When Eddie Wood announced last year that Ken Schrader would be his driver, he was all smiles. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: E. Wood

Eddie Wood has a lifelong connection to NASCAR racing that continues to flourish thanks to three generations of Woods that are heavily involved in the family business.

Depending on the series that are competing and the venue of the week, a double-handful of Woods -- from patriarchs Leonard and Glen, to second-generation members Eddie and Len and sister Kim Wood Hall, down to the youngest racing Woods, Jon and Keven -- might be on hand.

Eddie Wood is the son of Wood Brothers Racing founder Glen and one of the co-owners of Wood Brothers/JTG Racing, which fields cars and trucks in the Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck Series out of a single complex outside Charlotte, N.C. Wood took time out from his multiple roles this week to answer 10 questions not necessarily connected to his racing career.

1. What's at the bottom of your "honey do" list?

Ken Schrader's best run of the season came two weeks ago at Richmond. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Ken Schrader's 2006 stats Race Start Finish Status Daytona 23 9 running California 41 28 running Las Vegas 23 41 engine Atlanta 25 24 running Bristol 21 24 running Martinsville 19 40 overheat Texas 32 16 running Phoenix 27 16 running Talladega 35 42 crash Richmond 28 16 running Darlington 23 15 running Charlotte 40 26 running Dover 38 33 running Pocono 29 30 running Michigan 22 42 crash Sonoma 18 41 crash Daytona 31 12 running Chicago 40 42 running Loudon 21 34 running Pocono 18 15 running Indianapolis 11 14 running W. Glen 23 34 running Michigan 21 18 running Bristol 17 13 running California 29 23 running Richmond 17 7 running Loudon 10 33 running Average 25.3 25.5

Wood: The bottom of my list would be hanging pictures. Every time I hang pictures for my wife, I hang them too high, because I'm taller than her and I use my eye level [as a gauge].

So she comes back by and says they're too high. Well, she's 5-4 and I'm nearly 6-foot -- so do the math. But I usually have to do them over again -- or I get mad and don't do any so they're still sitting there.

And you're exactly right; having to punch holes in the wall twice only creates more honey-dos, because in sheetrock or plaster or whatever you have on your walls, you get about one shot at it and you've already made a mess of it.

So if you have to raise it or lower it, there's another hole.

2. What is the most embarrassing moment you'll own up to, either in or out of racing?

Wood: There are a lot of them, but one that comes to mind the quickest is when I was a senior in high school. I had what was kind of a hot rod, a 1970 Cougar with a Boss 302 motor in it that was all hopped-up.

A group of us were going to go to the drag strip, and my dad said, 'Don't you drag that thing. Don't you drag it.'

So I was like, 'OK, OK.' So we went to the drag strip, and I did not drag it at the drag strip, but coming home I might have turned it a little too much in third gear and I blew it up.

I'm talking about a TV blowup with all the smoke -- the whole deal, like on TV. So we're stuck on the side of Interstate 40 up near Winston-Salem [N.C.] and I had to call him and tell him that something was wrong with my car -- which actually was blown up.

And the embarrassing part was that he had to come get me with the racecar hauler. Now I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be to start with, and then I broke down.

I guess it turned out OK, but the bad part was it was in the dead of winter, probably January and it was really, really cold. Now when I say he came in the hauler, at that time it was a six-wheel, roll-your-car-up-on-the-back-of-it kind of thing.

So we had to hook a chain to my car and pull it down the road until I got to a rest stop, then have it set up on a hill and roll it onto the hauler. So it was quite a deal, but it turned out that everybody was OK.

That was a cool car to have and I wish sometimes I still had it. It was bright orange. They didn't make too many of that kind of car that year, with the Boss 302 engine, and obviously we had done some work on it and put a big camshaft in it.

I guess I just got a little too excited, because 8,500 really looked nice to me on the tach -- but I wasn't smart enough to realize what it was doing [to the engine].

After it got away from me, I think somebody made a racecar out of it, so it's gone.

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

Wood: Probably the biggest sports hero that I ever had, other than racing guys, would probably be Terry Bradshaw. I was a big Bradshaw fan, with the Steelers, and he does have a lot of Super Bowl rings.

You know, it is kind of odd that Terry and Darrell Waltrip were known as great athletes in their day and now they're more known for acting goofy.

When I grew up, Darrell was in my era. I was already going to racetracks when he showed up and I know all that he did and all the history that he created. And of course with Bradshaw there are a lot of parallels because he was one of the best at what he was doing.

So it is kind of odd they both wound up as sports commentators and on each of their shows they're the real color part of it -- that really makes it funny and cool to watch. So they do have some parallels now.

