Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Wood Brothers Interview

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Eddie and Leonard Wood join Kevin Harvick to discuss Josh Berry's first Cup Series win, the evolution of Wood Brothers Racing, and the future of the legendary No. 21 team. They dive into their family���s legacy, their partnership with Team Penske, and how they’re adapting to NASCAR’s Next Gen era. Don’t miss this deep dive into one of NASCAR’s most iconic teams! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We need more horsepower. You think you can help him find some more horsepower? I might find them a horse or two. Your whole crew, our whole crew, was in the NASCAR haul. He slams the door open. And he comes in and his cheeks are flapping, and he's like, you just caused a GD bench clearing brawl and he threw that door back shut. Josh Berry, any race he goes to now, he's got a shot at winning.

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by Echo Park Automotive and NASCAR on Fox. And today, we have a group, I'm going to say part of the group of Woodrow Brothers racing. And I think for me, I think it's important to start by saying, first off, it's the 75th anniversary of the Woodbrother. And I don't know, you guys have been in this since the years. And I don't know that you could have imagined that this year would start off like it has. You guys have been through some pretty good times in the years and the drivers and the success. But to have Josh Barry in Victory Lane just flat out winning the race is something that has to be exactly what you set out to do.

So how either one of you can start? I mean, how has this season been to start off this way? Well, number one, you know, we started in 1950. I was 15. Glenn was 25. And he said, it's got to be something to do besides hoe and corn. Yeah. So I can't believe that my young nephew's Ed and Lynn

started helping me like 50 years ago. And for them to, him and his younger family, his family, kept his thing going to 75 years. And it's just been so rewarding. You know, you have dry spells. All teams has dry spells. They go forever and all that. And then here comes Harrison Burton,

wins the 100th win last year. And then it's the 75th year we win a race. And then now we're going to go to Darlington with a paint scheme like we pitied Jim Clark back 60 years ago. And if a Formula One world champion went into 500, and to top it off with all that's going on, has just been unbelievably, very touching to me.

So how did we fuel that car so fast? Well, you know, I explained to Ventures. I guess you know what a Venture is and what it does. Like if you had a sharp flat hole, a flat hole, air is going to go off liquid, it can't make a right-hand turn. It can't make a very sharp turn. It's going to arc over, and it'll be half as big,

maybe a little more than that, than the hole. Yeah. But if you arc it in like this, it gets a straight, full shot over the hole. So we'd already been working with Ventures, you know, in the stock cars. And started out in 1960, John Calle from Ford Motor Company, I think it's time to be gained the pit, so right away we started working, trying to press

forward. And so right away, by 65, we had a pit stop worked out. Same guy calls Glenn, and we won't know if we'll come up and pit Jim Clark. So we go up, and so I'm going through inspection, we're preparing the car. We'll go up a week early, and we're preparing the car for a pit stop and had a big old settlement plate on the bottom, and you took all the bolts out and you crawl up in the tank. And then I'm up polishing this vinger that they had, the Colin Chapman team had put this vendor in there.

I didn't know if it's going to do it, but it was just perfect like we wanted it. And of course, my brother come by hunting and he couldn't find me. I'm up in this tank. But anyway, the inspector come along. He says, how come you got the outlet so far up on the tank, all the others on the bottom, showing they didn't have a vinger. because you got a venture, you got out in the center. Right.

So the holes up on the top. He says, I'll bet you $1,000 you can't pour 20 gallons a minute out of that thing. So we could care less. We didn't even bet with him. So we get set up when to make a dire run. We put 58 gallons in and 15 seconds. And, of course, Colin Chapman's got this special timekeeper, scorekeeper.

And so he's the one doing this clocking. So he clocks it and he just walks around whistling. He's so happy. But the Lotus team just rolled out the red carpet when we come up there. Yeah, and those are the great stories that came from racing back from when you started all the way through much of time. Eddie, as you've gone through, You've gone through a lot of the progression, and you see where you are now with the race team. You've got the alliance with Pinsky.

