Blaney and the Wood Brothers in for the long haul

Squinting in the bright Florida morning sun, Len Wood watched on as his team guys shuffled along in moving the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion through the tech line for the Daytona 500, and mused about how his team's present compared with its past.

"You know, David Pearson was washed up when we got him," offered Wood (pictured) as he pointed to the gold and black number 21 on the side of the car. "We got him in the spring of '72 and Darlington was his first race and he won that race. It ended up that in seven years, we won 43 races with him and probably that many poles. Pearson was a thinking guy. He never abused his cars. He only showed you what he needed to. I see some of that in our driver Ryan Blaney."

High praise from a high source. Len Wood, vice president and co-owner of the oldest active team in all of NASCAR – Wood Brothers Racing has been at it since 1950 – had seen a few things during his 44-year run here at Daytona International Speedway and was quietly confident in his second year driver.

"We've had old drivers, we've had young drivers, and we've had a mixture," continued Wood, who didn't need to mention that 20 of NASCAR'S greatest drivers have climbed into Wood Brothers equipment during the last six decades. "When this program started with Ryan a couple years back it was with a conversation with my brother Andy, Edsel Ford and me. It was a year or so before we got him and Edsel Ford said, 'What about this Ryan Blaney kid? What do you think of him?'

"Well, he had won Truck races, he had won Xfinity races and he won on road courses in trucks. Edsel said, 'He looks pretty good. You need to be thinking about him.' About six months later a deal developed through Ford and Ford was instrumental in putting him in our car. It suits us just right because if you'll remember, we had Trevor Bayne here in 2011. He came down here in his second race ever and won the Daytona 500. Having rookies and young drivers, that wasn't new to us."

The morning after the Can-Am Duels which set the field for the Daytona 500 – the second of which he led until an errant Jimmie Johnson put him into the backstretch wall and back to the garage with a torn-up primary car and a 19th-place finish – Blaney talked about being the wheelman for the most storied and fabled race team in NASCAR.

"Growing up in the garage and stuff, you kind of have to notice the Wood Brothers and appreciate all they've done," explained the 23-year-old who would make only his 54th career start at Daytona. "When I was growing up in it and from what I can remember, Bill Elliott was driving their car, as did Ken Schrader and Ricky Rudd. That was really neat that they had all of those guys, because I look up to those guys right now.

"You definitely notice the history and I'm learning new things every single day, even though I've been with them for two and a half years. They really stand for what NASCAR was like back in the 1960s and '70s and I like history, so all of that is really neat to have with those guys.

"And Leonard Wood, who started this team, is still as sharp as he ever was and he's still building things and he'll come to most races. Glen is doing well and this will be his 71st Daytona in a row. He hasn't missed one. That's unreal how that's possible. They're great guys and they're really supportive and they love the sport as much as they did right when they got started. It's very rare to see people who have such a dedication to the sport like that."

The Wood Brothers team had managed to win the Great American Race on five different occasions (1963, 1968, 1972, 1976 and 2011). And while the starting grid was replete with NASCAR Cup champions, Len Wood and the 10 men who would oversee the No. 21 car that Sunday at Daytona were more than happy to go at it with such a young driver.

"With the youth, I think that's where you want to be in this sport right now," explained Wood. "Obviously, Chase Elliott has done well and so has Blaney. He's had a couple of fourth-place finishes and we put him in position a couple times last year where he had a shot to win. This is a tough deal. You talk about racing against guys like Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch and all those guys, it's tough, but Ryan holds his own and holds on really good

"We had run a part-time schedule for about seven or eight years and last year was the first time back full-time. We actually ran a half schedule with Ryan the year before, so there were places he hadn't been, like the road courses, Martinsville, Richmond and Pocono. Those places that he hadn't run, he performed really well. Going back to these places again where he can say, 'OK, I know what Pocono is now. I don't have to run the simulator to know where I'm at.' Hopefully, we can pout that thing in the Chase and run on towards the championship. Obviously, with 98 wins, I want to get number 100. I think he's a key to us doing it."

After starting from the rear of the field in a back-up car, making his way through seemingly countless multi-car crashes and running on empty, Blaney came one position away from not only winning race number 99 for the Wood Brothers, but the Daytona 500.

"Any time you get a good finish anywhere, no matter what the track, it always propels you into the week," Blaney said afterwards. "Maybe it feels a little better when it's the Daytona 500."

A week later in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at frighteningly fast Atlanta Motor Speedway – where the Wood Brothers ran the inaugural race in the summer of 1960 – Blaney and the No. 21 Ford battled tire issues and troubling vibrations to finish an off-song 18th. Undaunted, Blaney was already looking ahead to next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"I think this year we have to continue to set goals," said Blaney. "We need to win a race. We came close last year and didn't quite pull it off, so I think if we can check that box I feel like that would really give our team the boost it needs. I think our team is capable of that every single weekend no matter where we go, so it's just all about trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Then we keep going forward and winning more races each year and being more competitive for the championship. That's the main goal in the coming years."

Wood Brothers Racing is a race effort that is, in more ways than one, virtually built around Blaney. And Blaney has no plans to go anywhere soon.

"I'd like to keep it together," he said. "The Wood Brothers are great people and Ford has been an amazing help. I've been with them since 2013, so it's been a long time since I've personally been with the Ford company and family. That's been a great relationship to build on. I'd love to stay where I'm at in a perfect world."