The Dale Jr. Download - `349 - Leonard Wood: Loyalty and Innovation

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

NASCAR was only two years old the first time the Wood Brothers took to the track in 1950. 71 years later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets the chance to sit down with a true pioneer of the sport, the great Leonard Wood of the famed Wood Brothers Racing Team. Wood talks about his beginnings in the sport in 1950 and how they grew from some street racing, lumber hauling kids to one of the most respected teams in auto racing. Leonard tells Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis about early tales from their first racecar catching on fire, racing with Curtis Turner, and one-on-one match races on the beaches of Daytona.Leonard and his brothers are widely known for their innovation in the sport. He shares the story of the washing machine engine go-kart that started it all. Whether it was pulling an engine off a Ford assembly line and modifying it for stock car racing, or trick spindles, the Wood Brothers' minds always led to advancement. They even got the invite by Henry Ford to pit a car in the Indianapolis 500. So how did a bunch of Virginia stock car boys do? Well, they won the race and revolutionized the pit stop along the way.Leonard opens up about some of the best drivers they ever had in their racecars, including greats like AJ Foyt, Cale Yarborough, and David Pearson. He also reveals why the split with Pearson really happened and what regrets he has over it. The rivalry between Pearson and Richard Petty pretty much defined an era of American Stock Car racing.Dale Jr also gets the answer he was seeking from Leonard about the origins of their famed number-21 and how it came to be. He also finds out why the little race team from Stuart, Virginia has always remained loyal to the Ford Motor Company.Before Leonard entered the studio, Dale, Mike, and producer Matthew Dillner talk about losing weight and the app that helps do it. But, when counting calories... does beer count?In the Ask. Jr. segment, Dale Jr. answers fan questions about running "The Boot" at Watkins Glen and if Lewis Hamilton would entertain running Stock Cars. We also learn that Dale is a fan of terrestrial radio. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There he is. Oh, hey. Oh, hey. My goodness. I'm going to get my calories in. You got to get those in. I have dropped it down to 176. To what?

Wait, what? He's losing my pandemic weight. Oh. But what do you mean, 176? Pounds. How much he weighs. Oh. Do you do like a calorie count or something?

Yeah, just put in everything. So there's this app. You want for the show? We'll put it on. We'll put it on. Put it on them? Take, see what happened. Ready?

Yeah, what you want to do first? Go ahead and open. Yeah. This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Yeah, so, Matthew, you're asking me what 176 is. Well, that's what I waited this morning. I, um, like a lot of people probably didn't do a good job of taking care of myself in the pandemic. and I kind of get I got up to 188 which is pretty high for me I have a I have a hole in my belt that's where I'm going to stay I wear 33's I don't wear 32's and I don't wear 34s and so when things start getting a little weird and tight down there and I've got to get into another hole in that belt things got to get serious so about

Listen to this, man. About 13 years ago, I was talking to TJ and Mike, and they were like, oh, yeah, we're losing weight. Oh, this is going way back. Oh, yeah. Talking about that conversation. Well, that's why. I'll tell you why I know it's 13 years. So they're like, oh, yeah, there's this app on my phone.

On our phone's called Lose It. Like, I got nothing to do with these people. Let me finish this. How many calories was that? This is a. Did you just count that swig? Yeah, Mike, it's his whole can right here is 10, 10 calories. I've been, T.J.

saw put me on them 10 calories. Were you drinking this last week, too? Yeah. Yeah, people mistaken this for Rowdy energy. Yeah, it looks a lot like the Routy. Good for Kyle. And they were like, Dale Jr.'s drinking. They didn't know what to do with that information.

Nah. Well, we should get some that really spent them out. Because I drank the orange rowdy, and it's not good, yeah. It's not good, yeah. Nothing wrong with it. Not at all. I drank to jump on another subject. Yeah, I drank some of Kyle's energy drink and he's got a great product.

That's cool. All right, so you're going back to 13 years ago, conversation with me and T.J. There's a app called Lose It. All right. And you can type in what you're eating and, you know, it'll give you a rough estimate. You never know whether you're dead. You know, we're talking about a plate of food here. It can't tell you exactly what calories are in that plate of food.

But it'll say, hey, if it's six ounces of fried chicken, chicken, this is typically, you know, here's your macros. I don't really worry about the macros that much, but here's the calories. So you can tell this app, say, look, I want to lose, I want to weigh this much. Get me there. And I want to lose this much each week. Say two pounds is probably the most aggressive you want to go. And you don't have to exercise or nothing, right?

Well, it helps. Of course it helps, Mike, but you don't have to exercise. So this is basically just saying, this is basically just saying, here's how to exercise. saying, here's how many calories you can eat a day. We're going to help you split it up into meals. So try to stay under $350 for breakfast. Try to stay under $500 for lunch. Here's a 200 calorie snack in the afternoon.

And so you've got to find those meals. You can't go to the store and just order what you want. You've got to find things that are in that little, you know, in that amount of calories. And so, which ain't hard to do. Anyways, and so that's also nothing. When you're trying to, you know, you learn how many calories are in six or five or four ounces of fried chicken or grilled chicken or a steak.

You figure, you understand when you're not able to count your calories and you've got to go out to a function and you sit down in front of a plate of food, you can pretty much guess what you're looking at. By using this app over a period of time, you sort of learn how much stuff is, right? And it helps you understand, like, yeah, well, without this app or any kind of guardrails, I can see how I could get off, you know, easily. Get off the rails and eat a bunch of calories without even knowing it, right? Have a 1,500 calorie a day.

Yeah, undisciplined, man, you can run a muck. You can go crazy, yeah. 1,500 calories actually is very small. But you could eat 1,500 a meal, right? So what's like a target number? I don't. So, it's a great question. So for everybody is different.

you're going to type in your size and all that. And if you want to lose a pound a week, half a pound a week, whatever it is, right? It's going to tell you, okay, here's the most calories you need to eat. And you can go over that because you're going to go under some days. Some days you're just not going to get that, you know, many calories. You'll be surprised when you're really trying. It's not. I'm not sitting here at the end of the day going, oh, barely squeezed it in.

Or man, I almost went over. Or I'm going to have to starve these last five hours of the day because I'm at the limit. It never really happens. If you're just smart about what you're putting, you know, putting on your plate, fried stuff is going to have more calories. Don't eat it. Soft drinks are not probably something you want to put on that list because that's going to eat up maybe a third of your calories. Yeah.

You know, so. Are you counting beer? All right. So I used to not, I didn't. I used to, so I've been on this, I've had this app on my phone for 13 years. Mike and T.J. we're losing weight using this app. I jumped on it so we can

we buddy up so I can see what they're doing. They can see what I'm doing. So we were sort of holding each other accountable. I forgot about that. They went away from it. I went away from it. About three years later, I'm like, oh, here I am, belts tight, waist is tight,

crank up the lose it app. And I went right back to it and lost the weight again. And I don't know how many times I've done that over a 13 year period, but I've probably went to this. app probably four times to knock off 10 or 15 pounds. And here I am in the middle of doing that again. I started at 188 and I'm down to 176 and I want to go to 172. 172 is just kind of a number that always weighed when I was younger. Kind of, that's just kind of where I want. That's it. I just pick

a number, right? Doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make sense. I've had to make sense. I've had this after so long. I can actually see my graph for over 13 year period, right? Of gaining weight, losing it, gaining weight losing it. Is it like a, is it like a, is it like a, is it like a mountain range. Yeah. I'll shut it to you, man. That's what it does. I mean, I remember that.

It's like you got peaks and valleys. Yeah. Yours isn't too bad. Wait, wait. That's the 13 years right there? That's 13 years. Wow. Yeah, you do drop off for a while.

I mean, you do get away from it for a while. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm, I'm sorry, it's not 13 years. January 2013 was when we all started this. And I was 184. It was 184. I got below 172. And then I came back to the app.

in 2018. The year I retired, all right, from racing, I was doing great because we were biking all the time in 2017. And then in 2018,

I'm like, hmm, I need to figure out how to lose a little weight. Without that racing, I was gaining it all back. Do you remember how bad we used to eat on the road? Like,

just on it, before we were into this fitness stuff, before biking, before lose it, do you remember how bad we would eat between, are you plugging in information

right now? No, I'm not. Sorry. I'm listening to you. What would I say? You know how bad we used to eat on the road? Do you know how bad we used to eat on the road? How bad, Dale?

He said it twice. How bad, I said it twice as all I'm saying. So I, for the longest time, I can't even remember. I mean, you will remember. But when I go on the road, I eat chicken or salmon. Yeah, but before that. Before Amy. Before Amy.

man we had taco day never taco Tuesday or was taco Friday what was it Taco Friday yeah and then there was the oh my God oh yeah I mean you just eat all you could eat brots brats yes you see brats all the time damn we did you we would eat at full days worth of calories just in that brots meal

oh my gosh you're right and because think about all the sun drops we drank too tons of sun drops god not a thought one minute about counting calories how much this is none of that Well, you weren't even caring. I remember the moment it changed for you. In Daytona, when you have to go away and they redid the fan zone, and so now, like, fans can watch the scales. And so drivers at Daytona would have to go stand on that scale.