You've got Josh Barry driving your car. The last time I saw your team like this, it had a young man named Ryan Blaney driving the car. Does it feel similar to that mesh of people that you've put together this time around? Yes, it does. You know, when Blaney was a rookie, when he started driving for us, and we ran part-time. the first year, which would have been 2015. And then we started running the full schedule in 16 with Ryan. And then in 17, he won Pocono.

And you ran second that day. That's right. Because I remember late in the race, you'd had trouble early in the race. Something happened to your engine. They got overrebed or something. Yeah, I think I put it in third. I think I went from third to second. But if something was going on.

I was testing the rev limiter. Doug Gates was proud of that one. Took attention out of your vows for us. It took a lot out of it. I remember it was late in the race, and we had had a bad pit stop early and had to come back down pit road and tighten a wheel, which it put us off sequence and wound up.

That's what helped win the race the way the pit sequence was. Best I remember, Ryan passed Kyle Bush, and I thought, man, we might be all right now if we don't get a yellow, and then here you come. And you were coming and coming and coming. And when you got there, the race was about over. And I remember somebody on the radio said somebody's back in the throttle, coming across the tunnel.

And then he kept coming and it wasn't a way to catch him. But I do remember you finishing second. Yeah. Well, those days with, you know, when you go back and you look at Ryan's era, and there's a lot to the team chemistry. that I don't think people really understand. When you get a group of people together, and it clicks like it has with Josh

and the team that you guys have right now, was this something that you guys were involved in handpicking? I know John's been involved in a lot of the things that you guys do. How did the decision come down to picking Josh kind of just out of thin air? When the whole thing, you know, we decided things were going to change, And, of course, Ford had a relationship with Brisco from way back. So we had to, we met with Chase first because that was kind of the progression of it.

But in the back of our minds, we wanted Josh. Yeah. And, of course, Chase went on to go with Gibbs. And that just worked out. And then Josh was the second person we got to meet with. And it was evident. That's who we wanted right then and there. And you know, and you talk about chemistry.

I was one of those guys that, and I'm going back years, that people talk about chemistry and football and baseball and, you know, this guy's this. I never really paid a lot of attention to it. But this year with Miles Stanley, he's our crew chief this year, and Josh, it's like they clicked at Bowman Gray Stadium. Just right off the bat, you could see that it's like they've been together for years. And I see that every week. and it's, you know, it's hard to get magic in racing.

You've got to put the right people with a right people. And it just seems like those two are just, they fit each other. I mean, just to hear the conversation, listen to them this week at Darlington on the radio a little bit. And it's like they've been together forever. And everything is calm and just matter of fact. And it works. When you got something working like that, you really don't, you don't have. I'm sure you've been there.

You appreciate it. It works. Yeah, you ride that train until that sucker stops because you never know when it's going to stop. And you've seen a lot of the things that have come through your team and through the years in NASCAR. When you look at Ryan Blaney, Woodbrothers, Josh Barry Woodbrothers, what was the combination that you look back on and say, that was just a magical time for Woodbrose? Brothers racing and that combination. What era, what driver team would you pinpoint that on? Well, we have, in case you didn't know,

we've had probably 80 different drivers that's set in our car, either practicing or won a race in our car. But when we went with David Pearson, I mean, it just clicked. His driving style fit the way Woodbrothers like to set a car up. Yeah. He drew brakes with his right foot. And so he was never left foot on his brakes when he didn't need to be. But because he'd run a car free and not be loose, you could run a taller gear.

And like Darlington, you would, he'd have a tall again just roll out of the gas and let the car go and take a set and pick your throttle up early and blow you away down the straightaway. And Neil Bonnet, it took me like six months to get exactly what was. best for him. It was a complete different setup that made him run. Yeah. And I think when you look at, when you look at all those great drivers and great teams and what asset do you see, what ability knack, I don't know, whatever you want to call it with Josh Berry, what sticks out about him that makes him, he's going to be a multi-time winner? And what asset do you think that he has that's going to make him a great cup driver? You may have him. Either one. Anyway, the first of all, we know you talk more, and I like that.

