longest-running team in the Monster Energy Cup garage.
Over the years, the revered No. 21 car carried a who’s who of racing, from fellow NASCAR Hall of Famers David Pearson, Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett and Cale Yarborough to legends such as A.J. Foyt, Curtis Turner, Tiny Lund, Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts and Cup champions Bill Elliott and Dale Jarrett.
Wood was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. When asked about being named as one of NASCAR’s all-time Greatest 50 Drivers in 1998 during NASCAR’s 50th Anniversary celebration, he deflected the acknowledgement with “Kyle Busch will be on the next one.”
Along with his brother, fellow Hall of Famer Leonard Wood, Glen and the team revolutionized the modern day pit stop during the 60’s. The Wood Brothers’ over-the-wall talent was so remarkable that long-time partner Ford Motor Company recruited the crew to service Jimmy Clark’s car during his winning 1965 Indianapolis 500 effort.
“In every way, Glen Wood was an original,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France said in a statement released Friday morning. “In building the famed Wood Brothers Racing at the very beginnings of our sport, Glen laid a foundation for NASCAR excellence that remains to this day. As both a driver and a team owner, he was, and always will be, the gold standard.
“But personally, even more significant than his exemplary on-track record, he was a true gentleman and a close confidant to my father, mother and brother. On behalf of the France family and all of NASCAR, I send my condolences to the entire Wood family for the loss of a NASCAR giant.”
The Wood Brothers won the 1963 Cup championship and have amassed 99 victories, including five Daytona 500s. Daytona was special to the Wood family. Glen made the annual trek from 1947 to 2017. On Feb. 7, 1951, he married Bernece. He didn't want to leave her behind in Virginia for Speedweeks. The couple honeymooned in Daytona Beach and would celebrate the next 67 years together.
But the race team has been a family affair. Sons Eddie and Len worked on the cars and oversee the operation today. Daughter Kim is instrumental in running the family’s original shop and museum. And Wood Brothers Racing has endured under the Ford Motor Company’s Blue Oval for 69 years. He received the prestigious Spirit of Ford Award in 1999.
"This is a difficult day for all of us at Ford Motor Company,” said Edsel B. Ford II, Ford Motor Company. “Glen Wood was the founding patriarch of the oldest continuously operating NASCAR Cup Series team and we consider Wood Brothers Racing a part of our family, the Ford Family. The Wood Brothers race team, by any measure, has been one of the most successful racing operations in the history of NASCAR. Most importantly for our company, Glen and his family have remained loyal to Ford throughout their 69-year history.
"Glen was an innovator who, along with his family, changed the sport itself. But, more importantly, he was a true Southern gentleman who was quick with a smile and a handshake, and he was a man of his word. I will cherish the memories of our chats in the NASCAR garage, at their race shop in Mooresville or the racing museum in Stuart. My most memorable moment with Glen was with he and his family in the #21 pit box watching Trevor Bayne win the 2011 Daytona 500 and the celebration that followed in victory lane.”
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