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Feb212011

Monday, February 21, 2011 at 09:35AM

February 23, 2011

A magical Daytona 500.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

(Posted 2/21, 9:30 a.m.) Daytona Beach. It is one of those stories that you couldn't possibly script, no matter how hard you tried. A once-famous racing team that had seen better days teamed with a flat-out rookie in the biggest NASCAR race of the season, the Daytona 500. What were the odds against them? Simply incalculable. But as bad as the race was on Sunday -- and believe me, it was a tedious and interminable crash-fest of cautions thanks to NASCAR's inability to address fixing super speedway racing -- the storybook ending was simply spectacular, one that defied explanation or any sort of rhyme or reason that you could conjure up. It was, well, magical.

Trevor Bayne, a 20-year-old kid in only his second Sprint Cup start, won the biggest race of his young life on Sunday and while doing so returned the fabled Wood Brothers Racing team to greatness in one fell swoop. Make no mistake, this kid is much more than the usual "Real Deal" moniker attached to the young talents coming up in the racing world these days. He is calm, cool, calculated, and enormously gifted behind the wheel. Bayne has an unmistakable presence about him that is palpable, like he's been there before and he'll be there again. If anything, he seems like the reincarnation of the great David Pearson in the way he goes about his business. He's well spoken and just a genuinely good person. But don't be fooled by his polite and considerate demeanor. This kid is fiercely determined and talented behind the wheel. Just like Pearson was.

And in what seemed to make the event even more unbelievable, the Wood Brothers had painted their Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion in red and white "throw-back" colors with the gold No. 21 on the doors, in tribute to David Pearson’s upcoming induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It was with Pearson that the Wood Brothers enjoyed their finest glory days in NASCAR, and here they were again with a bright new star who for all the world reminded everyone of Pearson.

Eddie Wood, co-owner of the winning Wood Brothers Racing entry said, “Bringing back the red and white car with the gold numbers that Pearson drove, that just seemed like it put things back to normal.”

Boy, did it ever.

Over the past 61 years, the Wood Brothers of Stuart, Va., have played a part in some of the most memorable moments in motorsports, but Trevor Bayne’s victory in Sunday’s Daytona 500 had to have topped them all. Bayne's stunning win ended a 10-year losing streak for NASCAR’s oldest race team and gave it its fifth Daytona 500 win, plus it gave the Ford Motor Company its 600th Sprint Cup victory.

The win was special in so many ways it's hard to write it all down. For the Woods themselves, it's a fantastic tribute to their perseverance, dedication, and loyalty over the years when the times weren't so good and it became a struggle just to keep things going. But through it all the family has never raced anything but Fords and had no intentions of racing anything but, either.

“I walked in Victory Lane with Richard Petty and Edsel Ford and my dad,” Eddie Wood continued. “I don't know how much better that can get.”

Wood also mentioned the leaders at Ford who stuck by the Woods even as they struggled on the race track in recent seasons. He pointed to people like Edsel Ford, Alan Mulally, Jim Farley, and Mark Fields who not only helped the Woods get back on track but did the same for the Ford Motor Company itself.

“They knew what to do,” Wood said. “We're so proud to be a part of those guys. We have raced Ford Motor Company products exclusively since 1950. One of the most important things to our racing family is our relationship with Ford Motor Company.” Wood said it meant even more to be the team that helped Ford get its 600th Cup victory. “For us to be the guys that gave it to them with Trevor at the wheel is just a storybook ending for it,” he said. “I'm just so proud to be a part of their world. They mean the world to us.”

Wood went on to say that the victory was important not only for his father, team owner Glen Wood, but also for the original members of the family race team, people like Glen’s brothers Leonard, Ray Lee, Delano, and Clay, as well as all the others who have been a part of the team over the years.

Crew chief Donnie Wingo also found himself talking about long-term relationships during his part of the winner’s interview. “I've known these guys here for probably about 30 years,” he said of Eddie and Len Wood. “With everything the way it worked out last year, the opportunity for me to come over and work with this great group of people, you know, I couldn't be prouder, couldn't be happier.”

Getting back to the young phenom Bayne, who held off a pack of veteran drivers in a green-white-checkered-flag dash to the finish and beat Carl Edwards by .118 seconds, he said that he felt fortunate to be a part of one of the greatest moments in NASCAR history. “I almost feel undeserving because there's guys like Donnie and all these guys out here that are racing against us that have been trying to do this for so long,” he said. “But there's nobody that deserves it more than any of these guys sitting up here. I'm just glad I got to be the guy sitting behind the wheel for these guys to get this win.”

For 85-year-old Glen Wood, who has been to Victory Lane with some of auto racing’s all-time great drivers, Sunday’s trip was about the sweetest he can remember. “It’s the greatest thing we’ve ever had happen to us,” he said. “It’s certainly put us in the spotlight more than I can ever remember.” He said he was especially proud for his sons Eddie and Len and daughter Kim, who now manage the day-to-day affairs of the family race team. He said the second generation racers are responsible for forging a relationship with Roush Fenway Racing that helped them get a Roush car, and it was that trio that decided to hire Donnie Wingo as crew chief and Bayne as the driver. “It was their call,” he said. And he had high praise for Bayne, who was a front-runner from the first day of practice for the 500. “Trevor deserved to win,” Wood said. “He earned it. He didn’t luck into it at all. He ran as good or better than any of them did all day long.”

I've had the pleasure of getting to know Eddie and Len Wood over the past year and I can assure you that there aren't two nicer people in all of motorsport. Despite tremendous odds against them, their loyalty, dedication, and perseverance have been so gratifying to see in this graceless age we live in today.

Eddie said that even as the team struggled through tough times and failed to qualify for races, no one in the family ever considered giving up. “You begin to think you can never get back, but you keep trying,” he said. “Just the fact that you want one more trophy, you just can't quit. And we never did quit. We just kept trying.”

And I'm glad they didn't.

NASCAR is desperate for something, anything to get their hard-core fan base juiced again. With Trevor Bayne's sensational win in the Daytona 500, and the Wood Brothers return to greatness, they might have just stumbled upon something to build on.

My heartfelt congratulations to Eddie, Len, Kim and the entire Wood Brothers Racing family -- I couldn't be happier for them. Having been paying attention to and immersed in racing since I was ten years old, I can safely say seeing young Trevor Bayne's win for the Wood Brothers is one of the finest moments I've ever witnessed in this sport.

As for Trevor Bayne, I believe we've just seen the birth of a blazing new racing star.

(Photo © 2011, autostock, USA Lesley Ann Miller)
Pandemonium in Victory Lane as Trevor Bayne and the Wood Brothers Racing team bask in the glory of their sensational Daytona 500 win on Sunday.

(Photo© 2011, autostock, USA Brian Czobat)
Trevor Bayne and the Wood Brothers Racing family go nuts in Victory lane. That's Edsel Ford II in the white shirt on the right.

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Daytona Beach, Florida, 1968. The great David Pearson in a shot taken before that year's Daytona 500. The "Silver Fox" is considered by many to be one of the greatest - if not the greatest - drivers ever to sit behind the wheel of a stock car. With 105 wins (second all time), 113 pole positions and three NASCAR Championships ('66, 68, '69), Pearson was a force to be reckoned with every time he raced, even though he rarely ran a full schedule of races. His 61% winning percentage is the highest in NASCAR history.

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" with hosts John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, and Peter De Lorenzo, The Autoextremist, and guests this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.