Wood Brothers Racing, Elliott miss Daytona 500 field

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Wood Brothers Racing team will miss the Daytona 500 this year, marking only the third time the team has not been involved in the prestigious NASCAR Cup race.

Bill Elliott, driver of the Wood Brothers No. 21, Bill Davis Racing’s Jacques Villeneuve, Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ Patrick Carpentier,  No Fear Racing’s Boris Said, BAM Racing’s Ken Schrader, Phoenix Racing’s Sterling Marlin, Red Bull Racing’s AJ Allmendinger, Front Row Motorsports’ Eric McClure, E&M Motorsports’ Carl Long, and Ski Motorsports’ Stanton Barrett also missed the race.

But it is the Wood Brothers and Elliott that will be the most notable absence come Sunday.

The team competed in the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and has won the Daytona 500 four times (1963, ’68, ’72, ’76), and Elliott is a two-time winner of the race (1985 and ’87) with other teams.

Elliott said there was simply no way to define what it was like to miss the race.

“I don’t think there are words that can describe it, but that’s life,” he said. “There will be days like this.”

And then he added, “I’m just bummed out.”

Team co-owner Eddie Wood has been at the track for most of those races. He says that he’ll be on hand for the race Sunday, even though his car will not, and that he can’t imagine how that will feel.

Wood declined to criticize the top-35 rule that put him out of the race and said that his team was a better group than it was a year ago.

“Our practice times and everything we did this week were better than what we’ve had in the past,” he said. “It’s hard being a single-car team like we are. We didn’t make the Daytona 500, but we were here to attempt to make the Daytona 500, and there are a lot of people that can’t say that. All the sponsors I have and all that, are very loyal to us, to continue to sponsor us this year – knowing full well when they signed on that we were out of the top 35. And that makes you feel good that they’ve got confidence in you that you can turn your stuff around, and we’re going to turn our stuff around.

“We’ve been doing this too long not to. …  it is what it is. I don’t know another word for it.”

Wood admitted, though, that it is tough to miss this race – especially with someone who has his history with the track.

“The Daytona 500 is just not another race,” he said. “It is the Daytona 500. To me, it’s bigger than the Indy 500 and all that. We’re still a part of it. We’re not going to be there Sunday.”

Wood pointed out what it meant to him by talking about how he spent his Tuesday off. He went to where the cars originally raced in Daytona, down on the beach, to a lighthouse.

“I went down there. I walked up it, which I won’t do again,” he said. “As I was leaving, I went through the little gift shop and they had some DVDs of old ’50s and ’60s racing, and I had to buy it. I left there, and the lighthouse is kind of inland a little bit, a couple of blocks.

“So, I was sitting there in the street and I knew that they turned left there and went across and came back up the other side, and I didn’t know which street it was, so I called my dad [Glen Wood]. I said, ‘Which street was it that was Turn 1?’ And he said, ‘It was Peach Street.’ I looked up, and that’s where I was. I left there, and I’m getting ready to pull out, and I look over, and there’s Richard Petty. He was there, too. That’s what the Daytona 500 is.”

Villeneuve and Carpentier were at the opposite end of the spectrum. As former open-wheel drivers entering their rookie Cup seasons, each was trying to make his first appearance in the Daytona 500. Villeneuve lost control and sparked a crash during his race.

“I lost the rear end and that was it,” he said. “It is very, very disappointing. We had a terrible day yesterday. The car wasn’t working.
We found the problem, fixed it. … It was just a little bit too loose. I got sideways quite a few times and that was one time too many. We went into a corner three-wide, got in the middle, started sliding and that was it.

“… It's a big setback. It's a shame because the whole team has worked really hard.”

Said expressed more frustration. He spent the second Duel waiting to see the outcome and was the driver set to make the race based on qualifying speed if either Michael Waltrip Racing car finished in the top two among non-top-35 teams. When John Andretti dashed past David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip on the final lap, Said was locked out of the 500.

“I’d rather give birth to a baby,” he said. “It was horrible. NASCAR doesn’t want guys like us in the show. It’s for the big teams. It’s not for the small independents. It’s so hard to make it. To be that fast and miss like that is disheartening. we’re going to keep trying. That’s the rules. They’re not ever going to change them.”

• Mentioned Drivers:
• AJ Allmendinger