And it was like a boxing match, like a pre-fight deal where, you know, you weigh in. And the crowd would start reacting to the numbers. Like, it would flash your weight right there in front of everybody, a very public thing. and man I think you were dreading going over there one time and I don't even remember what the number was but you were like this we got to we got to stop this this is this is not you know what it was for me the first I think the first time I really kind of thought man I got to get better shape was I did this commercial with Danica at Charlotte and at the end of commercial I'm wearing some kind of tan jacket and I'm driving a truck I can't remember exactly what the theme of the commercial is to help people out to point people to it, but I'm looking at myself going, good Lord. That was it. Blowed up.

It's bad. Elbees. Oh, and then you've got to be on a commercial with Danica to make it worse. That would be like 10 times worse, right? You're right. I don't count drinking, and I still don't. Well, that's the one part of... Well, this is one thing I ain't ready to...

Look, I'm not ready to give up beer. Well, you shouldn't give a beer. You should count it. No. You can't possibly do that. Of course you can do it. No. You absolutely could possibly count the calories.

If you drink a mid-altra, 95 calories, it keeps you discipline. All right, so it's not going to work for me because I'm going to sit down yesterday. I sat down and drank eight beers over the course of the day. Okay. You know, I'm not going to count that. How's that any difference saying I'm going to eat chocolate cake today? I'm just not going to count it. Well, if you're drinking Bud Lights, it's 96 calories of beer.

So that's 800 calories almost or, you know, 750 calories. That's half, almost half of your allotted. Right. Yeah. I think that's my point. That's. Yeah, I don't count it. I don't.

Look, it's my rules, man. It's my damn diet. It's my rules. I understand that, but you understand that. I'm still losing the way. It still counts. Listen, I understand. That's my point.

Just because it's not. He just decides, oh, wait, we're not going to count this? No, I understand what you guys are saying about it, but I do not count the beers. I'm not, look, I can, I'm not disciplined or, I'm not, I'm lazy. Like, I'm not going to go in there and go, yep, there's number three. Let me type that one in. Okay, number six, add that one. I'm not going to, while I'm sitting there drinking beer listening to music, sitting in the pool,

I'm not going to be typing in every beer each time I drink one. You don't have to, though. Like, at the end of the day, why wouldn't you just put your beers in? At the end of the day, after eight beers, I'm not messing with apps. You are right now? Yeah, I'm not, I didn't have eight beers just now. Yeah, I sometimes don't understand you, but that's okay. Listen.

It's not my job to understand. Look, this is, me and this app have an understanding. Do you? Yeah. I'm going to put the food in. And not the beers. I am not counting drinking. All right.

And if we got a problem, if anything's, if that's not going to work, then I'm going to delete this damn app and I'll damn handle it myself. Wow. It is close to a personal relationship with this app you have. Well, I'm just saying, look, me and you, this app, me and this app, man, we're going to do this together. Thank you. You're going to help me.

But don't mess with my beer. We ain't talking about beer. We're typing in beer. You just don't want to know that number. I do know that number. I drink so, okay, does this help you? I drink Bud 55s. That's the beer I drink.

That's perfect. I drink 55 calorie buds. Okay. All right. Great thing about Bud. So this is a whole other conversation, man. Boom my mind. And I'm sure there's some incorrect information here that I'm about to say

because I'm sure there's some big time bud, Bud Light fan, people that know the history better than I do, but talking to a friend or a few friends of mine. So I drink Bud 55. I've been drinking it for about five years. Half the calories of a Bud Light. Yeah, it doesn't taste the same. Shoot, man, now when I go drink a Bud Light,

it's like drinking a platinum. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you could taste the, you could just flavor, I mean. Like, it's super loaded. Rich. Rich. Just very alcoholic.

Yeah. But anyways. Like I, like an animal. or ale. And I don't have the stamina that I used to have. Ain't that the truth. But that's probably a good thing.

I don't need that anymore in my life. But the Bud 55s have 2.4 roughly percent of alcohol in them. All right? And so when I drink those, my beer drinking buddies give me a load of crap about it. Oh, you're drinking the water,

the sissy beer. There's always that one guy. Oh, yeah. Oh, well, there's more than one, probably. But anyhow, they gave me a hard time. But a friend of mine that I drink, Sonny, one of my best friends, me and him have been beer buddies for a long time. He's like, hey, man, did you know that Bud Light used to have roughly around two and a half

percent alcohol in it back in the 90s, back in the early 90s? I was like, no, I didn't know that. It's up in mid-fourer now, percent. Hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. And I was like, no, I didn't know that. He's like, yeah, they came out with like a 5% alcohol beer.

And it sold really well. And so Bud saw that marketing opportunity and started cranking up the beer, the alcohol percentage in the Bud Light over time, right? Oh, Bud Light's now got X percentage. Now it's got this. And just a way to sort of spike sales. And it's cranked it all the way up to fort. Now they've kind of reached the ceiling to, they can't overtake this 5%.

I think it's a Bud Ice, this five. But anyhow. What do the Platinum's have? Ooh, that's six something? That's good. Good question. Somebody should be digging that information up. Anyways, I don't know if that's true or not.

It kind of made me feel better about drink. Either way, I bawled in. I took that information as fact. Yeah. Because I'm drinking those 55s. And I'm like, you know, this is like an old school bud light. This is a throwback. I got you.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Regular Budweiser is 5%. Regular bud is 5. What's a bud ice? Select? Bud Slecks 55 Bud slicks is 2.4-ish.

No, I thought... Oh, really? What is a Bud light? Five. 4.2. 4.2. That sounds about right. So the Bud Ice,

I don't even know if they still make that, but that was... They came out with this one. Everybody was buying it. Oh, it's got 5%. But... Bud Ice says 5.5. There you go.

Oh, really? Right. And so, what's a platinum? I don't know if they still make... I don't even know if they make that. Yeah, I think they did. It is... That's that cool blue bottle, right?

Six. So, that's good. That's good. So if this information is correct, they sort of cranked up that alcohol percent of the blood light over time. So, I mean, $3.95 is not that big of a deal to me. All right, y'all. Let's welcome Leonard Wood into the studio. NASCAR began in 1949, and the Wood brothers were right there.

Always in a four. Wood brothers were right there, right there, right there. If he can just finish now, Mendez, the record flag is out. From Bowman Gray Stadium in the Appalachian foothills to the Indianapolis 500. Clark gets the fuel side and goes in on the 66th left. To their best remember days breaking records on the NASCAR Super Speedway Trail with the Silver Fox, David Pearson. He did not make it. He is less than 100 yards from it.

Here comes Pearson. Pearson is going to try to make it across the finish line. Teddy has his car going. Pearson's going to ruin it. Oh, the Biggie. The Wood Brothers. return to Victory Lane at Daytona with 20-year-old Trevor Bain. There he is.

Whoa. My God. Looking good. Wow. Looking good. Look at all this election you got. Yeah. We got some stuff.

You know, I just kind of want to tell you that you've come a long way since I've picking their plug notes. Oh, yeah. Is that right? I don't know, man. It just happens somehow. I don't even know how to describe it. You know, you have, too. Great experience.

You've come a long way yourself. Is that what you remember from him, picking up lug nuts as a kid? I mean, like, what was your first memory? Well, I didn't know about it until the Jimmy Means. Oh, I got you. Yeah, he probably was taking some from you guys. No. Yeah.

You were wondering where they were. But, yeah, I never got to see Dale much, but you know we raced with your grandfather. That's right. Ralph Earnhardt, I mean, he was one tough race car driver. He took a sportsman car and beat all the modified at the Charlotte Fairgrounds one time. Is that right? Yeah, we got great members of all of you, including you. Well, all right, Leonard.

I've been trying to get you on this show for a long time, man. We got, you know, we got to talk to you, buddy. Oh, yeah. So where do we even start? Why racing? Why was racing, how was racing, I guess, introduced to you and your brother? Well, you see, my brother Ray and Glenn was a big Curtis Turner fan. And they always went and watched him race, you know.

Why were they race fans? What was they just? Well, we used to, we kind of enjoyed running the cars on the road a little bit over the limit, you know. And, of course, to start with, you know, it was like hauling lumber out of a steep mountain. It was which truck could pull the most lumber out of a steep mountain, Ford, chivalet, dodge, and that sort of thing. so when racing started So you were running lumber You weren't running any shine back then

No but it was a big rivalry Which could pull the biggest load out of a mountain Really? Yeah that was big time Just same as who could outrun Which is the fastest race car And so when racing started We were ready to go

So y'all just started going to the events So Glenn and it was about five more was thinking about building a race car and one of them was going to drive it and Glenn wasn't really the one was supposed to drive the car so all of them quit except two

and Chris Williams and Glenn so Glenn had his personal car and his friend was driving already racing one of his friends and doing quite well so he got his personal car on the track in a practice run and kept up with him. So he figured if he had a good race car,

he might do it a little bit better. But that's how it all started. Glenn ended up driving the race car. What are you doing throughout all that period of time? Well, see, I'm still a young kid. What's the age difference between you and Glenn? Ten years. Okay.

