Legendary Wood Bros. team losing fight to future

With owner points and champions' provisionals filling the field at Daytona, Bill Elliott's test runs were for naught this year. Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

Leonard Wood could barely reach full gait before he was stopped, his hand grasped for a shake, a shoulder squeezed. A half century in NASCAR garages bred many friendships. And in times like these, he needed them.

This was an awkward and troubling time for the historic Wood Brothers race team, and perhaps also for NASCAR itself. The sport's oldest continuously operated team had failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 for the first time since 1962. As in the Kennedy administration.

The Woods had signed Bill Elliott in 2007 to race the iconic No. 21 Ford into the top 35 in owner points and assure it entry in the first five races of this season. He finished 36th. So the 52-year-old Elliott returned to make things right, hoping at worst that his past champions' provisional (gained in '88) could earn him spots in enough races to put the Woods back on firmer footing.

But Penske Racing was allowed to swap owner points between '04 Sprint Cup champion Kurt Busch and rookie Sam Hornish Jr. And then there was '99 champion Dale Jarrett making five final points race starts before retiring. Busch was forced to use a past champion's provisional for entry into the Daytona 500 and the Wood Brothers were out.

"I don't think there are words that can describe it,'' Elliott said.

Elliott used a provisional at Fontana, Calif., when rain scuttled qualifying, but Johnny Sauter -- filling in for Jon Wood -- crashed the No. 21 during qualifying at Las Vegas, and Elliott lost a starting spot at Atlanta when Jarrett needed the provisional to qualify.

NASCAR chairman Brian France called the Wood Brothers' plight at Daytona "a disappointment,'' adding "they're a big part of our past, and they'll be back.''

But will they? While Petty Enterprises moved from rural Level Cross, N.C., to the matrix of NASCAR expertise outside of Charlotte this year, and according to published reports, is close to landing an outside investor to bolster its efforts, the Wood Brothers seem closer to following other storied teams that simply went away. Though the Wood Brothers moved from Stuart, Va., to suburban Charlotte before the Pettys, it has much to do to catch back up with a sport it once paced.

"It's just a matter of hitting the right setup,'' Leonard Wood said, almost hopefully. "I think we've got a lot of extremely intelligent people in that shop, and when I see them working and setting it up, I don't know why it's not showing up better because they['ve] got all the talent they should need''

While owners of teams in other major sports such as baseball or football have tangible assets -- including the assurance of playing in league-sanctioned games -- race team owners make almost a fool's bargain. NASCAR and its promoters provide a purse and a venue, while teams pay the freight. Expensive and quickly obsolete equipment is worth a fraction of its cost immediately after purchase, and thanks to an independent contractor relationship that has greatly benefited NASCAR and its ruling France family, there is no guarantee of competing.

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