Ryan Blaney leads resurgent Wood Brothers Racing into Martinsville

There was a time not too long ago when Wood Brothers Racing had been seemingly bypassed, a team whose place in NASCAR had come and gone. It was teetering on virtual extinction, without the necessary resources to remain competitive.

Founded by brothers Glen and Leonard Wood in 1950, the once powerhouse team had devolved into a small minnow in a big pond filled with ravenous sharks. That it was NASCAR’s oldest continuous operating team didn’t matter. The Wood Brothers were the mom-and-pop corner store being squeezed out by the big box stores that surrounded it.

But as Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, site of Sunday’s STP 500, celebrates its 70th anniversary this weekend, the Wood Brothers No. 21 Ford with driver Ryan Blaney will be in the race. Not only that, the team stands a reasonable chance of winning.

And for the team that was founded in nearby Stuart, Va., just 30 miles west of the paperclip-shaped oval, and considers Martinsville its home track, having a spot on the grid Sunday carries extra meaning.

“It’s a big race for us,” said Eddie Wood, Leonard’s nephew and Glen’s son. “We live 25 miles from here. It’s just great to be racing back here. We raced part-time for a while and now we’re back full-time. Probably the most special thing for us is to be back racing here. This is home.”

For decades the Wood Brothers were one of NASCAR’s most dominant teams, amassing 98 wins -- including five Daytona 500s -- with a who’s who of Hall Fame drivers. So acclaimed was the team that it became a symbol of excellence whose famed No. 21 was one of the sport’s most iconic car numbers, along with Richard Petty’s No. 43, Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s No. 3, and Jeff Gordon’s No. 24.

However, a prolonged stretch of on-track futility, combined with an inability to attract the high-dollar sponsorship required to operate a competitive team, jeopardized Wood Brothers’ existence. Ownership costs had exploded, and being a single-car team based in Virginia was not a recipe for success as NASCAR’s popularity skyrocketed in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s.

After years of trying to make it work, the team found itself at a crossroads. If it wanted to continue, Wood Brothers needed to regroup and cut back from running the entire 36-race Cup Series schedule. The decision was made and in 2009 the team would only contest select events going forward.

Downsizing brought a mixed bag including both good and bad. By picking and choosing where to race, Wood Brothers could consolidate its resources and hone in on tracks that were its strong suits, which paid off with a surprising triumph in the 2011 Daytona 500. But even that win could only do so much to change its fortunes, as sponsorship remained limited and the path back to being a full-time team appeared unlikely.

Loyalty brings rewards, and since its inception Wood Brothers has proudly been a Ford-supported team. Wanting to help Wood Brothers reclaim its lost glory, Ford worked to facilitate a close-knit relationship with Team Penske in which Penske would supply Wood Brothers with cars, technical data, parts and pieces, and an additional key ingredient -- Blaney, a rising star with the kind of ability that can elevate a team to another level.

The alliance took effect beginning in 2015 with Blaney starting 16 races. Twice he finished in the top 10, something the team hadn’t done in three years; his best result of fourth was the highest Wood Brothers had placed since its 2011 Daytona 500 win.

Encouraged by the potential of a young driver paired with a veteran team, and wanting to get Wood Brothers back to full-time status, Ford significantly increased its sponsorship of the No. 21 car. The team ran the entire 2016 season with Blaney posting three top-fives, nine top-10s, and ending up a respectable 20th in points in his rookie season.

This season, the results are much improved. Through five races Blaney has three top-10s -- including a career-best second in the Daytona 500 -- and ranks seventh in points heading into Martinsville. It seems only a matter of when, not if, that Blaney will break through and grab his first Cup win.

The performance gains can be attributed to multiple factors: Blaney having greater experience, Wood Brothers re-acclimating to running the entire schedule, and an offseason relocation to a shop just down the road from Penske’s Concord, N.C., headquarters. (Wood Brothers had moved from Stuart to Mooresville, N.C., in 2004.)

“From a confidence level is higher compared to last year,” Blaney said. “When you get a full season under your belt and you kind of step back in the offseason and can pick out points you want to improve on and you make a list and you go to work really hard in the offseason to try to improve on those certain areas, whether it’s driving style for the driver or communication between the teams or personnel.

“I think we’ve hit on a lot of those goals that we had while we’re still getting better and better.”

And if Blaney’s initial win comes on the track his team has a personal connection to, it would make the victory all the sweeter.

“It’s been a great experience coming over here, close to home and we always want to win here more than anywhere because it was your hometown,” Leonard Wood said, sitting in the same room where the Martinsville winner conducts their press conference. “We’re looking forward to coming over here.

“Glen and I were standing on the backstretch over here at the very first race ever run here 70 years ago, so I think it would be really cool for us -- 70 years later -- for us to be sitting right here Sunday evening after the race.”