Hello. I love these stories. I had Kyle Petty in here a couple weeks ago, and we need about, we would need about three hours to get through both of your stories. Before I finished on Josh Berry, Kyle Petty was the only driver. He knew what he needed. Yeah. What he needed was what, I mean, what he wanted, he knew what he wanted, and what he wanted was what he needed. Yeah.

Now, sometimes the drivers what they want and what's best for them. But he would go a half a lap was all he had made to come back in. That wasn't what he wanted. He knew he wasn't what I wanted. If you give him what he wanted, he'd win the race. But anyway, Josh Barry, if you remember,

he took off for Dale Earnhardt Jr. One pole position at Phoenix, the very first race he ever run, I reckon. Am I right on that? Let's see. Now you're testing. Now you're testing. You're getting into my TV ability, and it's low without my... Okay, now I already bragged on you.

No. So, you know, I think you're talking about when Josh got in with the Xfinity car or the Cup car. He got in... Dale Jr. got hurt. Oh, that's right. And he went to Phoenix set on pole the first time. Yeah. Anyway.

Chase Elliott. Huh? Chase Elliott. Well, he did that later. Yeah. But Earnhardt was first. Okay. All right.

All right. You got me straight now. I don't remember that one. I pride myself. You know, I know what a good engine sounds like. Yeah. And I know what a good driver is when I see one. Mm-hmm.

And Josh Berry and Miles Stanley has got the talent. I fully believe. I'm thinking any race he goes to now, he's got a shot at win. He's got, if everything goes right. Now, this day and time is so much involved in what happens during the race to win a race. It's very hard to win. But I have the feeling. I don't run the show anymore at all as these guys, but my feeling, I know those guys got to talent a shot at winning every race they go to.

Yeah. When you look at the family aspect of what you guys do, how much of a role have you put John in now? as far as what he does on a day-to-day basis and how he's evolved into being. So it seems like a lot more part of everything that you guys do. Yeah, it's really changed a lot. During COVID, and you lived through it too, all those Zoom meetings and meetings about the, you had a meeting to decide when he's going to have a next meeting. Yeah.

And Lynn and I would make John go to those meetings or you do the Zoom. I don't want to do that. I don't deal with it. And just so many meetings, so many things come up that a younger mind is quicker. Yeah, way quicker than my mind. And he was already doing a lot of that, all the merchandising and all the stuff, you know, that you have to support your team with and talking to the sponsors, you know, the relationships, building that.

He was already doing a lot of that. But he was my kid. He was still 80's kid. And I told him one afternoon, I said, I think we need to make, see if John would want to be called the president, just because the meetings he goes to, a president's meetings. They've got those now. And he was attending all that anyway, so we did that. And it just instantly changed. It was like, it was a piece he needed.

I guess he didn't know he needed it. He didn't care. But once he became that, he just took all, you know, it. just was off and running. And, you know, the paint scheme that we're going to run this weekend was Clark at Darlington. He did that. That was his. That was awesome.

Yeah. That was, you know, and we talked about that, like maybe running in indie sometime. And that never worked out. And I never even thought about running at Darlington. Yeah. And then he called me one day and said, I said, I'll send you a picture. I said, man, that's cool. And I said, I don't know how you get that passed.

You know, that's, you got a call. Lotus to get permission, you know, to use the Lotus name or Jim Clark name or, you know, whatever. Well, he calls Colin Chapman, son, Clive. Now, Clive would be my age. Now, Colin, he passed away, you know, years ago, but he was the guy in 65 with Leonard, my dad. And he went through this whole spill about, to Clive about what we're trying to do. And he's trying to think, okay, We call it a throwback. Those guys would call it a revival, like the Goodwood Revival. Like he was trying to use proper English because the Englishman or, you know, European,

and they don't talk like we do, you know. And he got into that. And so Clive actually answered his email, told him to call him, and they worked it out. Got a letter, you know, giving full permission from Team Lotus, which that to me was, I could have never done that. But I say he's took that, he's took what is necessary. And he understands all the stuff that's, I mean, it's so much more complicated to run race, you know, to have a race team in NASCAR now than it was when they had it, you know,

my dad pretty much told Lynn and I in 1985 when we, we started, that's when we started running all the races with Kyle Petty. And it was, it was Kyle and Lynn and me. And we went and got the 7-11 sponsorship loan. You know Jackie Root. Yeah. Jack went with us, and we went out there and got it and brought it home. And then we started running all the races and everything worked out.