So when he built a race car, you know, I was his chief mechanic, 15 years old. And so then we go to the racetrack, and this guy spins out in front of him. I had a big bumper sticking out. Well, it hooked Glens' rear housing and bent it in a heat race. And so because it bent to housing, when it was towing at home,

the axle being attached to the wheel. when it broke the axle of wheel runs off, pulls a gas spout out, hits the pavement, sparks flying, caught fire, burn up right in the middle of the road. Wow. Going home. So we bring it home and I cleaned the thing all up, you know, and then we went to the next race, he finished third, first race you ever, ever finished. Okay.

But anyway, they said, oh, Glenn, he'll quit after that after it burned. So then, you know, that kind of sparked him, you know, and he decided to go to prove he could do it. And so wasn't long. We was winning races, setting on pole and that sort of thing. What kind of cars were y'all driving and building early? That was a 38 Ford, and then 37 and 39 fords become real popular. Were you running modifies? We had run sportsmen at the time. Okay.

And so what was the transition from that to the Cups series? I mean, it's kind of hard to understand how all that happened because things were so fragmented back then and the sports really just kind of getting created. Like it's not really, it's not this thing that's been around for 50 years that's on national television. It's just kind of thing. And there's all kinds of sanctioning bodies firing off up.

Every state's got their own thing. Yeah. So how do you guys sort of, how do y'all determine what you're going to run and where you're going to go? Well, see, we ended up and, you know, Glenn won a lot of races at Bowman Gray. And then in 1956, we built a 44 and put a mercury overhead motor in it and went to the beach, you know, and set on poles, set a record, and then finished second overall, first in his class. So we got this overhead motor running, begin running real good, you know. In 1956, you know, we had it all worked out.

Already had the overhead motor running really good. And so Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly was running for Ford Motor Company. they was a key, key drivers for Ford Motor Company, and they went to Ford and says, you need to bring their Wood Brothers on board. So that's when we started running for Ford in the convertibles in 1956. Because of those drivers, they saw y'all's talent and ability to understand how to make those motors run better. And then the camshafts and all that they started using in 1956 was the camshares.

Swiss already running. Yeah. What were y'all doing? It was different. It was just like you, you know, you modify the inside of the engine, you know, and you, you know, look at ways of making it run, perform better, the heads flow better and all that sort of thing. And you're doing all that in your shop hours and hours and hours and hours, right?

Oh, yeah. You're just pouring into it. Oh, yeah. And y'all were able to figure all this out and do all this better than the guys that we're already on the manufacturer deal. Well, I remember I had modified a 56 mercury for Glenn's partner. And Glenn's partner, Chris Williams, his brother, run Osmobiles. And we didn't want his brother to know that I'd modified Chris's mercury.

So Jim Pascal had a Mercury race car. And so at Daytona on the beach, you could go up and challenge anybody. You know, you'd line up and you'd just drag race down the beach, no matter who you were. When were you doing, when does this happen? In 1956. No, I know, but like, you just show up and are these, like, is this during the speed weeks? Yeah, during speed weeks. They had like a time trial?

Before the race, you can go out there and run with anybody. You just go up and wait and let somebody come up and challenge you. What was the point of that? What was the point of that other than just to race? Oh, just racing. Was there money on the line? No, no, no. Was there lumber involved?

Y'all were just bored and waiting on the beach race to start. You're like, let's just have a couple drag races? You want to go? You want to go? Let's do this. Right now. Let's go. I'm going to roll up here and wait for somebody.

Oh, Jim Pascol. Are you ready to go, Jim? So anyway, we line up, Chris lines up with Jim Pascol. And so we beat him. So he comes back and come up at it. He said, what you got in that thing? I said, and because Chris' brother was standing there. We didn't want to know what had done nothing.

I said, oh, nothing. So he got highly upset. Really? Yeah, don't tell me that thing stock, he said. This is the kind of stuff we love to hear. Now, you couldn't have been in 56. If you were 15 when you guys started racing, and you're the head mechanic here, you have to be what, 20, like now at this point, 19 or 20,

when you guys are literally going to the beach and racing? I was born in 34, and that was 56. Okay, so now, yeah, so you're 22 years old. And you guys have already made a name for yourself, so much so that Curtis Turner, is going and vouching for you guys. Curtis used to drive a lot for us too, you know. In the sportsman car?

Yeah. Yeah, he took, I went to the overhead valve engine, which was much better than the flathead, flathead forward. Well, Glenn was driving the overhead car, both in a 37 coach. So the only one we had for Curtis to drive and some of the bone gray Alvin Hawkins then

wanted Curtis to drive so we had this spare car which wasn't as powerful as the overhead cars so we give him that car well during the race somehow he got pinched into the car and the thing went up on two

wheels it's going to turn over I mean it's definitely going to turn over he says yeah I just stirred it like a bicycle until I got to Bobby Myers and then I let it lean on him bounced back on its wheels and goes on and wins

the race on an underpowered car back then you know at those dirt tracks in the late 40s and early 50s how much was the motor how much was that extra power a big deal at a dirt track? Yeah you always

could use a good motor yeah yeah it handling was good, you know, you had to be able to handle, but... What did you guys do? What was Ralph Earnhardt, Curtis Turner, the Wood Brothers, and those guys doing to handle at a local half-mile dirt track? You know, you wedged the car. How did you do it physically?

This, you know, Taylor Carter was a modified expert, and he built cars like Jimmy Lou Allen, and he loved kids. So I was just a young thing, you know, running Bowman Gray, and he said, you come over to my shop, and I'll show you how to wedge a car. So he takes me over there and shows me all about how to wedge a car, you know, put wedges under the springs and all that sort of thing.

And so I kind of took it and run with it, you know, and that was a key. on dirt track is getting your wedge and stagger properly. And you literally would take spacers, wedge-shaped spacers, and put them in different side, you know, put them on the left or the right side of the rear house in between the leaf springs and changed the wedge of the dynamic crossing the cart. I always...

Were you all cutting the front springs and things like that? Oh, yeah, you'd half leaves on one side and another, but you'd put a wedge in the right front and the wedge in the left rear. And I explain wedging is like if you set your car on the right front on a sender block and the left rear tire on a cinder block. Now the car is sitting there rocking. Yeah. And the right rear is going down.

Right rear is going down. Left front's coming up. You got a lot more pressure on your left rear tire and a lot more pressure on your right. So when it goes to the corner, when the power gets on it, it's still the left rear's on. the ground. Now if you had that backwards, but to sit the block on the left front and on the right rear, now it's going to go on the corner. Right front's going down, going to pick your left front off the ground. So to give you an illustration, Tim Flock was going to drive our car at Bowman Gray when we first started. We didn't know nothing about wedge and nothing. It goes in the corner

and the left rear comes off the ground two feet. It's going to turn over. That's because the right front was so weak it let it fall. And when you stand on the gas it was just spinning that leffery tire and not going nowhere. In today's world I see this you know if the leifer is off the ground

you're going nowhere. Yeah you can't go to where. And so what happens today a lot of them to me when they get to push you and they take weight out. Well if you got wedge in the car you put pressure on that left rear tire and if you

got the tire pressure down it's a small turn right it's getting a throttle of a pull of it running around but if you take weight off of it the same has got no stagger so yeah you got to believe in stagger how it works you know to make it really work well um you guys you talked about building that car and going to Daytona to the beach um when did y'all when did y'all run the first cup race when did you all enter the first cup race Oh, we run that back in 1953 at Martinsville and in Lincoln. In a Lincoln. Is it a big deal?

I mean, in 1953 when you're going up there to run Martinsville, are y'all, is it a big deal? It sounds like in my head that you're going to, man, I'm going to go run my first cup race. Like, I remember trying to get the cup, and I remember running my first cup race, and I'm like, oh, my guy, this is insane. Was it that big of a deal back then because the sport was so, so new? The 53 Lincoln, that was this kind of racing, but when it become a big deal was when we started running new convertibles for Ford Motor Company. That's when it become a big deal. Why? Why was that?

Well, I mean, you know, to have a car to run for Ford Motor Company was big. So what is the difference of running for Ford Motor Company? being a manufacturer team then versus now. I mean, I know you guys still have manufacturer support, but Ford or Chevy, Toyota, they don't put the teams out there. You know what I mean? This ain't team Toyota. This is Joe Gibbs racing.

