Wood can see the forest from the trees

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Jon Wood knows that some people see him as a spoiled kid, maybe even as an out-of-control punk.

The 21-year-old son of NASCAR Winston Cup team owner Eddie Wood is doing his best to change people's opinions, trying to keep his nose clean in the Craftsman Truck Series.

	Jon Wood

Sure, Wood is a bit of a free spirit who loves to have fun and joke around off the track, but when he's on it, he just wants to race, to race clean, to race hard.

"There is only so much respect you can have being as young as I am," Wood said. "There is always the fear in somebody's mind that 'This kid is wild,' but I've been with these guys for a long time, and now I can start running with the front-runners this year instead of the mid-pack."

Wood indeed is running up front more often in his second full season in the trucks. Heading into this weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway, Wood has put himself seventh in the points standings, but he's only 134 points behind leader Brendan Gaughan.

Wood, who is still looking for his first NCTS victory, has four top-five and six top-10 finishes in the nine races this season.

And in the three races after losing the Navy as the sponsor of his No. 50 Roush Racing Ford, Wood posted three straight top-fives.

"From a performance standpoint, if you look at the numbers and the way we finished, you would think that the past couple of weeks have been an improvement, but it really hasn't," a realistic Wood said. "We've been really good all year long, we just haven't had the finishes to show for it. People say that I'm driving harder because I lost a sponsor, but we finished eighth at Daytona and second at Bakersfield. Those were the first two races of the season, and we had a sponsor then.

"We ran good at Darlington before we had a mechanical failure, and we had a good truck at Martinsville and got into a wreck. All year long, we've had an outstanding team and an outstanding effort going into each race, we just haven't had the finishes to show for it. We've just had a little bit of luck on our side the past couple of weeks to really capitalize on what we're capable of doing."

In a way, Wood is driving for his racing life. Sure, Roush has a lot of money, but the economics of racing ensures that you can't race forever without a primary sponsor.

"We don't know how long we can keep doing this without someone coming along to help us out," Wood said. "I'm just going about it the same way I have been for last eight or nine years that I've been racing. Nothing has changed. It's just that now it's a little bit more important that we run well so that we can attract sponsors so that we can keep going. I've just been doing the same thing I've always been doing."

He's had to overcome some obstacles this season, notably the suspension of crew chief John Monsam after the race at Mesa Marin. Wood finished to second to Dennis Setzer at that race in Bakersfield, Calif., but then was 22nd and 22nd.

"We had two real bad finishes when he wasn't at the track," Wood said. "We qualified good at Charlotte, but we didn't race that good. I think we my have had a little bit of mechanical problems, but nevertheless he wasn't there and we didn't finish well."

Monsam is a bit of a calming influence on Wood, a veteran who helps keep the youngster in check.

"The benefit with John more so than another other crew chief is that he has lived in the truck series," Wood said. "He's made a career out of being a truck series crew chief. This is all he has ever done. He did do some Winston Cup stuff, but when you get somebody as experienced as he is in truck racing, it can't be anything but beneficial.

"I thought that when the decision (to suspend Monsam) was made that we'd be all right, and that my mom could crew chief this thing. Now I'm beginning to wonder."

But the ship has been righted, and Wood is back to running up front. He's still driven in less than 50 NCTS races, but every week he gets a little better.

"I know that the past couple of weeks that my truck has actually felt like a car, it's driven so well," Wood said. "I used to say that I liked driving a car better because I thought they were more stable, but I think that now that we've got our truck running better, it's handling a lot more like a car.

"It's hard to distinguish the two. I was very comfortable in the Winston West car and when I tested the Winston Cup car; I liked that a lot. The Craftsman Truck Series and the Busch Series are both very good learning series."

And it's a pretty good place to prove oneself, too. At least Wood hopes so.