Off it went. Now, you know, Ford and Motorcraft have been so much a part of what you guys have done. Was there ever a point where you're like, I don't know if we'll stay full time. I don't know if we're going to have the team. At what point has Ford been in there to say, okay, you need to keep running? Was that you guys? Was that Ford? What's been that balance through the years to keep it going?

Just things happen. People's asking a question before, and it's not something that happens quickly. It's just things evolve. In 07, 08, long in there, we were really, really struggling. We'd missed 500. We missed the 600.

We missed the brickyard. It's missed a lot of races. And that's when they had like 50 cars trying to make to show. And we were way down in points. And the more every time you miss one, it gets worse. You know, you're further.

and I've told this story before, but we were in Pocono testing for that race, and Edsel Ford calls me. It's like a Tuesday. And he's looking for a phone number for his general jumper, who was with the Air Force at the time. And he said, why haven't you, why not heard from you later? You haven't called me?

And I said, Mr. Ford, we run so bad. I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed to call you. And his exact words were, so you're telling me my 21 is broken. Yes, sir, it is broken. He said, well, I'm going to have someone call you in a morning, and we're going to fix this. So, you know, we go back to finish our test that day, went back to hotel next morning at 10.10 a.m. I remember exactly Jim Farley calls.

Jim Farley had just gone to work at Ford Motor Company from Toyota. And he was in charge of kind of helping the racing thing at that time. And we talked for a little bit. He said, you need to get up here to Dearborn as quick as you can. Okay. We left from the racetrack, have any clothes, just had jeans and t-shirt from testing, when he got on an airplane, Wilkesbury, and flew to Detroit. And he was called out of town for some emergency meeting or something.

So we had to stay till Friday. This was Tuesday afternoon. We went, bought clothes and shiny shoes, the whole deal. Met with him. He said, okay, we're going to start. working on this. And we did. They did. And it just started to get better and better and better. And this was like in 08. And then in 11, when Daytona 500 with Trevor, you know, it just, it wasn't like, boom, you're fixed. It was just, and we got a relationship and alliance with Jack Rausch. That was

part of the, of the billback. And the car that we won Daytona 500 with, you know, with Trevor, was a rouse car. And it had support. We crashed in the 150-mileer with Gordon, because he was the only one would draft with him that year. Right. And that's when they had the tandem drafting. Yeah.

You know, everything was new and different. I loved that. Yeah. I loved it. I'm sure, I don't know what you did or not, but I loved it. Well, there's nothing like looking at somebody's spoiler for 500 miles. Yeah, I just loved. It was unique to hear the spotters come across,

a different spotter come across your radio. The funny thing about that is it was up on top of the hauler I guess it was Saturday morning practice. Nobody had done it yet. And we were watching it, and I think Matt Kenseth hooked on to somebody. I don't remember who it was, and they'd go by and they run like 205 mile an hour.

And I called my dad. He was over on the beach, and I said, you need to come over here and see this. I said, I can't explain it. I've never seen anything like this. You need to see it. Okay, so he comes over, crawls up on the truck for the next practice.

He's looking. He said, hmm, I saw Joe Weatherling, just turn us to do that in 1960 and a couple of Falcons. No kidding. Six months later, a picture turned up. We've got the archives in Daytona went and visited and found a picture of Curtis and Joe Weatherly, nose to tail, just like you guys did it. Wow.

