Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael, Andy Cohen and More TV Personalities Pay Tribute to P

 

Florida's Daytonia Beach — Take away the expensive vehicles and opulent racing stores. Look past the engines that roar by with such much power that forty of them rattle your chest. And look past the spectacle of a Saturday night sky full with fireworks at NASCAR's first home.

That's where the essence of stock car racing lies.




It belongs to the family.

After more than 75 years, this sport is still managed by the French. The Pettys are still a nobility. Now that the Woods have won a NASCAR race for eight straight decade, they are still connected to the history of the sport.

Harrison Burton, 23, became the 100th Cup victory for the Woods on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, following in the footsteps of his father Jeff and uncle Ward.



Spotter Jason Jarrett, son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett—who famously was led by his father Ned to a Daytona 500 victory on the TV broadcast—helped Harrison Burton get there.



With a victory margin of.047 seconds over Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton pounded the air in the NBC broadcast booth above the  finish line.

Two automobiles went airborne in this suspenseful three-hour thriller, with one spinning like a top on its roof following a ride unlike anything you might find at Disney World. It was an unexpected ending.

However, one individual felt certain that Burton would prevail.



Bailey Wood, 8, who might one day command the Wood Brothers Racing team for the fourth generation, predicted repeatedly on Saturday that Burton would win the Cup for the first time in his career. Bailey is undoubtedly prejudiced. This year, his father Jon assumed the role of team president. Bailey, though, was correct.



Even while others lacked faith, he did. After this season, Harrison Burton will no longer be able to ride. He will be replaced by Josh Berry. The last race The Woods had won was in 2017.



The final driver to triumph Ryan Blaney, who was a member of the team before to Saturday night, acknowledged turning into a "fanboy" on the last lap.

When Blaney learned he wouldn't make it back to his RV in time to see the last lap, he had already left the infield care facility and was being driven there by a golf cart. In order to view the last lap on a TV outside of another RV in the driver/owner lot, he "jumped off" the golf cart.

Blaney remarked, "I was hollering and hooting."

Blaney, still wearing his driver's costume, walked to Victory Lane after Burton won and lingered there, savoring the occasion almost as much as he would have if he had won the race.

"When I moved to Team Penske, I left the Wood Brothers," Blaney remarked. "They told me that even though you're leaving, you'll always be a part of our family," the speaker said in 2018.
 

Jon Wood stood in Victory Lane, his eyes full of awe and his phone humming, just as Blaney was processing everything.

He said to NBC Sports, "I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it."

Jon turned to face his uncle Len and father Eddie.

Jon remarked, "I think those two make me the happiest."

The family race team was led by Eddie and Len, their sister Kim, and other members of the second generation. During this time, the team operated on a partially scheduled schedule due to financial difficulties and concerns about its long-term viability.

The team was salvaged by family after the Wood Brothers were absent from the 2008 Coca-Cola 600, the first occasion since the event's 1960 start that the Wood Brothers had not participated.

A few of days Eddie Wood was the race of Edsell Ford II, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company.

"Why aren't we talking more recently?" Ford addressed Eddie Wood.

Wood said, "Mr. Ford, we've run so bad and I'm so ashamed." "I hate calling you,"

"You're saying my twenty-one is broke?"

"Yes, sir. It's malfunctioning. Very awful.

"I'll take care of that."

In just three days, Eddie and Len Wood met with a Ford official in Detroit to start the process of reconstructing the company.

One of the most memorable events occurred in 2011 when Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500, rewarding them. That day, Leonard Wood was brought to Victory Lane by Richard Petty.

"It was really fantastic," Eddie Wood remarked.

Dale Inman, the Hall of Fame crew chief who led his cousin Richard Petty for the most of the legend's career, gave Eddie Wood his first call following Burton's victory on Saturday night. Len Wood left the stage to answer a phone call during the winners' press conference. It was Jim France, the chairman of NASCAR.