Guinness officially recognizes Wood Brothers as NASCAR’s longest active team

By Jan 20, 2015, 6:11 PM EST
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Times have changed. Teams have come and gone. And NASCAR has turned from Southern curiosity to a sport embraced in many corners of the country.

But through it all, Wood Brothers Racing has endured.

Now, as they prepare to embark on their 65th season of racing, they’ve been officially recognized as NASCAR’s longest active team by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Getting recognition from the world’s foremost authority on achievements both big and small was, as the team tells it, a personal mission of Jon Wood – former NASCAR driver and grandson of team co-founder Glen Wood.

The story goes like this: Jon recently uncovered a copy of the book’s 50th anniversary edition while going through piles of junk at his home. As he’d been working on a logo to celebrate the Wood Brothers’ 65th anniversary, he was reminded of his childhood belief that one day, he’d do something worthy enough of being in the book’s pages.

Knowing that his family team had been generally considered as NASCAR’s longest active team – but not officially recognized as such – Jon promptly sent off an application for a record claim to the Guinness website.

A sports records coordinator from Guinness got back to him and expressed interest in helping. Jon then enlisted the help of Buz McKim, the historian at NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, to help him verify his claim.

Soon enough, Guinness made things official.

“I realize that when it comes to the Book, the first thought in some people’s minds are some of the wacky, crazy records, like one for the most sneezes in one minute or something,” Jon said in a team release. “But on the flip side to that, whether it’s a record of a silly nature, or serious ones like land-speed records, there is only one global authority, and that is the Guinness Book of World Records.

“My goal was to both validate the claim that Wood Brothers Racing is the longest active team in NASCAR and also honor my grandfather and his brother, Leonard, for what I believe to be an astounding accomplishment.”

As you’d expect, Glen Wood was appreciative of his grandson’s efforts.

“This is pretty big for us,” he said. “It’s a big deal to us and I’m sure a big deal to Ford. Without their support from day one, there is no way we would be where we are today.

“We’ve come a long way since the days under a beech tree. We’ve had ups and we’ve had downs, so when we get recognition like this, it just makes it all the more meaningful.”

The Wood Brothers will run a part-time schedule in 2015 with Sprint Cup newcomer Ryan Blaney.

Alex Palou wins Detroit Grand Prix from pole

By Jun 4, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT
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DETROIT – Alex Palou won the IndyCar Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix from the pole, fending off several challenges and three late restarts during a chaotic debut for a new downtown track.

After qualifying first, Palou won by 1.1843 seconds in his No. 10 Dallara-Honda over Will Power, followed by Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi.

Kyle Kirkwood (who rebounded from falling to 26th in a massive shunt on the first lap) finished sixth, followed by Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Armstrong, Marcus Ericsson and Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden to round out the top 10.

As expected, there was lots of action on the nine-turn, 1.645-mile layout that made its debut Sunday with seven caution flags chewing up 32 of 100 laps – and eliminating some contenders.

With 20 laps remaining, Romain Grosjean slammed the wall in Turn 4 while running seventh in his No. 28 Dallara-Honda, which had started third. He later attributed the problem to a suspension failure.

Pato O’Ward’s shot at a decent finish fell apart during a green-flag pit stop on Lap 35. The No. 5 Dallara-Chevy’s left rear wheel was loose as O’Ward left the stall, so he stopped to allow the crew to push him back.

He returned in 26th at the end of the lead lap but then slammed the wall in Turn 9 eight laps later after overshooting the corner.

“Honestly our race went upside down on that pit stop,” O’Ward said. “All downhill from there. It is what it is.”

The yellow flew again during the next restart on Lap 49 as Sting Ray Robb went into the tire barrier in Turn 3 while Christian Lundgaard and Santino Ferrucci (who was trying to fight back onto the lead lap) also were caught scrambling in traffic.

During the caution, Graham Rahal hit the Turn 1 wall and then was rear-ended by rookie Benjamin Pedersen.

“I got a lot of understeer,” Rahal said, struggling to process what had happened to lose control of his No. 15 Dallara-Honda. “It’s on me. I need to see the tape and understand. I’m just disappointed in myself with all the errors this weekend, just not driving well. It’s hard to figure out why, but ultimately it’s on me. I’ve got to perform a heck of a lot better than that, especially on a day like this.

“It’s just not typical of me. I know you’ve got to stay on the dance floor. I don’t know what to say. We weren’t good in the race. We were in pretty bad shape. It’s disappointing. I’ve got to be better. It’s been a really tough couple of months. We need a reset. I need a reset. We need to come back much, much stronger.”

The first incident occurred in the first corner as Callum Ilott rear-ended Kyle Kirkwood on the entry into the Turn 3 hairpin (starts and restarts for the race occurred on the longest straightaway off Turn 2).

Kirkwood, who was starting after clipping the wall in qualifying, was able to continue after pitting to change the rear wing of his No. 27 Dallara-Honda.

But Ilott’s day was over after failing to complete a lap.

“I didn’t have anywhere to really go, but it was my bad for kind of being a little bit on the late side,” the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “I was gaining bit of time, and they just checked up a little bit more than I anticipated the last bit. I wasn’t coming with that much more speed, but I just couldn’t slow it down on the last part, so sorry to the team and sorry to Kyle cause that didn’t help him, either. On to the next one.”

After four consecutive weeks of racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and on the streets of Detroit, IndyCar will take a one-week break before returning June 18 at Road America.