Wood Brothers Racing no longer part of Race Team Alliance
Wood Brothers Racing said Friday that it’s no longer part of the Race Team Alliance.
The team did not get one of the 36 charters granted as part of NASCAR’s new ownership structure. Teams that got charters had competed full-time in the Sprint Cup Series for the past three seasons. The Wood Brothers, who have been in NASCAR since 1953, haven’t run a full-time schedule since after the 2008 season. The team is returning to full-time racing in 2016 with Ryan Blaney.
“Around this time last year, the owners group invited us to be a part of their discussions,” Wood Brothers Racing business director Jon Wood said. “The first time that we went to one of those meetings was the weekend of the 600 in May. It was at that point when we sort of saw the proposed framework and the direction that they were wanting to go. It was fairly close to what it turned out being. That being said, we kind of knew right then that if it went down that road that it would certainly change things for us but we didn’t know if that was it yet.”
“Fast forward a few more months to when NASCAR had an owners meeting in September and that is when they formally said this is what they were going to do. At that point we knew that rather than worry about it we needed to put our heads together and figure out how to make things better for ourselves. It is kind of hard to explain. You can’t really blame anybody for the way it went. Everybody wants what is best for themselves. We are just in a different situation. Being on a part time schedule, you can’t look back and say that this is what we should have done or really argue with anybody because, again, what benefits one doesn’t necessarily benefit the others.”
Co-owner Eddie Wood classified the team’s existence in the RTA as “a square peg trying to be in a round hole.”
“Yeah, we are disappointed [about not getting a charter] but it gets back to what I said that the model we used to stay racing in 2009 caused this not to happen,” Eddie Wood said. “I wouldn’t turn around and switch it for that win with Trevor [Bayne] here if you gave me two charters. That is how much winning the race means. It is this race. Not just a race, the race. This race is above all others. I don’t care if it is Indy, Le Mans, this race is above all others.”
Len Wood also said the team hasn’t been part of NASCAR contingency plans for quite some time either.
“When we went part-time, limited schedule, we had to be more efficient,” Len Wood said. “That is when we looked at everything from motels to tire bills and things like that and where we would race. We raced where we thought we had the best performance. That shouldn’t be an issue either.”
The Race Team Alliance was formed in 2014 as a way for teams to work together on issues, primarily cost-related ones. The formation of the RTA helped spawn the discussions that led to the charter system unveiled earlier this week. The charters, a franchise model of sorts, will help teams have value if they decide to get out of NASCAR.
Since the Wood Brothers don’t have a charter, Blaney will be vying for one of four open spots in the field every week. Qualifying shouldn’t be too hard. The Wood Brothers have a technical alliance with Team Penske, which fields cars for Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.
““Whether you are an open car or charter car, everything is performance based which in the end the race fan wins because you will have better racing. Everyone is trying harder, driving harder and all that,” Eddie Wood said. “Everyone tries as hard as they can but there is another level of it when pride and money is on the line and that is kind of what they have done. Like I said, to all our fans, we are going to be okay. I promise you we are going to be okay.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