They race Toyotas, and they have an affiliation with Toyota. But back in the 50s when you guys started, it was, that was a Ford team. Ford put that team on the track, right? Is that the best way to look? Now, Ford just furnished your parts back in 56, you know, engine parts and all that sort of thing. We went up to the northern tour in New York, and we needed an engine, and they says, well, just go off the Oakville plant in Canada and take one off assembly line. Just like that. So we go over to Ford assembly plant in Canada, take the engine off the assembly line,

bring it back to a Ford dealership in Buffalo, New York, and take your motor apart, hone it out to give it clearance so it don't heat. And, of course, the hone we was using, I think it was rough as a pavement outside. But anyway, we put it back together, finished second our teammate Curtis Turner at Buffalo. stadium. You know, all this talk about motors has got me asking. You know, we just did a second season of Lost Speedways, and one of our episodes was Columbia Speedway, and in that story, in that episode, we talked about the engine wars between

Chrysler's Hemmy and Ford's 427 single overhead cam. And I know that we're now advancing a decade here, but we're going to jump around all over the place anyway. So this is now like in 1965, Ford goes in a boycott. What do you recall of that? And because we talked to Bobby Allison, and we were trying to understand, I think a lot of the question Dale was asking,

we're trying to really understand how the manufacturers were really affecting the team's decisions. And I remember seeing driver quotes saying, hey, they said we're not racing, we're not racing. And they sat out all summer, if I recall. And so, like, when Ford, the whole engine wars between Hemmy, what do you recall from that time and how were you guys affected? Well, we, Glenn went to Lamar,

when they run the Lamar cars over there, in 1966, was it? 65. Anyway, I stayed home and got me a 65 Ford Galaxy frame, laid it in the floor, narrowed it, shortened it to where a 37 Ford Coupe body would set on it. So I built, that's a little 37 red number 21, Ford modified coop at Ray Everham bought, you know. Anyway, put Carl Springs on all four wheels. Well, I take it to Martinsville and the thing looked like it's just carrying a dead horse through the turn because the geometry wasn't right. So I took it out, put a straight axle on it, and it looked like he picked up 10,

mile now through the corner but anyway Glenn went to Lamont and stayed over there and that's what we did while Ford was out of racing so y'all were out yeah I mean we was that that's what we were doing so why didn't you just get

another car get another manufacturer why didn't you just keep racing I was just so loyal to Ford really I've always been loyal to Ford I mean we've been you know such good friends for so long a time and uh so that's what i was trying to get at is like the manufacturer support

back then was different like when like when y'all did a deal with ford or ford supplied you with parts that that um committed you you know to them so when they did pull out you you'd you do something different right whereas today you know if toyota left or sherry left you somebody just somebody just get another car another manufacturer you know yeah well we was uh confronted several times while Ford was out. Oh, with other manufacturers? To give us more help, you know, but I still want to stick with Ford. And why is that?

Why did you already feel such a sense of loyalty? Well, that's just where I am. I just, if somebody does me a favor, I don't forget it. Yeah. And so we just stayed together all that time. You built the go-car when you were 13. Yeah. You used a washing machine motor?

Yeah, it was a Johnson, which is four-cycle. Okay. Yeah, it's not a Maytag two-cycle. It's a four-cycle. Johnson builds a good go-car motor. So actually, you would not believe how smooth this thing runs. Well, I imagine. Yeah, the thing was designed more than a hundred years ago.

So the little carburetor, you know how a throttle shaft has got a, nowadays they've got a flat and two screws that holds a throttle plate on the throttle shaft. This thing had a slot cut in the middle of the shaft, a hole drilled in the end of the shaft, tapped, set screw goes up, your blade goes in that slot, that set screw goes up. and touches that blade and pushes it to tighten it. Now it don't have no screws showing, you know, on the throttle shaft. 100 years ago. Oh, more, I don't know. Better airflow? Oh, yeah.

But I would like to crank the thing up and let you hear it run sometime. It's still going? It runs like 25 mile now. You still have it? Oh, yeah, it's in the museum. Oh, God. It went to the junkyard, and, you know, I, got parts. I didn't have no money. So I go to the junkyard. And my, it was the guy, my, my, uh,

my, uh, brother-law's brother as a wood also, uh, used to buy, uh, army trucks. So the army trucks had the same motor as a amphibious army duck. So they needed buy armaduct. So they need to buy Army ducks military to get all the parts because they had the same running gear. And then they had like sprockets and all this sort of thing. So it had a double row sprocket small and large that's what I used to put on the axle and the drive gear. And you're ready to go to war. And then the press pulley was made out of a barring out of a forward water pump,

and the bearings was out of a transmission of a 44 transmission. And then the front end was designed just like the go-karts today, which was, this was 10 years before a go-kart was ever introduced. So it wasn't a copy of a go-kart, but the go-karts was built got the same steering that this had. So, anyway, had a lot of fun with it. Was your dad this clever with, you know, mechanical thing? I mean, you're figuring things out at the early age that I don't know that anybody could just look at and just go, yeah, this is some creativity I can apply to this.

Where did you get that? Well, my dad was an extremely intelligent mechanic, you know, a great mechanic. But I didn't ask him how to do stuff. I wanted to do it on my own. He would have helped me whatever I asked, you know, but. I just wanted to make stuff on my own. I didn't want any help. This little, it was a motor kit that you could buy for a bicycle

that you could put on a bicycle with a motor. And I just envied him so much because I wanted one so bad. So my brother-in-law gave me that motor and I made the go-cart. So you guys are really well known for your number 21. You always had, for the most part, you've always had the number 21. And I was wondering, I was looking at the notes. Your first number was number 50. Yeah.

Why? 50. Because he paid $50 for the car. He only bought it. That was it. Yeah, now we put a lot more money in it. That's what it. And so when it got burned up,

This Curtis Turner had this number 16. Bill Snowden was building his car. It was really fast. So we'll put 16 on it after we repaint it. Yep. And we run that for a while. And then come out with this stroker kit, built a new motor with a stroke, big more stroke. And this guy had a hot modifier down South Carolina. Just flying number 22. So we're going to put 22 on this one.

So we run that. And then as we started running, building more cars, we'd have one with number 21 on it. And so we run that year and all the sportsmen. So we went to the convertibles, we had number 22 on our convertible. Well, Fireball Roberts had 22 on the hardtop division. but when they run them both together, which they did,

the convertible had to change their number. Yeah, you did. So we put number 21 on it. It stayed. That stayed. Right around the mid-80s, y'all had Kyle get in the car there for a little while and y'all ran to seven, didn't you? Yeah.

What was that like? Did you have any belly aching over that? Oh, yeah, I hated that. but it's still 21. Seven on each door, one on the roof. I see what you're just saying. Hello. Is that how they got you to go along with it?

I mean, it looks like you weren't happy. They said, well, look. I'll tell you what, I mean, back along about that time, you'd paint it pink if they'd they furnished the money. Whatever it took. Yeah. You had 11 Hall of Fame drivers. 99 wins looking for 100 this weekend at New Hampshire.

David Pearson, Kale Yarbril, Yarbril, Neer-Bonet, Marvin Patch, A.J. Foick, Glenn Wood. Dan Gurney, Speedy Thompson, Kyle Petty, Tiny Lung, Curtis Turner, Donnie Allison, Buddy Baker, Dale Jarrett, Morgan, Shepard, Elliot, Salar, Trevor, Bain, and Ryan Blaney. So I've always been a really, really big Kell Yarbrilverill fan. but you guys I think a lot of people you know really remember the years y'all had David Pearson what is the difference

between those two drivers between David Pearson and Kiel Yarbril Yarbril? Both of them are great drivers David Pearson was a guy he'd drawed brakes with his right foot and he'd go down and back off the throttle and then pick your throttle

up at the right place. He'd take your right line. He just knew so much the line he needed to take. And then Kale, he would run like circle the track. Like, especially Atlanta, he'd just rim ride it all the way around. David would go in high, dive, low would blend out, you know. But in all fairness, David Pearson was the easiest person to get around the racetrack fast. because he broke a brake through the right foot,

so he was never on the left foot on the brakes or nothing. So you just get it rolling free through the corner, and he wouldn't be loose. Neal would be loose with David's set up. So if you've got your car tight, it's not rolling through the corner as fast. Yeah. As free as you, David was so free through the corner,

it made you able to turn, run a taller gear and uh he just uh unbelievable uh how he'd run darlington you know he'd back off and i remember one time he says uh he got he he was smoking at the time smoked cigarettes and so what he did he got all set to go in high and he'd go and make a run at buddy baker and just lit his cigarette as he as he passed him you know Oh, wow. Yeah, just as he passed me, he lit that cigarette. And, of course, that kind of upset buddy.

Got in his head. But, Cale, he just, he gave it 110% the whole time. He seems like he was the kind of guy that would, you know, ring a carer's neck, you know, just running as hard as it. Oh, yeah. And then his little old neck was short, you know, whenever he'd run Bristol, they thought he had to. advantage on everybody.

That's awesome. So y'all team up with David Pearson and y'all, you know, when about every race you show up to, you don't run the full season. How come the Wood Brothers decide, you know, to run a part-time season, you know, to the majority of the 70s? Well, we just didn't have that many people in the shop, you know. And so we just kind of enjoy doing what we were. doing, you know.

