He was so excited! Apparently, his personal bucket list consists of the major sporting events around the World, and I could help him navigate one big one, the Daytona 500. I helped him get seats that I thought would make him enjoy the race the most, and will meet up with him and the folks he is travelling with at the Nationwide race grandstands.

I truly believe that the way to get new fans involved in NASCAR is to show them our sport. Our fast, heart pounding, history filled, fast and beautiful sport. I am thrilled to bring two new fans to our stands.

If you happen to be at the Daytona 500 you can find me hanging out at the ISC Archives, the Tweet-up, the Duels, the Truck race, the Nationwide Race and the very tip top of the stands in Turn Four for the 500. Come say hello!

This is one of the things that means the most to me in my quest to try to ensure people understand how important race track heritage is. Local history, local pride and local legends are alive at every home town track.

Clickity! The Tale of a Grandstand

I don’t think necessarily so, but I also think that this might be the start of an interesting discussion. If you would like to follow or join in the conversation, come on back over to Ranting & Raving.
I’m curious to see what folks think.
Ranting & Raving- 35 Years Follow Up

I also have a few tidbits about what was going on in NASCAR in 1975, come take a peek!

35 Years of Counting to 175

Enjoy!

Clicky! Another 1.5 Miler? Let’s Talk 1954!

http://www.4ever3blog.com/2010/8/5/1606275/the-year-nascar-took-a-20-year

This week, instead of focusing on Watkins Glen, I thought that I would look at the year that NASCAR stepped away from the track. I hope you enjoy it.

But today, I found the column written by Jeff Gluck, (a fellow SBN columnist) extraordinarily interesting.
Head on over and read a first hand account on what it is like to be a NASCAR spotter. Gluck had a super unique opportunity to spot for Boris Said at the Glen yesterday. I really enjoyed reading about it, and I think that you will too!

http://www.sbnation.com/2010/8/7/1611291/nascar-spotter-road-course-watkins-glen-2010

Smokey Yunick: The Best Damn Mechanic NASCAR Didn’t Nominate For The HoF http://sbnation.com/e/1334593

Twice a year NASCAR stops at one of the few short tracks on our circuit. Richmond International Raceway is a ¾ mile track set on top of what used to be a half mile dirt track at the Virginia State Fairgrounds. Rather than delve into the history of the track today, I thought that we would stop over and visit one of the most famous families in racing who are from just down the road in Stuart, Virginia.

The Wood Brothers still field the number 21 Ford, driven by Awesome Bill from Dawsonville Elliot (one of my personal favorite drivers and a gentleman who always smiles if I holler “Hey Awesome Bill!” when I see him in the garages.).  Glen and Leonard Wood changed the way stock car races were run and more importantly how they were won. The modern pit stop is the direct result of the Wood Brothers teams. Pit stops, while never leisurely, drivers often would turn their cars off and take a stretch. It was a smoke em if you got em kind of break, while the pit crew screwed off and on the gas caps; raised and lowered the car with hand pump jacks and attended to whatever adjustments needed to take place. We all know how distressing it is when our driver is stuck in the pits for more than fifteen seconds. Can you imagine if he climbed out for a smoke break!? It was the racing smarts of Glen and Leonard Wood that made pit road what it is today.

The Wood Brothers have been involved in stock car racing since 1950. Glen Wood entered into his first NASCAR Grand National race in 1953. He took home the burned up shell of his car, he never even made it through the first heat. But from that small step, Glen Wood became one of the most well known drivers in NASCAR. Glen finished 3^rd in his second race and things got better from there. He even took home the Most Popular Driver award in 1959. His younger brother, Leonard, was always in the pits when Glen was racing. When Glen retired after fifteen years of racing, the Wood Brothers team was a well respected and admired racing team. The list of drivers who stepped into their Fords is awesome, a collection of legends in NASCAR that no other team can boast. Curtis Turner, Tiny Lund, Junior Johnson, Joe Weatherly, Banjo Matthews, AJ Foyt, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, and Bill Elliot to name only a few.  The Wood Brothers have always raced Fords, by the way. The Wood Brothers maintain an admirable manufacturers’ loyalty that few do any longer.

The Wood brothers took the time to notice that it mattered how long a driver took on pit road and began to work at reducing the total amount of time that their driver spent there. Glen credits Leonard’s engineering skills as the foundation for the innovation and design for improving the equipment used by the team. He worked with Ingersoll-Rand to develop the pneumatic air-guns which even today wrench the lug nuts off the cars like lightening. He also developed the pneumatic jack which reduced the ten to fifteen pumps on a store bought jack to one or two. With Leonard’s upgrades to the equipment used in the pit and a precisely developed choreography to the actual pit stop, the Wood brothers brought the total time for a pit stop to a sharp 20 seconds. Their methods even impressed the high-tone open wheel crowd. They were hired to run the pit for Jimmy Clark in 1965 for the Indianapolis 500. He won simply because he was in and out of the pits faster than anyone else in the race.

Glen was nominated to, but will not be inducted with the first class of the NASCAR Hall Of Fame. I think that he belongs there, but don’t get me started on who I would have voted for! There will be lots of years to get to all the folks who belong. However, the Wood Brothers have been recognized elsewhere. They are listed in the Motorsports Hall of Fame and Glen is listed as one of the 50 Greatest Drivers among other accolades. The Wood Brother’s Fords have been to victory lane at the Daytona 500 four separate times. They have won 96 races as a team and have been on the pole 116 times. In 1976, the Wood Brothers took home the triple crown of NASCAR, winning the Daytona 500, the World 600 and the Southern 500 with David Pearson behind the wheel.

If you are in Virginia, you absolutely must stop by the Wood Brothers Museum. The museum is in Stuart, not far from the North Carolina state line. Not only is the drive breathtaking, the shop is so full of amazing things, it will knock your socks off. I am not kidding. It has got to be the best racing museum out there. Not only that, but everyone is as nice as you would expect a family who has been in racing for 60 years to be.

http://woodbrothersracing.com/

PS. I have pics of the inside of the museum somewhere around here! I will have to check my archives and post. In the mean time, shall we take a peek at what a pit stop looks like? Also, I’m not the greatest videographer, but I try!

I was nervous as all get out. But phew. I don’t sound too awful!

http://webtalkradio.net/shows/the-pop-culture-road-trip/

Also. If you did not spend the better part of today watching the Induction ceremonies for the Hall of Fame, it is well worth your time.

I have been invited to post over at a fantastic site called NASCAR Ranting and Raving. I’ll be posting there every Wednesday. Just little tidbits of NASCAR history. Come visit! There are lots of great writers over there!

I’ve been a bit lax over here, but I am trying to get my self put together for the NAASH Conference at the end of May. It is pretty cool. I will be in a session called “Wheels: On and Behind”  There are three other speakers. One person is speaking about the regulation of racing, though I don’t know if he will be looking at open wheel or stock car. One gal is speaking about a female racer by the name of Joan Newton Cuneo and the other  fellow is speaking about bicycle racers.

Pretty nifty, I think.