And they were doing it. I guess it was practiced for the 24-hour race. There was a road course. There was two little old falcons that was running. But anyway, Jeff Gordon told Thomas, it's a great, they're talking about Trevor Bay and said, great kids you got in there. I'm going to try to help him in the 150-mile. So he helped him some in the 150-mile.

And Kyle Busch told him that if you pull away from you got, break it to where you can connect. And then David Pearson told him, says, you're going to have to be there at the end to win the race. And then he goes out. And I would say before the race is over, he was the best pusher out there. And that was the best spot.

I always felt that was the most comfortable spot to be in was the pusher, because you were in control of when you pulled out of line and you could push them away. And that was right up your alley, though. And we built a couple trucks that we ran at Talladega. And we put those trucks together in the shop after all that started. And we built that truck. We put it on the actuators and we put the truck on the ground, the nose of it on the ground, and we put the tail back up.

Well, with the speedway trucks, you used to always raise the nose up. Oh, yeah. And so we lowered that nose down, and we built this big, giant grill in the bottom of it, because when those trucks would connect, we had two trucks at the time. And we raised the back of the tail up because, I mean, obviously wanted the tail down. You got a long truck with two motors. Yeah, and that grill was underneath that truck, and it would cool itself all day long.

And we put boilerplate on in front of that thing, and those things stayed attached like glue all day. It was Mike Wallace, and Hornaday would, he would never want to lead because, he wanted to be the pusher. It scared him to death to be the leader with somebody behind him pushing like that. But did you ever, did you ever, what was, what were some of the, the cool things that you created that just had an advantage for, for a long time? Because that, they immediately outwalled that. But you had to have some stuff that you had that you created in situations like that. Well, number one, you got to have your car handling good. Yeah. And, Of course, a lot of people may not believe in leaf springs in the back, but that 71 Mercury had

leaf springs in the back. And that thing, I'm telling you, it was so well balanced. Now, wait, is that the one? Are we going to drive that this weekend? You're going to drive that one. Okay. Yeah, just make sure Boyer's a slower in mine. Whatever, whatever happens.

Just make sure he's going to be in a neon bonnet, Thunderbird. I mean, if it runs out of gas and he has to push him. it back. That would probably be as entertaining. Maybe back his throttle off. Yeah, just, just something like that. And Clinton and I were talking about this week, you know, when Richard did that, remember when he did that at Darlington several years ago? They couldn't get him to come off the racetrack. I said, what do you think they'd do to us if we took a couple extra pace laps? Probably not get the same treatment as Petty would get. Now, the, uh, the, uh, the six to three, uh, Ford, you know, we won a Daytona 500 or the six to three, four. You know, we won a Daytona 500 or the

6-3-4, that car, it had leaf springs in the back. And I welded a spindle on an extension on the right front spindle, like two inches longer on the top. Well, number one, it made the ball joints fall apart so the wheel wouldn't turn it under. But back then, they would body roll and wear the tire off on the outside edge. Well, with this extension on that, if you push it up and down, the sitting steel, it draw the tire in at the top.

So when body roll, it pushed it out at the top. Yeah. Well, this pushed it in and that pushed it out, it ended up exactly flat across the bottom. And we run the whole 500 mile race on one set of tires. No kidding. It wore it exactly across the bottom. So tell me when, you know, we went through this.

When I started, everything was kind of trial and air. Your whole time period was somewhat trial and air. When did you have, I mean, how did you figure out all the roll centers and everything? I mean, was that during that time or was that just you pushed the car down and look at it? Oh, yeah. Like you, you, toaster. I had it where, you know, that the tow end wouldn't move at all. Well, it was towing it in too much.

so the wheel was like this, right one was like this, the left one's like this, well, it's going to push. Where you turn them both out like it's supposed to be through the corner, they both work like a team. You know, you don't want them fighting each other. Yeah. You know good and well, if this wants to go this way, it's going to go this way. Yeah.

