Kvapil to drive Wood's NBS car due to headaches

DOVER, Del. -- Travis Kvapil's 2007 entrance to the Busch Series was accelerated Friday when Wood Brothers/JTG Racing asked him to substitute for Jon Wood in their No. 47 Ford for Saturday's Dover 200 at Dover International Speedway.

Wood, who is 22nd in the Busch standings and has not missed a Busch race since coming to the series full-time at the beginning of 2005, 83 races ago, stepped out of the car after suffering headaches in Friday morning's first practice.

Kvapil will qualify the car Saturday morning.

Len Wood, Jon's uncle and team co-owner said the team was unsure if the younger Wood's headaches were the result of several hard accidents he's suffered this season.

Mark Martin, who drove the No. 21 Wood/JTG truck to sixth position in Friday afternoon's truck race, practiced Wood's Busch car for 12 laps in the second practice and was 12th on the time sheet.

Jon Wood made 18 laps in the first practice and was 24th on the sheet.

Wood/JTG's other truck driver, Stacy Compton, said that while Jon Wood had visited a hospital Friday afternoon, Compton had not been asked to be on stand-by for him.

Kvapil said Martin's truck crew chief, John Monsam, came to him before the truck race and asked if he could be cleared by his team owner, Jack Roush, to do the Busch race.

"I'm excited about it," Kvapil said. "It was literally five minutes before driver introductions when John found me, but I said 'if I fit in Jon's seat and Jack approves it, let's go for it.'

"I was surprised I fit in Jon's seat, but I asked Mark about the car and he said it felt pretty solid."

A former Truck Series champion who returned to the series this season, Kvapil was already scheduled to substitute for Roush teammate Carl Edwards in Edwards' Busch car at The Milwaukee Mile when the Busch and Truck Series race together later this month.

Kvapil has made two Busch Series starts, the first in 2001 and the last in 2005 in a road race at Watkins Glen, where he scored his best finish, 25th.