Today, if you don't run all the races, you can't keep up. You have to lunch. How do you do it back then? Well, I mean, then it was different. You know, nowadays cars, I mean, they just inch by a guy down the straightaway or whatever. Back then, you know, you would come up with something, you know, it would just blow by a car. I mean, there was just a lot of living racing back then. Yeah.

And when y'all, you know, during your off time or, you know, between races, you guys are trying to find the next trick, the next advantage, the next thing that's going to help you blow by the competition when you do show up at the racetrack again. I, you know, of course, my late wife, Betty, used to love to shop. And so I'd just go to the way. waiting area and then what I would do is I just concentrate all that time on how I's going to build something or make something better or whatever. And then once you do get the edge on somebody,

you still keep getting it because if you slow down, somebody going to catch up with you. So you still work all the time trying to get an advantage on somebody. Is there anything that stands out in your mind of a discovery or any, kind of, you know, a way you might have, you know, set the geometry up on a car that was just like a light bulb went off or it just set the car on, you know, set the car on fire, made it so much more competitive? Well, 1962, I just got out of the Army, and back then cars pushed the front end. Of course, they still do.

But they seem to roll over, you know, and then wear the tire out on the right out of edge. so I come up with a spindle that would gain negative camber or positive camber you know in at the top you know when the car go down it lay in at the top

well when the body rolled the footprint would stay exactly flat on the pavement you know as a body rolled it pulled the tire in but when the body rolled it pushed it back to where it was still straight and so at Daytona in 19th

63. I had that spindle on there, and the tireware was perfectly even across the bottom, just flat across the bottom. Yeah. So we ended up running the whole race on one set of tires. That's amazing. And that was a big deal because you changed the tires with a four way back then, probably. No, we changed it with, we had the pit stop worked out starting in 61. But we didn't want to change tires because we might cross thread something and we wanted to keep him in the draft. This was because Tiny Lund is, you know, filled in for Marvin because Marvin was in the crash, got in that sports car. Yeah.

And we wanted to keep him in the draft all day because they had a caution flag at 34 laps. So we run 42 laps, 42 laps, 42 laps, 42 laps. 42 laps. The last one only had to run 40. So we've made up all that time. Fred Lorenzen and Ned Jared has not made their laps up. So we knew

at the last 100 miles nothing happened. We were going to win the race if it didn't something happen. Really? Because they was going to have to stop. How come the Wood brothers, like why didn't everybody else figure the pit stop out?

Why was... Well, they come on. to it. In 1960, Fireball Roberts and Smokey Unique took them 45 seconds to change two tires and fill it up with fuel. So this Ford engineer, John Cowley, says, I think it's a lot to be gained in the pits. So naturally, you know, you want to press Ford Motor Company. Yeah. So we just started working.

on it. So right away, we was 25 seconds with two tires and gas. And so then we'd make pit stops and it looked like we was a half a lap back. It was a half a lap ahead. Yeah. But it didn't take them long, you know, they figured it out. Yeah. But y'all, so you kind of, you know, the Woodbrothers get credited though with being the team that sort of revolutionized the pit stop. And the story is that you guys ended up going to Indy and to manage and crew a car and pit a car and the pit stops and the efficiency is what helped y'all win that race. Yeah, the same guy, John Cowley, Ford Motor Company, said that Henry Ford wanted us to come up and pit the car because they'd have some problems a year before.

So we go up a week ahead, and we don't know if these guys going to accept us or not. Exactly. They're English guys, and we walk in. And it's open wheel. And immediately they just rolled out the red carpet, let us take the car and prepare it for a pit stop or however we wanted to do it. So we're out there working on it. and the fuel tank had a big plate on the bottom where you unbolt it and you could crawl up in the tank and we had a big old giant ventura in the inside of the tank to where this sucked the fuel out

and so I'm up in the tank my brother Ray is looking for him and he don't know where I'm at well, I'm up in this tank, polishing this ventura. But anyway, the inspector come by, and he's inspecting everything. He says, how come you got that outlet so far up on the tank? See, if you got a big venturer, the outlet center is going to be off the bottom. All the rest of them was on the bottom. Okay. Y'all changed this?

Now, the Chapman's people built this tank. for us. But anyway, I said, well, let's just up there. I could have cared less, you know, what he thought. He said, I bet you $1,000 you can't pour 20 gallons a minute out of that tank. I'm thinking, well, we didn't bet with him. We just wanted to get through inspection. So we made a dry run after we got it all through inspection and everything.

we put 58 gallons in and 15 seconds. Dang. Was that the big hold-up? Was the fuel of the cars back then? Well, see, they was doing it under pressure the year before, up until the year before. So now they go into gravity flow. They figure we're going to be in there about a minute. And so we knew it was going to do about under 20 seconds.

So I think the first one was about 17, 18 seconds. What everybody said, what everybody up down Pit Road think when that happened? Well, the commentator Sam Hanks, he says, well,

you can bet they didn't get it full, says, you know, a green crew and all that, he'll be back in. So he kept running, kept running. And the guy says,

you said he'd going to be back in. He said, well, I don't understand it. it. So the run, had a runner to come down to see if we was mixing half gasoline, half alcohol or he didn't have to put in as much. Oh, wow. And Chapman says, pure alcohol. So, anyway, got the most publicist in the least amount of time ever got. Yeah. That's interesting. So listen, okay, so you got the spindle that you're talking about. You've got this genius way to apply fuel.

Where do you draw your, what inspires you to come up with this creativity? Where does that happen? You did mention that you would utilize time when Miss Betty was shopping. But literally, is it conversation you're having inside your shop? Where do you come up with this idea? They're so far-fetched that I can't imagine how it would have been easy just to dream these things. Well, I don't just come across or wrong, but whenever I see a problem, somehow, thought this rings a bell is how to fix it. You know, like somebody comes up and presents me

of the problem. Immediately, a thought comes to my head what to do to fix it. Yeah. It's a good Lord's blessing. It's an amazing thing to have. What do you think, how did your, how did your time in the military have an impact on you? Well, I didn't like it. You didn't. What made you want to join the military? Oh, I got called in. Did you? Oh, yeah. Really?

I didn't volunteer. I couldn't wait to get out. How long were you in there? Two years. Okay. And then I got called back in 1961. Really? Yeah.

So, wait, how many years between that? Well, I was out two and a half years and got called back in for nine and a half months. What was going on? I was in Berlin crisis. Okay. Yeah. Really? What did you end up having to do while you were in the military?

Oh, I was replacing the engines, major assemblies and all that. Working on cars, trucks. Really? Working on jeeps. Where were you at? Strabing Germany. Whoa, you went overseas? Oh, yeah.

Hello. Stayed over a 19-half months. Well, that might have been all right. No? Not really. I went to Monza, Italy, and watched the cars run over there. Well, then you got to do that. Yeah.

Yeah. How was that? That was fun. Yeah. Took 8mm film of the race and it didn't have no sound. Yeah. But, you know, John Zink was a big time front row starter at Indy, his cars. And Jim Rathman was driving John Zink car.

And I filmed it and showed him winning the race. how far he was ahead and all in the garage area. So A.J. Fort was over there in the pits. But so I'd get back home, we'd go to Indy. When was it, first race at Indy? These race fans come up and was talking to me. They was from the same town next door neighbor to John Zink. And I was telling them about the video,

and they says, wrote me a letter and won't know if they could borrow that tape to make a copy. And you'd have thought you'd have given him a million dollars because John Zink didn't have no recording of him winning that race. Oh. And then he got inducted in the Hall of Fame up there a little later. But, yeah, it's a great experience to be in the Army.

I mean, it teaches you a lot how to not, how to take care of yourself and all that. That's pretty interesting. So y'all win a lot of races with David Pearson in the 70s, and then the wheels come off at Darlington. Yeah. Glad you brought that up. Yeah.

Well, I got to ask you. Yeah. We, you know, I didn't live, you know, that experience, But I've, you know, I've done my homework and I love watching all those races from the 70s. And I know every, you know, I know what I think I need to know about David Pearson. And I know how much you guys thought of him as a driver. But what is happening, you know, between y'all that at that moment, I mean, it looks to me like a simple mistake, miscommunication. what allowed what happened that allowed that to boil over to a departure, you know, and y'all split up?

Well, we kind of thought he was wanting to quit racing and we was going to change four tires. We said we'd change four times. Was he saying that? Was he talking about that? What was giving you that impression? I forget how it'd come up, but we could just kind of tell it looked like he was ready. Anyway, we're going to change four tires. We said four tires, well, he took off with two before we got the other two on,

which ended up, Kyle, we got upset, you know. So right afterwards, we said, well, let's forget about it. And I was already talking to him about what was going to run Martinsville, and, you know, just let it blow over. and our sponsor said no you've gone too far and made us go ahead go through with it

really yeah otherwise we wouldn't have split up biggest mistake we ever made you think yeah he had what how many more years left you think I don't know but he goes on and wins the day of the yeah he had a couple of wins

we go down now and uh David wasn't there well they wanted Neil to shake David's car down. Neil was driving our car. And so Neil said, well, you won't have to worry about David tomorrow. Says, that thing's so loose, you can't drive it.