Vice versa. You know, so you figure the acumen it needs through the turn, and then you can make the there in arms, the acrimet would be straight down the straightaway and have the right acumen through the corner. So when you go up in these lounges now and you look at all the different telemetry and throttle traces and steering traces and computer sheets, there is no possible way that the driver is ever going to keep up with that anymore. It's impossible. I mean, you talk to Kyle Bush and some of those guys and you listen to the biggest thing they've had to overcome is not paying attention to what springs and shocks and geometry is in the car. What do you think

when you walk up in those lounges now? Are you excited or are you like, oh my God, what in the world have we gotten ourselves into? Well, see, I don't, I don't get involved trying to tell them how to do it anymore, you know. But you see it. I see it. I would have to work with it. Yeah. And of course, you know, I say it many times that this thoughts pop in my head how to do stuff. I've never had an engineering degree or nothing, but a thought of pop in my head how this needs to work. And that's this way it's always been. I would have to work with it to give you a good explanation to what I think was going on. It's a lot of information. It's overwhelming. What's the biggest thing that has changed over the last few years with next gen?

What does it change for the approach from the race team and how you go to the racetrack or how you, how many cars you have, how many people you have? How much has it changed the dynamic of how the race team functions? You know, now, you know, I think the whole new way of racing started, you know, when we got to come back before everybody else did as a sport during COVID. it. And I never, ever, in my wildest dreams, thought we could go to a racetrack and not practice and start Green Flag and go. And they did it. You know, we did it at Darlington. You did. You did. You're part of it. But no practice, no anything. And nobody had any problems. You know, they go. And it's just the world we're in now. The, you know, kids, you know, they're all about, my guy got grandkids and they're all about iPads.

And you take an iPad away. Like, you don't want that. Well, then you go hang out with them in a restaurant for a little while. Here's your iPad. Yeah. But it's just the world is like that. So race cars need to be like that. And I like it.

I just find it hard to believe that these things would run a half inch off the ground at 200 miles an hour. Yeah. I mean, back you were talking about the changes, you used to have a height stick you had to go on the thing. It had to be like five and a half inches off the ground, you know. And now that thing is scraping the earth. We need more horsepower. You think you can help them find some more horsepower?

Well, I mean, I might find a horse or two. I mean... I bet you could. I guarantee you could. I know I used to tell them years ago. I worked with Edelbrock, and I told him, you need your manifold, looking like your fingers. Your intake runners look like your fingers.

This and this long, this and this long, and this one this long. When it's real low and flat, the two cinnamon's was way too short. And the end one was long. You had two short runners and long run. Well, that makes them more all the length. And now that's basically how they've designed the thing. Talk to me about your museum. You guys are going to open your museum into May, correct?

Well, we've got a museum. I mean, you're adding a Hall of Fame to the Museum. Yeah, Winston Kelly and all the guys at Hall of Fame wanted to do an exhibit to celebrate our 75th year. So that starts May 22nd, maybe it's the day after we vote for the Hall of Fame, the next group. And it's going to have the 71 Mercury that you're going to drive. It's there. It's going to have the car that Harrison wanted the 100th race in. It's got, I think it's three more cars, a bunch of trophies and just artifacts from, you know, all through the years, going back to the 50s.

Yeah. I mean, our dad, I think it's 1959, one most popular driver, which they had that award back then, too. And it was voted on by people that were NASCAR members. You know, they used to have this little newsletter that come out every week about Beaumagreb Stadium and wherever they were racing. and people would vote on it. But it's going to have a lot of that stuff. And I talked to Lynn about, what are we going to put in place of this in our museum? But we've kind of already started that.

We've got other cars in another building. And, you know, but the cool stuff will be at the Hall of Fame, the really cool stuff. And I would assume, did you keep everything? Have you guys, I mean, has the family kept everything through the years for the most part? Or did we give some of it away? Or is it all there for the most part? What you wanted. I'm sure we've thrown away a fortune.

Yeah. Because you didn't know any better. Yeah. You just didn't need it. You got rid of it. And Leonard, my dad's day, the next new car, you used the car you were running or if you had two cars. Those were the parts and pieces that were good on it. You put on the new car.

