Don't tell sponsor Clorox that Jon Wood doesn't like doing laundry. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Jon Wood

Life for Jon Wood is never dull, and that's not just because he has a full-time job racing the No. 47 Ford in the Busch Series for JTG Racing.

Wood, 24, the son of Wood Brothers/JTG Racing co-owner Eddie Wood, recently tested a Nextel Cup car from that operation at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as he prepares for the next phase in his racing career.

Wood took a break from his busy schedule recently to answer 10 questions not necessarily connected to his racing career.

Jon Wood ranks 13th in Busch Series points. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Jon Wood in 2006 Site Start Finish Status Daytona 34 4 running Fontana 13 18 running Mexico City 17 27 running Las Vegas 11 14 running Atlanta 33 13 running Bristol 11 17 running Texas 19 26 running Nashville 11 6 running Phoenix 35 23 running Talladega 26 19 running Richmond 36 38 running Darlington 14 33 running Charlotte 29 37 crash Dover 19 40 crash Nashville 32 8 running Kentucky 19 22 running Milwaukee 14 14 running Daytona 32 34 crash Chicago 13 21 running Loudon 23 20 running

1. What's your least favorite household chore?

Wood: I would say it would be doing laundry because there is no excitement, so to speak, in washing a bunch of clothes -- just watching clothes getting wet and then dry.

We went on a week-long stretch when I hadn't been home, even for a night. So when I got home, rather than do my laundry at my house, I drive two hours so my mom can do it.

So it was worth the four-hour round trip for me not to have to wash five pairs of jeans and three shirts. It's not all bad because, being sponsored by Clorox, I do have a bunch of laundry products lying around.

But it's just not something that I like to do. But my mom loves it. The 9-1-1 came when I thought my girlfriend would be back home from the beach, and I couldn't find anybody else to do it.

Obviously, driving two hours out of the way was my last resort, but I had no choice.

2. If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be and why?

Wood: That's a tough one, but I would trade spots with my dad, because every time he calls he has a list of things for me to do. He'll say, "I need you to do this, this and this."

So I'll say, "Man, I'm just doing so much," and he'll say,"Step into my shoes and see what I have to put up with."

So you know what? I'd like to see if he's really got it all that bad. I'm sure there is a lot of stress involved in owning a race team and all the things that go along with it.

But I'd at least like to know for sure.

3. What is your favorite stretch of public road in the United States?

Wood: Definitely where I grew up, around Stuart, Va. I'm still growing up, I guess, but the roads around Stuart are -- well, Mexico City last year was my first road-course race in a NASCAR-type car.

But I can't say that I'm not an experienced road racer when it comes to keeping it between the yellow and white lines on the highway because all the roads up there [around Stuart] are extremely curvy.

There are some records that I have broken, from start to finish, up around town. But I ended up having to buy my mom a new car in the process when I wrecked her brand new VW bug. But that's another chapter.

4. Which athlete outside of racing do you most admire?

Wood: Honestly, if you could call motocross or any of those extreme motorcycle events, like freestyle, a sport ... Jeremy McGrath would probably rank on up there, for the simple fact that anybody that can take a motorcycle and do some of the crazy, unbelievable stuff that they do [is pretty impressive to me].

We race racecars and they go fast, but they're always on the ground. With motorcycles ... first off, when you fall off of it, it's just you and the pavement. And second off, they just calculate riding off those sand dunes and those jumps and it's just incredible.

I'm sure that's a very unique answer, but that's one sport that I wouldn't even attempt. I mean, I'll try anything once, but that's something I would sit back on the sidelines and just watch.

5. What is one thing that your fans don't know about you, that you'd like to tell them?

Wood: Dang, you ask all the hard ones. Well, this is a serious one.

Racecar drivers have this image about them that they're tough guys, or whatever. They just have this hardcore image.

Well, I went through a deal in elementary school and high school where I was almost an outcast. I grew up in a very small town where everybody knew everybody else.

It was a town centered on farming and not the most metro-like of towns. It was just very difficult growing up. I was constantly getting to school late, trying to avoid having to walk by people because I was just constantly made fun of.

It's something that I've actually thought about, and my mom was telling me what it's called, and that's doing public speaking to create public awareness about bullying.

It's something that people take for granted for the most part, but it does a lot of scarring in a lot of ways and it's been something that's been difficult for me to get over.

I was just different than everybody else, and it was tough.

6. If you could go back in time, what period in history would you like to live in?

Wood: It would be the Medieval era. One of the most fascinating things that I've seen is the museum at Medieval Times down in Myrtle Beach [S.C.].

Now, I know that's kind of lame, but to see the torture tools that they used on people, and knowing that they had public hangings and all that kind of thing -- I know that's gross -- but I think that would change society the way it is now.

Somebody having an arm cut off in front of thousands of people or on TV would definitely change things, but it was just a different way of life back then, with castles and knights and I would just have liked to have seen that mess.

7. Do you have an iPod, and what's on that bad boy?

Wood: The funny thing about the iPod is, it's not so much the songs that are on it. When I got my iPod and my iTunes software, it was still kind of very new to everyone and it was unknown to my mom and dad, what an iPod was.

My dad kind of knew what it was, but not really. So I conned him into letting me have his credit card number to set up iTunes, saying, "I just need it to get the software going."

But what's on it? Everything. That's the cool thing about an iPod -- you wouldn't know how to classify me if you listened to the songs.

You go from Ozzy Osbourne, which is old-school rock-and-roll, to T.I., which is more of a hip-hop genre. But it's got everything. You name it and I listen to it.

8. What's your No. 1 guilty pleasure?

Wood: Well, I don't have a problem with sleeping in. It's funny, because every week that we're at the racetrack, I go to the NASCAR trailer to sign in, before practice starts.

And my question every week to the NASCAR official that's sitting there is, "I'm not the last one to sign-in, am I?"

And there is usually somebody behind me, so I know I'm not the laziest in this garage at least, and that makes me feel a lot better.

9. What are your favorite recent movie and your favorite all-time flick?

Wood: I got up and walked out of Pirates of the Caribbean, the new one. It was stupid -- just real hard to get into so I didn't like it.

I'm trying to remember what I've been watching a lot, because you have to do something -- either read or watch movies, and I choose to watch movies.

This is another kind of stupid one, but my favorite recent movie is Million Dollar Baby, the boxing movie. That's been my favorite lately, and every time I watch that movie I'm still expecting her to knock that other girl out.

Or at least to not fall down and have her neck broken. It's funny, because I always know how the movie's going to end up, but I always watch it over, hoping that it'll have the good-guy ending, but of course it never does.

And what's my favorite all-time movie? Days of Thunder, but of course, that's a given.

10. What is 'Must See TV' for you?

Wood: Can I do a series? I was really into Deal or No Deal, but it's not on right now.

The one I like now is Dog the Bounty Hunter. It's about this ex-con turned bounty hunter. It's just cool to watch this guy with the redneck persona be hardcore one minute and a family guy the next minute.

And he goes out and gets all these criminals. Each week it's something different and it's almost like a motivation to do right.

I don't mean "do right" as in not going out and snorting a line of coke, but to do right and treat everybody the way you'd want to be treated and things of that nature.

It's just a good motivational show to watch and I've got the series now, on DVD.