4. What's your ideal break from the racing grind?

Wood: When we're not racing somewhere with the Cup car and my son [Jon] is racing somewhere with the Busch car, I obviously go and do that. Or if my daughter, Jordan, is doing something I go do that.

But we still have homes in Virginia, so more often than not the best break for me is just getting in the car and driving to Stuart [Va.], and maybe just spending the night.

It's never more than spending the night and half the next day. I always try to go to dinner with mom and dad -- or take my mom and dad to breakfast. There's a little breakfast place called the Coffee Break on Main Street in Stuart, and you can catch up on everything while you're in there.

So I really enjoy doing that.

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

Wood: I thought about this a lot because there are a lot of places where it would be cool to be -- but I think, considering I'm 54 and was born in 1952, that I would have liked to have grown up [through my teen years] in the '50s.

The reason is that a lot of the cool stuff we have now that we take for granted was being developed or was brand new then, like color TV. Everything that we take so much for granted now kind of started in the '50s.

It just seemed like such a cool time to have lived because everything seemed to be simple. There was no pressure, like what everybody deals with nowadays just getting through the day. Back then it just seemed simpler and easier, and it probably wasn't. It was all relative.

But like, if you watch Back to the Future and you see all the drive-ins. I remember drive-ins and I remember going to them. Mom and dad had a '58 Ford, I guess it was, and the tail fin extended forward.

It was during the summertime and we had the windows down, and you could put your french fries out on the ledge outside the window while you watched the movie. That was my deal.

And I liked the car part of it, too. But it was just the way of life. And it was the early days of NASCAR, too, and there's a lot of stuff that I know about, that I've seen movies of and read about, but some of that stuff would have been pretty cool to have actually been there, live and in color, too -- like the old beach course [in Daytona Beach].

I know about it, but I didn't really see it, and that would have been cool.

6. What is "must-see TV" for you?

Wood: Right now it's 24. I am addicted to 24. I only got into it, I guess I'd be going into my third year now of watching it -- but I already went back and bought year one and two and three, and watched them and got caught up.

That doesn't start until mid-January, but that's really the only TV show that I've watched and kept up with in 15 or 20 years. I don't know about the drama, but it's just cool.

I like Law & Order, too; and there's another one on FOX that I probably shouldn't have started watching, that comes on Monday night, called Vanished.

They've got a lot of technology in that a lot of trick stuff that they catch people with. But when I heard Carl [Edwards] visited the set, I was like, 'Man, take me with you.'

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

Wood: If it were only for a day, I wouldn't mind trading with President Bush, just to see what's going on. I mean, what the real deal is everywhere.

It's not that what we know is not the real deal, but I'm sure that there are a lot of things that he knows that you and I don't know. So I'd like to trade places with him -- but only one day -- and maybe just an eight-hour day at that.

I don't think I'd want a 24-hour day. I don't know what my greatest accomplishment would be in one day, but I'd just like a better understanding of what is going on in the world.

You read the paper or you catch the news. Everybody's the same now -- there is just not a lot of time to do anything other than what you're supposed to be doing.

So I'd just like to have a better understanding of all the things that are going on, where now I would only have half the story. The whole story might be there, but I usually don't have the time or the patience to sit there and listen to the whole thing.

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

Wood: I haven't been to the movies in quite a while. Probably the last one I went to was Day After Tomorrow. But I'm going to go see Hollywood Land because I was a big Superman buff when I was a kid -- George Reeves in the original black-and-white version.

In fact, I've got those on DVD and I watch them a lot on the airplane. But that will be the next movie that I go see.

My all-time favorite movie is probably Tombstone. I've watched that so many times I know the words as they come up in each scene. I can watch that over and over.

9. What's your favorite guilty pleasure?

Wood: Probably, there again, getting in my Expedition and riding up to Stuart, Va., and just really having nothing else going on -- just taking a couple hours and losing myself.

I really enjoy the scenery and a lot of times, going up the road I'll catch up on cell phone calls, people that I haven't talked to in a while that I need to talk to. So I catch up on that.

And just going up there and being around what I used to be around all the time.

10. What have you learned about yourself in the last year?

Wood: Probably that I need to have more patience, and that I don't have as much patience as I thought I did. I'm working on that and getting a little better at it.

I've always been in a hurry. I've got to get it now -- right now. I'll order something online and you wanted it yesterday, so get it in here overnight. I've always been that way, so I'm learning to be more patient.

We're in a different environment down here in the Charlotte area, now that we've formed the Wood Brothers/JTG deal with all the teams under one roof. So there is more of what I'm used to, but a lot more of it.

So I'm just growing more patience, and I'm getting better at it. I'm not where I need to be, but I'm getting better.