Wood Bros. tread lightly around Cup's dividing line

The first thing Eddie Wood thinks about when he wakes up each morning is -- where am I? Once he determines whether he's in a hotel in some far-flung race city or his own bedroom, the worrying begins.

It never lets up, really. Wood Brothers/JTG Racing has past champion Bill Elliott as a driver, and is back in the top 35 in owner points thanks to a strong run by road-course ace Boris Said last weekend at Watkins Glen. But Wood, a team co-owner, knows how narrow the margin is between racing on Sunday and packing up the truck on Friday afternoon. This week, he's in. Next week, he may be out. The dates and the racetracks and the points positions change, but the anxiety never lets up.

Owner Points

Pos. 32-38

Pos.	No.	Owner	Points	+/-
32.	66	Joe Custer	1832	+200
33.	45	Kyle Petty	1729	+97
34.	70	Joe Custer	1729	+97
35.	21	Glen Wood	1632	--
36.	22	Bill Davis	1595	-37
37.	13	Jay Frye	1547	-85
38.	10	James Rocco	1505	-127

• Complete Standings click here

"The anxiety, the aggravation, whatever you want to call it is still there. It's like a pack of Life Savers -- you might have a cherry one, or you might have yellow one. It's all the same, it's just different colors of it," he said.

"In this big world we live in, racing is just a tiny, tiny part of it with all the problems and things that go on. But I can tell you this: The last thing you thought of before you went to sleep, you were thinking about it. As soon as you wake up, as soon as you realize you're in your own bed or a motel, it pops back into your head. It comes right back, and it never leaves you all day long. It's just always there."

Welcome to life on the bubble that is the top 35 in owner points, where everyone on one side is guaranteed a spot in the show and everyone on the other side is on constant danger of slipping into oblivion. Even Wood Brothers, a team with more than five decades of NASCAR history behind it, isn't immune. The Woods missed races at Talladega and Richmond earlier this season, and have spent every week since trying to prevent the same thing from happening again.

"All of us who have been out this year at one time or another, they all know what I'm talking about," Wood said. "If you've never been out, you can't really comprehend what it's like. On Sunday, you're supposed to be at the racetrack, you're supposed to be racing. That's what you do. That's what your whole world is about. If unfortunately things happen and you don't make the race, you leave. You leave Friday afternoon. I'm telling you, that's a bad, bad feeling."

In May the Woods replaced veteran Ken Schrader in the No. 21 car with the formerly retired Elliott, whose limited number of past champion's provisionals provided some much-needed breathing room. For the race at Indianapolis, the team surfaced above the Mendoza line. For the race at Pocono, it dipped back under again. It might still be there had Wood, watching son Jon compete in a Craftsman Truck Series event Saturday night at Nashville, not received a telephone call from Elliott, who wanted to turn the car at Watkins Glen over to Said.

Said had been denied a chance to make the race when rain washed out qualifying. Elliott, who once ran his own team, put on his "owner's hat," Wood said, seeing that Said was available and that the No. 21 car was two places out of the 35th and final guaranteed starting spot for the next week's event at Michigan. (Continued)