Eddie and Len Wood of Wood Brothers Racing. Credit: Autostock

Wood Brothers, ST eye partnership, second car

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Wood Brothers Racing, one of the last holdouts among single-car teams in the Nextel Cup Series, will eventually start a second program, the team said on Friday at Michigan.

Wood Brothers will merge with ST Motorsports' two-car Busch Series program to eventually include two-car teams in the Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck levels.

The entire undertaking came under the direction of Ford Racing, which provides factory support to both ST Motorsports and the Wood Brothers.

Jon Wood drives the No. 47 ST Motorsports Ford in the Busch Series Credit: Autostock

It is not yet known when the two-car Nextel Cup team will take effect because the team is looking for a sponsor for the program. That fact alone puts a 2006 start unlikely.

The Wood Brothers' first priority is to find additional funding for their No. 21 Ford in 2006. Team owner Eddie Wood says he hasn't had a chance to talk with driver Ricky Rudd about his status for 2006.

"We have a little bit of work to do for the 21.The 21 needs to be fully-funded," said Greg Specht, performance operations manager for Ford. "That is a partial season deal and we have had to put together additional dollars."

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Specht said after he secures full funding for the No. 21, he will focus on starting a full-time Craftsman Truck Series team for 2006. That team will eventually include a second truck.

According to Wood, the entire deal was launched because he realized he needed marketing and sponsorship help to secure the future of his family-owned team, so he called Tad Geschickter, who has successfully operated a Busch team for nearly 10 years.

Credit: Autostock

Geschickter is somewhat of an anomaly in the Busch Series. Despite dwindling fields and rising costs, Geschickter has grown his modest single-car team into a fully sponsored two-car operation despite little help from Nextel Cup teams.

Wood's son, Jon, currently drives one of Geschickter's Busch Series cars. According to Wood, it was Jon who first suggested the partnership, and Wood got clearance from Ford to do it.

"Wood Brothers is weak in the marketing side and putting together the deals and chasing the money," Wood said. "Chasing the money is really one of the hardest things to do and we're not very good at that.

"Tad, on the other hand -- that's his expertise is the marketing side of it. So it was a perfect match. He can help us with what we're weak at and we can help him with what he's weak at."

"The way I look at this, multi-car Cup teams are who are dominating," said Geschickter. "Truck and Busch teams that are affiliated with Cup programs are dominating. We've already proved that we can deliver sponsor value."

The process of building cars for the expanded team will fall to Michael "Fatback" McSwain. Despite the additional workload, McSwain says he will still be a crew chief.

"I've got some unfinished goals that I've been close to a couple times and I haven't completed yet," McSwain said. "It's going to be hard, but I have to look toward my future as well, just like these guys are trying to do."