Lack of Charter Not Discouraging Wood Brothers Racing

Not having a Charter going into the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season isn’t discouraging the Wood Brothers Racing team as Daytona 500 events kick-off this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

NASCAR made the announcement of the Charter system on Tuesday in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. Each Charter team would have to race full-time in the last three Sprint Cup Series seasons, excluding the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing and No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing teams, which got their Charters from the old Michael Waltrip Racing team.

The Wood Brothers Racing team, the oldest running team in NASCAR, will run their first full-time season in the Sprint Cup Series since 2008 with development driver Ryan Blaney. Blaney, 22, joins the Sprint Cup Series full-time with 18 previous starts over the last two seasons. The young driver made his debut at Kansas Speedway in 2014 with Team Penske where he finished 27th in the race. He joined Wood Brothers Racing last season for 16 races where he earned one top five and two top 10 finishes.

Many NASCAR fans left strong opinions on social media after learning they would not receive one of the 36 Charters. Eddie Wood commented on just that in the Daytona International Speedway media center during a press conference on Friday afternoon.

“Yeah, it is really overwhelming the amount of response we got on social media and phone calls and emails and things,” said Eddie Wood. “All of our fans are supporting us. That really makes you feel good because you never really know what is out there until something triggers those guys to speak up. They have really been supporting us and I just want to thank all of them. It is really amazing.”

Starting and parking would not be an option for them after scaling back in 2009. The team would instead enter races where they felt would be their strongest as far as competitiveness. “It would have been an embarrassment to our family” said Len Wood on starting and parking. He continued by saying “Our uncles and our dad 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. That is the way I look at it.”

The Wood Brothers Racing team hold 98 victories in the Sprint Cup Series with their last coming in the 2011 Daytona 500 with driver Trevor Bayne. They will go for their sixth Daytona 500 victory next Sunday if they’re able to get into the “Great American Race” by finishing position in Thursday’s Duel 150’s.

Brett Winningham
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