DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A race team that has been competing in NASCAR for almost as long as there has been a NASCAR, a team that has two of its members in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and can claim 98 victories -- including five in the Daytona 500 -- enters the 2016 season as one of a handful of organizations without one of NASCAR's new Charters.
And that, officials with Wood Brothers Racing said here Thursday at Daytona International Speedway, is understandable.
"Had we been racing fulltime from 2008 to now we would have been right in the middle of it because we would have been one of them (to obtain a Charter)," Eddie Wood, President of the organization, said. "We just happened to be in a different spot."
It was a "spot" created by the team following the 2008 season, a decision made based on the economic situation and the performance of the No. 21 team at the time. Scale back and continue to compete, when and where possible, always with the goal of eventually returning to full-time status.
But full-time status came too late for the Woods. NASCAR officials announced the new system earlier this week, awarding 36 teams Charters that guarantee a starting position in Sprint Cup Series fields. To receive a Charter, a team had to have attempted to qualify for all points races since the start of the 2013 season.
Wood Brothers Racing has run less than fulltime since '09. A new arrangement with Team Penske, and with backing from Ford and others, allowed the team to announce last season that it would return to full-time status in '16.
"We could have done what we did, which was race part time," Wood said, "but when we show up we are competitive and spending enough money to get all the right stuff, the right people and right driver. That actually turned into a Daytona 500 win (in 2011 with driver Trevor Bayne).
"The other choice we would have had was to do a start-and-park or race as best you can and that is not really fair to your sponsors. Ford Motor Company stood by us so long it wouldn’t be fair to them.
"Or we could have quit."
Len Wood, Chief Operating Officer for the organization, said running a full schedule with partial funding "would have been an embarrassment to our family … if we just showed up and took a check.
"We didn't. We tried to perform every time we showed up. It didn't always work out that way, but that is what we tried to do.”
Because the team does not have a Charter, rookie driver Ryan Blaney will have to make the field each week through qualifying, being among the four fastest Open teams vying for one of the remaining positions in what will now be 40-car fields.
Last season, the team missed three races when qualifying was cancelled due to inclement weather, and starting positions were assigned based on car owner points.
Len Wood said based on the team’s performance a year ago, earning one of the available starting positions "shouldn't be an issue as long as we perform like we know we can.
"Now if the car doesn't crank or (Blaney) goes out and hits a wall or something, then we have a problem," he said. "… It is hard to overcome something like that. If you are fast enough every week that shouldn't be an issue."
Glen Wood founded Wood Brothers Racing in the family's tiny hometown of Stuart, Va. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012; younger brother Leonard Wood, who was crew chief for the team during much of its success, was inducted into the Hall the following year.
News of the Charter system may have caught the elder Wood off guard, but Len Wood said his father "is fine."
"He's coming down here tomorrow (Saturday)," he said, adding that it will be Glen Wood's "70th year for Speedweeks.
"He said something about it being his 70th Daytona 500 but there have only been like (58). He came down here in 1947 to watch his hero, Curtis Turner, race on the sand. Daddy started racing in 1953 on the sand himself."
So while there is disappointment at being excluded, Eddie Wood reiterated that decisions made in the past put the team in its current situation. But he said he would not change the way things played out if given the chance.
"I wouldn't turn around and switch it for that win with Trevor here if you gave me two Charters," he said. "That is how much winning (the Daytona 500) means. It is this race. Not just a race, (it's) the race. This race is above all others. I don't care if it is Indy, Le Mans, this race is above all others."