Yeah. Still a new car, but there was things that they had worked out that you kept going. And you didn't care about the car behind you. And most of the lot of those got gone. There's not a ton of... Our old race cars around. Richard Petty has one. He's got the car that Kyle won 600 in in 1987.

He's got it in his museum. But the mercury is real. It's got a boss 429 in it that was raced in it. It's still got, it's not been restored and it's not been recreated. It's like it was when it stopped racing because it was obsolete. Because like he said, it was a leaf spring car. The next ones were truck armed cars. So we put that thing in the Darlington Museum a year or so after that,

which would have been about 74 or 5 and started running the new cars. And it stayed there for 20 years, longer than that, I guess, until the COT came. And when that came, they called their shop one day and wanted to know if we could get it running. Like, yeah, I guess. And you may remember it. There was going to do Carl Edwards and David drove a row. around Darlington side by side. So we got it back and took Leonard about a month to get it going because everything in it

was rotten into the fuel cell and lines and everything. So we got it going and did that. And when we gave them the car or put the car in museum, it was just kind of a tribute to David and just Darlington because Darlington's Darlington. And so when we got it back, we said, okay, we just need to keep it in our museum. So we did. And that's what we have now. But it's been several places like AJ Fort used it because he drove it.

So there's five guys that drove it. When it was brand new, a guy from your part of the world, Parnelli Jones, drove it at Riverside, led to race and I think broke the transmission or clutch. And then AJ drove it. And then Kale drove it. Donnie Allison drove it. And then David got in it in 72 at Darlington, which would be this spring race, sat on pole, won the race.

and then it was, that's when the history part of that started. But that was that car. Yeah. Where's my hood? Where's the hood from Richard? It's hanging on, it's hanging on, it's hanging on a museum. It's in a museum. Yeah.

Okay. The hood, which hood? One he, when we jumped on, acting like a bunch of fools. What was he? He was scared. Actually, our car chief with Miles was on the hood. Kurt. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. He was one of those three of y'all. We called him dog. That was his nickname for a long time. And what was funny, the next morning, that was a Saturday night race. Next morning, I got a call from Childress. He was hunting somewhere like out west. And he said, I'm sorry about that.

My man, it don't matter. And no, no, no. He was pissed. Oh, he was so mad. He made me pay. I had to pay every fine for every crew member that got fined. It cost me $155,000. Come on.

Yes, it did. He made me pay every fine. I had to pay them all. Well, I remember when all this was going on, your whole crew, our whole crew, was in the NASCAR hauler. Oh, yeah. Drug everybody. Right, standing right next to each other. Yeah. And it got funny. I mean, it finally was, who cares? You know, it was funny. I just remember, the thing I remember most about that night, everybody's, everybody's standing in the hallway. And then we're sitting in the lounge. And Mike Hilton walks in the back of that door. and he slams the door open.

And Mike was pretty heavy. And he comes in and his cheeks are flapping. And he's like, you just caused a G.D. Bench clearing brawl and he threw that door back shut. And that was as mad as I've ever seen Mike because I said GD on TV. And that was really the reason that he was mad. That's why they were all mad. And luckily, at that particular time, Jim Hunter was, if it wasn't for Jim Hunter,

I would have been, I'd have been long ways down the road. Without Jim and Richard, I'd have been in big trouble. But, all right, I got two questions. What was your first car that you ever drove on the street? Never drove on the street? Yeah. What was the first car you ever drove as a kid? Forty Ford.

Forty Ford. What'd you do with it? Did you build it, buy it, sell it, wreck it? A guy wrecked it, run it off in a hole, only had 22,000 miles on it. Yeah. Run it off in a hole, bent to frame. Well, I bought the thing.

and changed the frame on it and fixed it back up and made a real nice car out of it. One of my favorite cars. One of your favorite cars. A Ford Ford. Now, you're talking about handling? You could fling them things sideways and get in the throttle. I mean, if you modified it and put a boarded the engine, stroked it, put a camshaft in it, and three carburetas on it is the most powerful thing you've ever seen in your life back in that day.

