Wood Brothers Head to Kansas for the Price Chopper 400

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The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway this weekend for the “Price Chopper 400” and the #21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion is already on its way. The Kansas-Missouri region has enjoyed a rich history of racing. In fact Glen Wood raced in the area during the 1950’s (see the most recent Wood Brothers “Classic Memories” at www.woodbrothersracing.com for a re-cap of a race in Kansas in which Glen Wood finished 2nd). Adding to this tradition, the Kansas Speedway was built and completed in early 2001. It will be the ninth time Sprint Cup teams have raced at the 1.5 mile tri-oval.

The Wood Brothers have competed in each of the 8 previous Kansas Speedway races and have earned one top 5 and three top 10s. Bill Elliott has 5 starts at Kansas Speedway - twice finishing in the top 5. The team will look to continue building on its intermediate track program - a program that has produced 4 top ten qualifying efforts and 4 top 20 finishes in its last six intermediate track races.

Track action begins Friday with practice and qualifying. Two practices are scheduled for Saturday. Live race coverage starts at 1:00 pm EST on ABC.

I hope they have a great weekend!

Good luck to Team #21!

Qualified in the 16th position, which is a good effort.

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Bill Elliott drove the #21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion to a 19th place finish in the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway. After starting in 16th position, Bill and the Motorcraft team fought hard all day to take the checkered flag in 19th place. The race was intense and exciting, as long green flag runs and double file restarts played a significant role in the final results.

Starting on the outside of row 8, Bill took the green flag and ran in the top 20, posting lap times comparable to the leaders. The first pit stop of the day occurred on lap 53 under green flag conditions. The Motorcraft pit crew delivered a 14 second pit stop making minor adjustments to the #21 Ford Fusion. Bill returned to the in track 21st place and maintained his position until the caution was thrown again on lap 68. Under caution, the team decided to make another pit stop adding four tires and fuel in 13.45 seconds.

As the green flag was thrown for the restart, the cars in front checked up and a chain reaction occurred, resulting in Bill bumping the car in front of him. This incident damaged the splitter and put a hole in the nose of the car. With a damaged racecar, Bill fought to stay on the lead lap and maintained a top 25 position. As Bill battled the leader to stay on the lead lap, the fourth caution fell. The Motorcraft team was able to make some repairs to the nose of the damaged race car while staying on the lead lap. The #21 Ford Fusion took the green flag and continued to run in the top 25 with slight damage remaining to the nose.

The final green flag pit stop came on lap 202 with the crew changing four tires, taking fuel and making a few adjustments. After going a lap down due to a long green flag run, the caution fell on lap 235. This caution left David Hyder and the Wood Brothers Motorcraft team with a race changing decision – stay out, get back on the led lap and hope for a caution, or pit. The team decided not to pit, received the wave around from NASCAR and was back on the led lap. This strategic move placed Bill in the top 20. With only 28 laps left, the team thought they would be 8 laps short on fuel. Hyder informed Bill of the situation and “Awesome Bill” was able to be competitive and conserve enough fuel to finish the race 19th.

Co-owner and engine specialist Len Wood stated, “There is no way we should have been able to run 60 laps on a tank of fuel but we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Bill did a great job saving fuel.”

Bill added, “Hyder and the guys gave me a good driving car all weekend and a great finish considering the amount of damage to the car. I really feel like we had a top 15 car and the team did a good job repairing the car.”

The Wood Brothers next race will be at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on October 17th.

It's great to see them bringing fast cars to the race track again. They are working their way back to 2004/05 form. Hope they can keep building on this and come back full time soon!

I'd love to see them back full time

I would love to see this team build their way back up and return full-time also.

Now that YATES is gone and I always did like the WOOD BROS next to YATES I'll be watching them a lot more.