He wins the race. Don't even turn a jack screw. That's what I'm telling you, that the way he drove, he could get away with your car rolling free through the corner. Sure. He drove him loose. Yeah. It wasn't loose for David.

Yeah. Yeah. When you say it was the biggest mistake, was that your words that you guys made? Yeah. Was it a mistake letting loose? Was it a mistake listening to the sponsor and let them dictate your next move? A mistake letting the best driver get away from you. Yeah.

That's one of those things. You know, you've been together so long, you know. I made a very similar mistake. Yeah. You know, splitting with Tony Senior when things had went so well for us in 2004. you know, I can understand how you, you know, in those moments, you can make those decisions. But I'd always wondered, you know, how that happened because y'all were so good together. And that thing at Daytona, I mean, Darlington on pit road, doesn't seem like a deal breaker, right?

That's just a miscommunication. Well, it got to where we wasn't winning as much as we were. You know, I don't care who you are or what you are, sometimes you get the edge on the other team on your competition. And then that may last for a year or two, and then somebody else gets the edge on you. So that's kind of what happened. We was in a downslop from a way we were.

Yeah, sure. A little bit. But since you mentioned that, you and Tony, Tony Jr. I was at your wedding. Yeah. And you and Tony Jr. got to talking about it was when you started out, and I believe you was at Darlington, and you said something's wrong as car. Yes. And they didn't think you what you were talking about.

That's right. And I believe they said, well, you just go ahead and drive it. And you said it you was going to quit. You wasn't going to drive no more. and all that, and they end up, what, where the axle was broke finally? Yeah. Yeah, something was wrong. You went back at the shop.

Yeah. We were running seventh, qualified top ten, running seventh, and then the thing got super loose, and I don't know, really bad. And I spun off a two, hit the inside wall, and Darlington's a two-lane racetrack. They fixed the car, and they sent me back out there. And I said, well, not only now am I driving a car with no front-in on it,

and it's bent. But I got that axle still in the car broke. And I said, I don't know. I can't even get out of the way, y'all. This is terrible. And I came in and parked it and got out. And I walked away. And Tony Sr. and Tony Jr. were right.

Very furious with me. Very, very furious. And so Dad finishes the race and I meet him to go home with him. I'm flying in the helicopter with him. And we're walking to the helicopter. And I said, dad, I ain't racing no more. I said, give me a desk job. I don't give a damn what job it is.

I ain't driving if this is how it's got to go. Because I got told I was a quitter. I got told all these things that just, I was like, I ain't into living like this. And he just let it go in one area and out of the other. He's like, well, he's like, we'll see. we get back to the shop and Tony's Jr., I mean, I walk in the door on Monday,

and Tony Jr. hands me to that axle, and all the teases missing off the splines. And he goes, I mean, I thought it was interesting to give that to me because the way I got, the way they was talking to me the day before, I thought I'd never seen that. I'd never see that axle, even if it was door. Even if you were right.

Right, right. They're not going to. Tony Jr. met me at the door, and he's like, hey, found your problem. And I was like, give me that damn thing. I'm walking at someone around this whole shop for a week. I think, hey man, it wasn't me. Dad, I'm back.

I'm back. I don't want that desk job anymore. Hey, the list of drivers, since we're on this topic, the list of drivers that have run for Woodbrothers is some headstrong individuals. I mean, I'm hearing some names. So when it comes to telling people to shut up and drive, how do you do that with some of the characters? Like the dynamics between, you know, you guys as the ownership and the mechanics and the crew and then these headstrong drivers and they can all be in their own ways, you know, head cases.

And I mean that in a good way. But you got such a diverse lineup of personalities that you guys have worked with. What's the secret to work with all them? Well, number one, like, you don't tell AJ fought that, like, you know, criticize. him or nothing like that. I mean, I tell him, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. You explain why you're going to do it. We're going to do it this way or whatever.

And explain what you're going to feel or what. We was at California, and we was running okay. And he says, I think we needed to have a different spring in the right front. and I said, okay. So I put it, he says, now that really feels good. And I says, yeah, but you run a half a second slower. He said, bull ass. Put it back like you had it.

And then he goes on wins the race. Also, he was out there one time, the first race out there at the California, Ontario. Oh, really? Yeah. And he was leading the race, and he said, I got a tire shaking. I got to come in. And so I had a caution flag, and he didn't come in. And they were paying $150 a lap back then that first race.

And he said, it just got to thinking it didn't feel too bad picking up $150 a lap. And went on wins the race. Unbelievable. Yeah. But we had some great times. together. We've, Wood Brothers has had the best drivers in the world. Was there ever a driver that y'all had a hard time to get along with that might have been, it's kind of a little difficult? We had a little bit of problem of

the Earl Obama. Yeah. Cale was running California in a speedway car maybe or something other. Anyway, Air Obama had to fill in. And so we got a, it's, a galaxy with two four-barrel carburetors on it, 427. And last race at Fred Lorenzen Run Darlington was a 396 with one carburetor. And so Fred told him that he should be able to get back wide open on it in the corner and middle of the corner and come through wide open. Well, he might have done it with a 396, but he wasn't going to do it with a 427, 24-4-barrow. So he took his word for it. So he, bam, right into the wall he went with it.

But, yeah, we didn't get him going as good as we have some of them. Is that right? So, I mean, it didn't sound like y'all had, you know, I guess when you're working, you know, when you're driving for the Woodbrothers, you probably don't make things difficult. You know what I'm saying? I don't know.

I think there's always that one driver that tries. I know. You would think there'd be one guy. that didn't get it, didn't have any self-awareness. Yeah. I always believed that when I was sitting a car up for a guy, I always explained what I did and what he might feel. I've had crew chiefs tell me that, you know, I changed so-and-so,

and he couldn't even tell the difference. Well, all these changes make, how many changes you ever made, it just made that much difference. Right. And if you tell a guy what he's looking for, he'll say, it might be a little bit better. Yeah. And if you, I mean, there's so many things you absolutely can't tell the difference, even though if it is a tenth difference, you know.

But we had doing a test session at Talladega, and I had him to go out and read the tachometer. and he'd say, well, this might be 25,100s quicker. And I changed six things, and everyone was about that much difference, you know. And Donnie Allison had set to the car on pole, and he went to California at 186. He went to California to run a car for AJ Fort and the Indy cars. And so after I got through, I turned him. and he run 188 miles an hour, two mile an hour quicker, just for that little change.

Shoot, I'll thank him for a while. You'll think of it. Give me one more name. I want to hear about Curtis Turner. We don't talk about Curtis Turner on the show enough, and everything I know about him would have been just from stuff I've read and legend. What's something about that man that we should all know about? He had more control of a car of anybody I've ever seen.

He just, whether it was sideways up on the bank, whatever. He just had so much feel of a car. I think he would, nowadays he would run the turns too hard. I mean, you know, at a track where you could overdrive one. He wanted to go in there wide open, you know. On dirt, you know, he was just such a show to watch him run, you know.

It was up at Ilianna outside of Chicago in a USAC race after, NASCAR season was over. We went up out, got invited to go up there. So he's set in third place. Paul Goldsmith's on the outside and another guy on the inside and another guy on the outside. Well, he just dives down the inside over the rumpal strips and everything and comes out on the back side of head.

Wow. Oh, he just so much control of a driver. amazing. I was wondering about, you know, looking at that list of names and what driver in the, you know, what driver that worked for y'all that you only had a very short time with that you, you know, you had David Pearson for a long time. You had a lot of races with him, but what driver did you work with that you wish you'd have been able to have more time with? Well, I guess David. Really? Yeah, I mean, we'd have worked it out. Yeah. He was so funny. I mean, he was so funny. I mean,

I mean, you know, when they had that wreck down there in 1976, him and Pierce, him and Petty. Yes. Oh, wow, yeah. This guy asked him, was he mad? He said, no, but I was getting ready to be fine and won that race. Yeah. How bad was that car tore up? Not all that bad as sheet metal was all ripped up.

It looked like just sheet metal. I still made another lap, you know. This, I know you heard this story. he's spinning around in the grass and I had Eddie always used the radio you know because I couldn't understand on the radio couldn't understand what he's saying

and so he keyed the radio and told Eddie he said the blank hit me so while he's spinning around and so somebody confronted Dale Inman about it about him hitting him Dale said he didn't hit him hard enough. That's good.

Dale Enman, you know, we was, I guess you'd say, big rivals back then, you know, extreme competitive against each other. But bottom line is Dale and Richard both is good of friends as we got right now. And I think when you're so strong, competitive with another, team a team that is exceptionally good it makes you friendship stronger yeah after it's all over you know you look back and you both make each other better that's for sure yeah I mean yeah the 21 and the the 43 run first and second to each other so many times through that period of time in the 70s with uh Richard and David and by the way I was

of love back in the day to have you you driving for us. Really? Yeah. Why you say that? Well, I just, you know, I told you many times when you weren't running as good as you'd like, but it wasn't you. I mean, you can't carry it on your back. I mean, it's, uh, car's got to be right for any driver to do good.