So that was cool. What was the best car you ever drove? was the car you'd look back and you're like, man, that thing was badass. Well, I like to weigh the 63 Ford's handle. Now, you're talking about coral springs in the back, you know. Yeah. 63 Ford had leaf springs in the back. It's this place in front of a certain road on a certain dip. The 63 Ford with a leaf spring in the back, you'd feel the front wheels hit. You'd never feel the back wheel. The real wheels hit. Yeah.

The 65 had coils all the way around. You'd feel the front wheels hit and you'd feel the back wheels hit. True story. Best driver, Wood Brothers ever had. It doesn't have to be full-time. You're going to ask me that. Well, I mean, you've seen all the footage. What do you think?

Well, I'll let you both answer it. Huh? You can both. The best driver drove. Drove for you guys. Like, you looked at, even if it didn't. First of all, didn't drive full-time.

We have been so fortunate. We have had the best drivers in the world. Absolutely. Driving our car. And each one of them had a little bit driving style. Yeah. But there's so many. There's too many of them for us to mention.

But all of them had this a good one about them. If I had to pick, I would say David Pearson. David Pearson won 43 races for us. Yeah. He won 11 out of 18 starts. I mean, we could probably stir a whole bunch of stuff up if we got David Pearson running full-time, right? Yeah, but I'll tell you what. We won't get that conversation started today.

We might get banned. Parnella Jones and AJ fought and Dan Gurney, I'm telling you, they were right on up at the top. Oh, yeah. It was, that, I wish I could go back and be a part of that era of racing because it was just, it was so pure and so, you could get away with so many other things that you can't now and just the way. that you could drive the cars and the things that you could do. Riverside was so exciting to watch them run Riverside Road course. Come down that long back stretch and go through the turn nine. I'm old enough to have been there.

I grew up in Bakersfield, California. So I went to the last race at Riverside. Kathy Corelli, I wasn't old enough to get in, and we were running a cart race in Riverside. So they were racing on Saturday. I don't remember exactly what division it was. Kathy put a blanket over me and I hid on the floorboard in the back seat and I stood in back of the Rick had a bread van at the time. Oh, yeah.

That was their toe hauler. And so I stood in the back of the in back of the truck while they, while they raced the last weekend in there at, in there at Riverside. So you never did see Dan Gurney run. I never did. Yeah. Well, I want to bring up Glenn Wood, Bowman Gray Stadium, Martinsville, Virginia. There was nobody better. Yeah.

We had this backseat car. Gle says, I think we need a biggest spin on that right front. And running, you know, Bowman Gray and asphalt, I didn't, you know, not running dirt, I didn't see the point. So got in with him over at Martinsville in that backseat car. He's got these big slicks on it. He goes in the corner of the fast. I mean, I'm holding on the road bar. I thought he's going to throw me out the window, and it looked like it must be 20 ton on that right front.

So I've had enough. He can't hear me. And so finally stops. I said, Glenn, you need a bigger spell on that right front. Just call it like you see it. But let it. Well, I'm going to let him off the hook. Best moment you've had at the racetrack for the Wood Brothers.

Like just the most surreal moment that you remember as a kid, adult, whatever that was. It doesn't have to be recent. Just the memory that sticks out. out as a kid because you guys have got to experience things that most people don't even know about in our sport. There's got to be something that sticks out for you. And it can't be anything about Corelli. I just got a message from him a few minutes ago. I know which one he needs to say. What is it? The 2011, Trevor Bain Win, was the most celebrated winter circle I've ever been in. And then, of course, now this Harrison Burton and the Josh Berry is on up there.

But, you know, the races that I was in charge of that won, I was never as happy as I am for my young nephews and their families to win Josh Barry and the 100th win and all that. I'm just so happy that they brought it 75 years. Well, you guys have had a great part of this sport. I'm honored to have you guys here today. Congratulations on 75 years. Leonard, Eddie, thanks for taking time today and good luck the rest of the year. Thank you. It's a honor of you. It's a pleasure.