Catchfence

The Wood Brothers and Bill Elliott gained valuable information during last weekend’s All-Star Showdown. The Team was able to run the #21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion under race conditions at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and bring the car home without a scratch. As Driver Bill Elliott noted, “I feel like we did good. We didn’t tear our car up. We learned some stuff and, regardless of what happens, I feel like we’ll be a lot better off coming here next week by what we learned tonight versus coming here cold turkey next week.”

Coming into this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 cold turkey is something the Team shouldn’t have to worry about. The Wood Brothers and Bill Elliott have combined for over 150 starts at Lowe’s Motor Speedway with the Wood Brothers amassing 6 wins, thirty-nine top 10s, and twenty poles and Bill earning 2 wins, twenty-two top 10s, and four poles.

One of the more notable Wood Brothers’ achievements occurred from 1973 to 1979. For 13 consecutive races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (then the Charlotte Motor Speedway) the Wood Brothers #21 Ford sat on the pole. As co-owner Len Wood remembered, “Once we started winning the poles, it became one of our weekend’s primary objectives. We were winning poles competing against some of the biggest names in the sport – Richard Petty, Bobby and Donnie Allison, and Cale Yarborough. And some of the pole awards were incredible. For winning the pole, drivers were getting cars, boats, and bigger cash awards – some up to $10,000 when a normal pole winner would earn $500. Back then, that was a lot.”

The Wood Brothers and Bill Elliott will bring last weekend’s insights and a long history of achievements to Lowe’s Motor Speedway this weekend in hopes of adding another pole and another top 10 finish to their list of accomplishments.

The race weekend gets underway on Thursday, May 21, 2009. The first practice starts at 3:00 pm with qualifying at 7:10 pm. To receive the latest Wood Brothers’ racing updates got to http://twitter.com/woodbrothers21 and add “woodbrothers21” to your “Following” list or visit our website at http://www.woodbrothersracing.com

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release