You got to have it right for him. Yeah. So I think we could just made a good team. We'd had a lot of fun. We'd had a lot of fun. I think we would have. You know, I think what's the future for Wood Brothers? Well, that you probably need to talk to my nephews, Ed and Lynn.

I let them do that, you know. I just sat back and do some things, special projects they got me doing, you know, and I really enjoy doing. And I let them handle that. I just kind of set back not hurting myself, working. So you're at the shop every day? Every day.

Yeah. Peddling on something. Yeah. What do you spend most of your time with? Well, I know you heard about the little engine we just finished. Nobody else has heard about it. Nobody listening to this podcast knows about it. Tell us about it.

Well, they might. I don't know about it. Well, see, Ed and Lynn is always looking for me something to do, you know. I wonder why. So they were looking around and they decided they wanted me to make a a 427 tunnel port like we won 1968 at Daytona, half size. Half is big. How do you do that?

And so they come back. I'd had a back surgery where I fell, tripped over a cord. And when I got back to the shop, the machinist says, Ed and Lynn got something they want you to do. And he told me what they wanted me to do. build that half-sized engine. So Eddie got to talk to Edsel Ford, and Edsel Ford says,

well, it'd be nice to make it like the 67 Lamar car winner, which had a 427, 2, 4-4 barrels. So then that's what he ended up making. And with all the headers, you know, that was only like 180-degree scrambled egg headers, spaghetti headers, which I had to make them but just looking at pictures. I didn't have the car.

If I'd had the engine sitting there, I used to make headers. So anyway, it was a big challenge. And, yeah, Edsel Ford said it'd be nice to make it and then put it in the Henry Ford Museum. Oh, hence why you would have made it half the size, right? Like they told you to make it half the size, right? No.

Ed and Lynn just wanted me to make it half-size. Oh, okay. And then they told Edsel what he was going to do, and then Edsel wanted to make it half, wanted to put it in a Henry Ford Museum. How accurate were you? So the little carburetors, you know, is made identical to the big ones.

Right. And then now, you know, I've got one of those carburetors made that runs a 390-m. motor and will rev it half throttle will rev it to where it floats the hydraulic valves. And it runs just like a big carburetor. Weird. Yeah. I love doing that sort of thing.

Yeah. You also mess around and build and design RC cars, like remote control, fast, remote control gas-powered cars. Yeah, I've been making them for a long, long time since 92, I believe it was. What got you started in that? I just always been fascinated by to make something run with a radio, control it with a radio. Yeah. And I used to buy them, you know, Associated made them in California. Yep.

I used to buy them. But I decided I wanted to make some of my own. After I quit being crew chief, I just wanted to do something. So that's what I started doing. was making my own designing my own and making it yeah and y'all would go run nationals and stuff like that right yeah oh yeah it uh i always had a world champion driver driving my car and uh i guess it never lost yeah oh wow how about that might that right yeah oh yeah oh yeah they run like 70 mile now didn't he give you one don't you a couple yeah he built a few for me

yeah wow he's fixed one too oh you yeah you didn't take care send him one back with the right front gone. He fixed it. I had to put it on the front end plate. He did. Back on the jig. That's funny. I've got to ask you, you know, opinions

about like kind of current day NASCAR, you know, especially with we're going to this next gen car. Do you have strong opinions? Especially, I want to ask you because, you know, you guys have been in the sport for 71 years. I mean, you have to have a sense of adaptability through all these, you know, evolutions of race cars and everything else.

So this next gen car, opinions of this. I'm curious if this is a thing that equalizes the competition, like some suggest, or if this ends up becoming an additional burden for team like Woodbrothers. Like, what's your take on it? Well, you know, I would have to, you know, be back into it, setting cars up to see how it worked, like A-frames on the rear suspension and all. It's got a different effect than a straight axle swinging.

but I'm all for anything it makes a crowd come in. Yeah. Anything, anything for NASCAR. You know, if you throw off on NASCAR, a lot of times you hear people throwing on NASCAR that's actually, that's their way of life. You're throwing off on your own sponsor. I mean, you're throwing on NASCAR, you're throwing off on your way of life. Yes. You know, so I'm all for being as good as it can be.

Yeah. That's a good way to look at it. Yeah. Yeah, like in terms of, you know, the next 50 years, what is it that we, the people that are going to carry on this sport, what do you think that we need to be focused on the most to keep this thing thriving in the most popular form of American motorsports? Well, I think you need to look at safety as much as anything.

You know, if you need to slow them down or whatever it takes, to make them more, they don't have all these crashes. You know, this allowing you to bump, you know, gets into a dangerous stage, you know. You bump somebody and shove them ahead, that's good, but if you bump him and spin him out, that ain't too good. Yeah. I miss the days when they used to be a little bit of room

between the cars at Dayton and Talladega. You had guys that just had faster cars, you know, and they were the ones you were chasing all day long. Yeah, I liked it whenever, you know, back when it was unrestricted. Exactly, yeah. You just sat back out and run your own race, and then you decide to come up, that thing would just come right up and blow you off. Well, since you're a motor guy, what would be the way to get back unrestricted?

We'd build a smaller engine. What would you do? Oh, he put one of them small carburetas I got on. Yes, it's small. Half-sized carburetor. Well, Leonard, it's been pretty awesome to be able to spend some time just to see you, buddy. It's been a long time. Well, I miss you all the time.

And you know, I used to come to you before the race. Yes. You know, it's real easy for a driver to get down on the cell when they're not running. I mean, pretty soon you get to thinking, well, you know, is it a little bit of me, you know. Sure. But you just got to, I mean, you know, when you're running a race and you're setting up at lead in the race for a hundred laps, all of a sudden, you go to the back. Did you just forget how to drive? Yeah.

No. Right. Yeah, when the car changes, you know, I listen to the radio a lot. A lot of the drivers, Paul Menard and all them. when they wasn't complaining, they was moving forward. And then when the car is not right to go into the back, I mean, going backwards, you know, but all those guys listen to the radio, if the car's right, they come home, move forward. Yeah.

Well, I've always admired you, man, just because of your, you know, your place in the sport and the legacy that the Wood brothers have. but you started coming up to the car and saying hey to me every week at the racetrack and you'd always say he always said hold a pretty wheel yeah and that meant the world to me because you know you're a legend another person that's done something similar to that was ray everenham like after uh finished racing somehow some way me and ray evernham's friendship just got bigger and bigger. And that means a lot to me because, like Ray,

you know, you're a legend in the sport and when you would have time to come say hey to me or spend any time talking to me, I didn't know why Leonard Wood from the Wood Brothers was doing that, but it made me feel great. And I want to thank you for being such a great guy, such a great friend. And we, you know, we're just in all of your life and your career, buddy.

Well, I thank you so much. And, you know, I always enjoy it always pleases me when a guy does a good job to compliment him. And to the younger guys, I've been doing this 70 plus years. And it just makes me feel good when I see a guy doing exceptionally well. And, you know, you had the same talent as your dad at Daytona. Now, I could tell that, and you know it too. He come from a all-star, I mean, a bush clash. He started last.

It comes to the front in one lap. Yeah. So, and you had that same talent down there. And you did it to other places. And I know you weren't running as good as you wanted to at certain times. And I kept telling you that it wasn't you. And so you win big time, I believe it was at Michigan or somewhere, and I told you I hate it when I'm wrong.

Not what I'm right. But I always enjoyed coming up to you, and I appreciate your friendship and your dad's. Me and your dad was great friends. We used to hug each other a little bit, and he found out I had a broke rib, and I didn't know that he knew, and he comes up and he's going to give me a big old bear hug,

and I'm screaming in Holland. Boy, boy, does it. But we used to picket each other a lot. And I enjoyed your whole family. You got a great, from Ralph to yourself. And I haven't seen your kids yet. Yeah, I know. We've got to get all you all together.

Yeah, looking forward to it. And this has been one of my favorite interviews of all time. Well, we appreciate that. Yeah, I was going to tell you, I had a whole lot of stories, but being 8 to 6 years old, I forgot them all. Yeah. That's why we have people back. That's right.

We have them back. We got more time. Yeah, we'll have to have you come see us again. All right, buddy. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. I enjoyed it so much. Leonard Wood on the Dale Jr. download.

Hello. We are live now. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. Here for the Dale Jr. download. and Dirtymo Media. Thanks for supporting Dirtymoe Media's social media handles and our YouTube page. Send all your friends to check us out.

You guys that are here, y'all know we got a lot of great content. Please share it. This is the Ask Junior part of the show. We brought to you by Xfinity, proud premier partner of NASCAR, Mike. That's true. And I'm a customer. That's true. Absolutely.

