What’s Happening?

Stewart-Haas Racing’s fourth charter remains without a suitor, and no one knows where it will go. This, combined with a Jordan Bianchi report of NASCAR limiting teams to three charters, opens up opportunities for almost every current team with three or fewer charters. One of those teams is NASCAR’s oldest, continually operating race team, The Wood Brothers.

• The Wood Brothers have been involved in NASCAR since 1953. Since their inception, they’ve primarily been a single-car team, but is it time for them to expand to a second team?
• The Wood Brothers are aligned with Team Penske, a fellow Ford team. Could this alliance improve the chances of a second charter?
• Fans are wondering who could buy a fourth SHR charter. No one knows who could buy it, so anyone can guess who will buy it.

Why Would The Wood Brothers Expand?

Aside from the occasional second entry, the Wood Brothers have been a single-car team. They haven’t brought a second car to the track since Riverside in 1969, three years before NASCAR’s Modern Era.

They are an old-school operation, and they always have been. However, they are also a team that has fallen on hard times.

In 1993, Morgan Shepherd won the team’s 96th race at Atlanta, and 31 years later, the team is still searching for their 100th win. Since 1995, a Wood Brothers driver has finished in the top 10 in points only once, Ryan Blaney in 2017 (9th).

Multi-car teams tend to perform much better because they have more resources and data points to perfect their cars and setups. A single-car team hasn’t won a Cup Series Championship since 1994 when Dale Earnhardt won his seventh Cup Series crown with Richard Childress Racing.

Thanks to a technical alliance, the Wood Brothers get some help from Team Penske. More resources for The Wood Brothers means more resources for Team Penske, so, it could make sense for both to buy that extra charter.

Money will be a factor, and it is uncertain whether both parties have the finances necessary to buy a charter. However, someone new is at the helm of The Wood Brothers, so, could that catapult this?

The New Leadership

The Wood Brothers ownership group has now reached the third generation. Jon Wood is now Team President, taking over for Eddie Wood, with Jon’s siblings Jordan and Keven also joining the ownership group. With a new generation often come new ideas, so will we see any major changes, like purchasing a third charter?

All three individuals in the video above emphasized legacy and complimented the efforts of the previous generations. Their goal is to keep the family business running as long as possible.

We’ve always been the small team. At one time we were the small team that won big. I doubt that you’ll ever see that again. I wouldn’t change anything the way they built it. They’ve been here since 1950. Its’ just worked for so long, and we just want to be here and be relevant.

Keven Wood

This does not seem like an ownership group keen on reinventing the wheel. Does that close the door to adding another charter sometime down the line? Not necessarily, but if they want to keep everything as it always has been, it’s probably very unlikely.

They seem content with where they’re at, even with a new ownership group coming in. They want to get that elusive 100th win, but, above all, they want to see their family business survive and thrive. Does buying a charter help or hurt that?

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