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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Wood Brothers were once a juggernaut in NASCAR, a kinsfolk aggroup that perfected the recent pit stop and raced to intend after intend with king Pearson behindhand the rotate of the coercive No. 21 machine.

As the eld passed, though, the brothers got mitt behind.

Big-spending teams swiped their innovations, collective a garage full of stars and pushed the Woods to the backwards of the field, scrambling meet to intend digit automobile on the track.

"Things haven't been cushy for us the terminal some years," said 85-year-old Glen Wood, digit of the team's founders.

Well, look who was backwards in Victory Lane on Sunday.

In the large circumstance of all, no less.

Twenty-year-old Trevor Bayne held on for a stunning intend in the Daytona 500, decent the youngest succeeder ever of the Great American Race patch driving for NASCAR's oldest team. Fittingly, he steered a Ford adorned with a throwback red-and-white makeup scheme, such same the digit that was on the automobile for so some of Pearson's wins.

"I had hope," Wood said, looking toward the winner's lot as the triumphant period turned to night, ease a taste of disbelief in his eyes. "But it's been a long instance since we won."

Nearly a decade, to be exact.

The Wood Brothers' terminal intend had been with Elliott Sadler at metropolis in 2001. The aggroup hasn't been able to afford a full-time ride the terminal some years, picking and choosing their events patch rarely streaming near the face of the pack against coercive teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing.

Considering where this aggroup used to be, decent an also-ran didn't go down easily.

"It was rattling hornlike to deal with," said Wood, who has turned over the day-to-day dealings to his sons Eddie and Len. "There hit been some depressing times. I wouldn't contain that. But they've kept their heads above water and someways managed to do with what we had. To come discover and intend this is meet unbelievable."

Bayne's conclusion was the 98th for the Wood Brothers, who had their greatest success in the 1970s with Pearson behindhand the wheel, Glen and his brother author streaming things behindhand the wall.

From 1972-78, the Silver Fox won 43 races modify though he never ran a full schedule. His most high action came in '73, when he posted 11 wins and threesome other top-five finishes in meet 18 starts. Three eld later, he gave the Woods Brothers what had been their most recent Daytona 500 conclusion until Sunday.

But the brothers' impact goes beyond wins and losses.

They are credited with perfecting the recent pit stop, realizing that if they could modify tires and fill the tank faster than anyone else, it would meliorate their chances of success the race. To that point, the driver would vantage leisurely into the pits and alter soured the automobile patch it was existence serviced, with no particular inflection on speed.

"It was meet good ordinary sense," Wood said. "If you prefabricated a quick stop low the green, you would be artefact down the road from (the other cars) when you went backwards out."

Leonard perfected a diddley that could hoist a automobile soured the ground in threesome or four strokes, instead of 15 or more. One of the team's primeval drivers, Marvin Panch, didn't modify worry most streaming up front.

"He knew if he got a lowercase behindhand that when he stopped, he'd go backwards discover ahead," Glen Wood said. "But everyone has caught up now."

That, in a sense, is what happened to the Wood Brothers in every characteristic of their operation. They strength hit colourless away same so some other old-time teams if not for a longtime relationship with Ford Motor Co., which kept providing hold and funding modify when the results didn't reassert such faith.

Now, a aggroup that was ordered to run exclusive 17 races this assemblage — inferior than half the schedule — strength hit to change its plans.

"It could mean a lot," Glen Wood said. "You never undergo what this strength advance to. I don't undergo how such we win, but I'm guessing it's more than $24,000."

That was Tiny Lund's payday when he captured the prototypal of the Wood Brothers' fivesome Daytona victories in 1963.

Glen Wood actually drove for the aggroup in its primeval years. He prototypal came to Daytona in 1947 meet to watch, then returned to contend before Bill France shapely his large 2.5-mile superspeedway, an era when races were held on an conic instruction that comprised the beach for digit straightaway, the A1A highway for the other.

He ease goes to that blot every year, today surrounded by condos.

"It was so long ago," Wood said wistfully. "That was an engrossing vie we had there."

Leonard was stagnant nearby, astonished at the enlarge ceremony that poor discover in Victory Lane after Bayne pulled in.

"This is the large celebration in the winner's lot I've ever seen," author said. "I didn't undergo they did every this. Of course, it's been a long instance since we've been here."

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