Glen Wood
Glen Wood (born July 18, 1925 in Stuart , Virginia - † January 18, 2019 ) was an American racing driver and part owner of the NASCAR team Wood Brothers / JTG Racing .
Career
His NASCAR career began in 1953 when Glen Wood was one of the founders of the Wood Brothers Racing racing team, which is still active today and is now called Wood Brothers / JTG Racing. Wood also made his first NASCAR appearance as a driver in 1953 when he took part in the first of the two Martinsville races of the season. This race is still on the Sprint Cup racing calendar today under the name Goody's Cool Orange 500 . He finished the race in 30th place, and he competed in his own car. That car was a Lincoln , which will surprise many today, as the Wood Brothers became known a little later for only using Fords . Glen Wood drove Fords in 59 of his 62 races;
In the years that followed, he made only a few attempts to start, it wasn't until 1958 that he began to drive a little more and competed a total of ten times. He came seven times in the top 10 and once in the top 5 in the race in North Wilkesboro. However, he won his first win in 1960 in Winston-Salem at Bowman Gray Stadium . Two more wins on the same track should follow in the same season. As in 1958, he was in the top ten seven times. Besides, it was the year in which he ran the race most often. A total of 766 times he crossed the finish line as the leader at the end of a lap.
Two years later, in 1963, when a driver's career was coming to an end, he scored the last victory. In the 33rd race of the 1963 Grand National season, he won again in Winston-Salem. As a driver in NASCAR, he never won on any other circuit. Although he also competed in another race that took place in Winston-Salem in 1963, he only finished third after he had started second.
In 1964 he only drove two races. The first race on August 22nd in Winston-Salem, where he really wanted to win, but only finished 19th after handling problems, and the second race just one day later on August 23rd in Roanoke , Virginia . In this race in Roanoke, which was to be the last of his, he started from pole position and finished third, a handsome farewell. In total, during his career as a driver, he made it into the top 10 34 times and 22 times in the top 5 in 62 races. He also started 14 times from pole position and won four times in Winston-Salem at the Bowman Gray Stadium. In his career as a driver, he won 20,000 US dollars .
In 1995, Glen Wood was added to the Court of Legends in Charlotte , North Carolina . In 1998 he was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers . Woord was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012. His racing team, Wood Brothers / JTG Racing, is now active in all of NASCAR's top divisions and is still very successful.
Web links
Driver statistics on racing-reference.info
Individual evidence
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Wood, Glen |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American NASCAR racing driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | July 18, 1925 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Stuart , Virginia |
DATE OF DEATH | 18th January 2019 |