A paying customer. So happy with the service. So thanks for everything Infinity does for our sport. So let's get to these questions. All right. First question coming from Eric Admoner. The Cup series added the carousel at Sonoma two years ago. Do you think it's time they added the boot at Watkins Glen for more passing opportunities?

I've always thought that it'd be cool for NASCAR to run the boot. I don't know what the drivers and teams and all feel about that. But the only problem with that is we run into a situation like at Road America where we're now going to have five-minute laps under caution. And that's not very appealing for sure. So maybe lengthening the course creates more problems than we even realize. So probably not a good idea. I thought it was a great idea for a long time, but after Road America, maybe not.

Next question from Daniel Reeves. He recently watched the I Am Athlete interview. Do you really think that Lewis Hamilton would do good in NASCAR? Do you see that as a landing point for him after F1? I don't think that he's going to come to NASCAR. I think that once he's done, I think once a driver like that gets to the end of the road, they've got other things in their life they want to do. He might surprise us.

You know, Jimmy's an anomaly where he goes and tries to recreate, this whole new version of himself as an indecar driver, and that's a tough, tough thing to do at that point in your life. So I think that a guy as successful as Lewis, you know, goes and relaxes and enjoys himself and finds other things that he's, you know, maybe there's other things he's passionate about that he starts putting more time into. Maybe he becomes a broadcaster. I don't know.

You know, I really don't know what he ends up doing. All right. Kevin from Virginia, he's been to two races in 2021, and he's noticed an infusion of more families and children and new fans to NASCAR. Do you have any ideas how to keep them coming back to grow the fan base? You know, honestly, I think just their experience is going to do that. I've always felt like if you've got a... If you got somebody who's never been to a race,

and I get that question a lot, it's like, where do I take my friend who's never been? I always usually say Bristol, the night race, the Daytona 500, Martinsville. I never think beyond that because I know that once they're there and they go through that whole process, that's going to take care of itself. You know, as long as they have a great experience,

see a fun race, see other people around them that they can relate to and are, you know, everyone there is like-minded in the fact that they're there, they're there, have a good time, they're there to have fun, they're there to cheer on the race. The thing about being at a race is there's not a home field advantage, right? You don't go, when you go to a Panthers game, most of the people there are in panthers gear, right? You're looking around, and it's obvious to you that you got a lot of people that are doing the same thing you're doing, right?

At a race, it's a little different. You might sit next to a driver of somebody who pulls for a different driver, right? And so it's a little bit of a unique experience for a NASCAR fan versus what we get when we go to Major League Baseball or NFL. Hopefully they go there and they are, they enjoy the environment. They enjoy the food and the noise and the smells and the sounds. and I've never even doubted that that would do it. I've never doubted that that experience at a race was going to turn. I never thought for a minute that that was not going to do it.

That was going to turn somebody off, right? I mean, if you go to a race, a night race at Bristol, and the race is over and you go, you know what, I don't think I need this again. I mean, it's just not for you, you know. But most of the time, you know, you get, just getting them there was going to be enough to lock them in. Is that making sense? Yeah, totally. And then now that the Midway is kind of back open and thriving now,

like I saw they've been doing tweet-ups again. Yeah, there's more of an experience now. Yeah, the tracks have different, you know, the tracks all provide a different experience, like the garage area, the access to the garage area, the fan zones. Each one is unique in its own way. Each track tries to separate itself from the others

and provide unique entertainment, concerts, all those things. So I think that that track experience always is delivered. It's just trying to get people to go, right? Get them, convince them to make the effort to be there. All right. Next question from John. What's your favorite summertime jam? Music, that is, not the fruit spread.

Do you have a summer playlist? Man, right now I have been listening to there's a radio station. that I've been listening to, and it's called Chuck FM, W-A-V-F-101.7, and they play everything. And when I say everything, I mean, I mean everything. Not everything, but they play everything. That's their slogan. But it's kind of mostly late 70s rock, any billboard top 100 from the 80s, some 90s. Wow.

I'm super. The heck with 80s. Dude, I am super nostalgic for some reason right now in the last several months. And so anything's like late 70s and 80s, I'm totally into it, especially music. You think that started just in the last couple months? Maybe not. Totally into it. Your whole life.

Okay. But that would be, if that's what they play, that's your radio station, no doubt. I found my radio station. Chuck FM. Chuck FM. So I listen to what is? Terrestrial? Yeah.

I listen to Terrestrial Radio. That right there, haven't heard that in many years. So there's nothing better. So, you know, I got iTunes, I got a playlist, I got all the, sometimes that is just too easy. Sometimes I enjoy having to sit through a few freaking commercials that I'm not going to listen to. And the authenticity of that, right? And how it reminds you of the past or your childhood maybe. when I am going to go sit on the beach under an umbrella with a beer

and watch Ila playing the sand, I don't want to shuffle a playlist. Because watching my kid plays in the sand reminds me of being a kid playing in the sand. And when I was a kid playing the sand, I was listening to the radio station. And commercials. And commercials.

And the surprise. And it's a surprise, yeah. Well, which most streaming apps are now, you know, surprises. Like, that's what I loved about Pandora. and Spotify is, it's going to play what it wants to play. Yeah, sometimes just creating that playlist and pushing the button is just too easy. I want. He wants that Western Sizzling commercial.

Yeah. I can appreciate that song when it comes on, right? I don't know what it is about that. There's got to be a better way to our... It's a romance to it. That is one heck of an endorsement for Terrestrial Radio, to be honest with you. I suppose. Yeah.

I mean, I've never even heard that, but I think I can subscribe to that. I could say, yeah, nostalgia. Yeah. All right, that's all we have today, guys. Every week, it's over. I don't even like it to end. Can we just do a whole entire podcast that's just As Junior? Wow, that would be a big ass junior.

You know, it does go by fast. I will give you that. It goes by like Xfinity X-Fi does. Yeah, X-Fi-Fi is fast, but it's more than that. It's reliable, powerful, and that means everyone can do more of what they love with fast Internet. That's the truth. You and your crew can stay connected like we do with Wi-Fi coverage. It delivers a speed your devices need.

Hey, and remember, everyone, keep the questions coming. We love them. We love this Asch Junior segment. You send your questions to at Xfinity Racing on Twitter. Big thanks to Xfinity. Proud, premier partner of NASCAR. All right, last call, episode 349. 349 episodes.

Is that really how many that y'all have done? I mean, is this counting the ones you did where you hosted it without me? Yeah, going back to 2013. It seems like we've had way more than 349. It does. Are y'all missing some? It feels like that's way more than what. These are like all the ones that me and Tyler Overstreet did together.

Those are factored into 349. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Well, it doesn't seem like, it seems like we've had, you know, a thousand episodes at this point. We do have a JRM employee competing in the summer games. How about that? Tyler Justice Page is competing in the double-handed sailing. All right.

No, no, it's all right. Tyler Justice Page was an intern here. He was an engineer, an intern. And he's hoping once the Olympics are over to come back and work full time. But he's taking the summer to get ready for the Olympics. I guess that's something we let employees do. I don't know. I didn't know that's a pretty cool what he does too.

We just let you take the summer off to get ready for the Olympics. Double-handed sailing. It's insane. Tyler, Justice, Paige. Remember those two things. Because they are in the Olympics. Can we say he's representing J.R. Any kind of?

Kind of representing J.R. Is there an anthem? I think J.R. Is there a J-R-M anthem? I think J-R-M is being represented in the Olympics. Do we want him to wear a J-R-M shirt? That's the question. Dirty Mo Media?

Yeah. He's actually not on Team USA. That's throwing me for a loop. What team's the team? America Samoa. Oh, heck. Yeah. Hey, all right.

Yeah, I asked him, I said, so, like, if you were to win the gold, do you know the words to your national anthem? And he said, nope, but I'll learn them. and he also said I said who do we need to hate I mean like educate us who do we need to hate on for this Olympic viewing and he said Spain is really good and Australia is really good and I said those are two teams that we will hate that's interesting yeah Paul Marsh is going to be pissed and he said we're also rooting for 10 not wins or less so y'all remember that everybody 10 not wins or less so I you threw me for a loop there when you chose

Who are we going to hate? So you mean who should we pull? Who's the toughest competitor? That's what I meant. Okay. I didn't know what the heck you were talking about. Like, who are we hating? Why are we hating someone?

Yeah, that was aggressive, wasn't it? Yes. All right. Yeah. Who shall we hope not win? Okay. All right. We're going to be pulled.

Who's the toughest competitors? Spain and who? Australia. Yeah. Ah, man, it's going to be hard to pull against Australia. You know what you'd love? Yeah. The ingenuity, as we call.

The creativity that goes into the boats. Oh, there's a lot of that going on. Well, don't throw this man under the bus just yet. Let's talk about that after he competes. No, he says the other teams. Okay. Yeah. Well, see, yeah, I can.

I'd run them through the templates. All right. All right. I don't even remember what. 349? Yeah, 340. Okay, episode 3.49. Hope you guys have a great week.

We'll see you next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mode.