Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Clash at Bowman Gray Media Availability | Tuesday, January 28, 2025
This week marks the kickoff to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season as the inaugural non-points Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium takes place Sunday in Winston-Salem, NC. The Wood Brothers have four victories at the venerable quarter-mile short track, all of which were won by team founder and NASCAR Hall of Famer Glen Wood. Members of the Wood family participated in a media call this afternoon, along with driver Josh Berry, to talk about the sport’s return to one of its grassroots facilities.
JOSH BERRY, Driver, No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE THIS OFFSEASON GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE TEAM AND MILES STANLEY AS CREW CHIEF? “It’s been good. It’s been busy. Miles, obviously, getting to know Miles and get to work with him and build that relationship is one of the things at the top of the list. We’ve spent a lot of time together. We’ve been in the simulator a number of times. We’ve met with the whole team, crew chief, spotter, engineers. We’ve been busy over the last couple of months. We maybe took a little bit of time off right after the season, but the last month or so we’ve been pretty hard at it. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Miles. He’s been a real intricate part of Team Penske and their engineering group, and I think he’s gonna bring a lot to the 21 car and I’m excited to work with him.”
COMING FROM SHR, WHAT HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT IS DIFFERENT WITH HOW THINGS ARE STRUCTURED AND WHERE DO THE WOOD BROTHERS FIT IN THIS NEW LANDSCAPE? “Obviously, it’s been a challenge with SHR closing down and all the different paths we took there, but, for me, I don’t know that I have a lot to add on that too much because I’m coming into the most established team in NASCAR. They’ve been here 75 years. They have a great relationship with Team Penske. Team Penske obviously has had a tremendous amount of success, so, really, for me, it’s just about fitting in and getting in a rhythm of working with my team and everybody there to be prepared to come racing this weekend. I’m still with Ford and that makes it easier for a lot of the things on the car side with using the sim and things like that. It’s not a transition to a new manufacturer like I had last year, but it’s still a new race team and things are a little different here and there.”
HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPLIT BETWEEN PENSKE AND THE WOOD BROTHERS? “We’re spending time in both places. I got up to Stuart a couple weeks ago and saw a lot of cool stuff up there. I encourage anybody that can make it by their museum there that they need to do it and check that out. It was a really cool experience going up there and seeing all that and spending time with all those guys. It’s a balance between the two. They have a tight technical alliance with Team Penske, so our time is kind of bouncing between the two.”
HOW FORTUNATE DO YOU FEEL TO HAVE LANDED ON YOUR FEET WITH ONE OF THE OLDEST AND MOST ESTABLISHED TEAMS IN NASCAR, AND ALSO ONE THAT HAS THIS PENSKE ALLIANCE? “I’m obviously extremely thankful for that. Last year was a challenge, I think, from start to finish with everything going on. A lot of emotions over the course of the year and different stages of that, but, all in all, I’m proud that I did a good enough job to find myself in this opportunity and to go race for the Wood Brothers with the history they’ve had and the tradition, and obviously the alliance with Team Penske. I feel like this is a great opportunity for me. They’re a family run organization. I think it’s a great fit for me and just the path that I’ve taken here through the grassroots level and the things that have had to happen to get me here, I feel like I’m in a great place and I’ve really enjoyed working with them and getting to know everybody there, and fitting into the structure of everything that is the Wood Brothers and Team Penske and being able to rely on a couple Cup champions as teammates is going to be a big help for me as well.”
YOU’VE NEVER RACED AT BOWMAN GRAY? “No, I haven’t. I remember going there one time and watching the modified race. They were like the twin 125s or something like that. This has probably been 10-12 years ago and it was entertaining. It definitely lived up to its name as The Madhouse, but I’m excited to get there. I think it’s cool. I think it’s obviously close to home. There are a lot of race fans in that area and Bowman Gray is really popular in the state of North Carolina. They’ve put on a lot of great racing for a long time, so for us hopefully, the Cup Series can live up to that hype.”
WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IF THIS IS A NEW TRACK FOR EVERYONE? “I think it’ll be similar to the Clash. There’s a handful of guys that I think have raced there. Obviously, guys who have raced modifieds, and then they did do an e-series race there years ago that I remember, so now this week we’re kind of all tuning back to watch that a little bit and see how that product looked. It’s gonna be tight quarters racing. It’s a short track and it’s a very small short track at that, so I think the product will look a lot like the Clash. I don’t know about the fighting and everything that entails what we see during the summer there, but it’ll be intense. We’ll be beating and banging I’m sure, but ultimately all of us are going into this wanting to win this race just like anybody else. I think we treat it, no matter where we go, the same and we’re gonna go try to prepare and win and do the best we can.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DRIVE THE 21 CAR LATER THIS WEEK? “It’s just an opportunity that I’m really grateful for, just to drive the 21 car with the history and tradition that they’ve had. It’s a family run organization that is starting its 75th season. It just means a lot and it’s a tremendous opportunity for me. Me personally, I’m really thankful for the opportunities I’ve got. I drove for a lot of great people and to add the Wood Brothers to the list is really special. When you look at my career path at Junior Motorsports and then Stewart-Haas, but I’ve spent some time filling roles here and there at Hendrick and it’s really cool the list of guys and teams that I’ve gotten to drive for. It’s just a really big honor to get to do this and embark on their 75th season all with Ford Motor Company, and the success they’ve had. We want to add to that tradition. That’s the goal. That’s why I’m here. We want to come out and we want to run well and hopefully add to the list of 100 wins.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO INTERACT OR MEET ROGER PENSKE SINCE JOINING THE ORGANIZATION? “Yeah. I met with him a couple times already even going back to, I think the first time was Indianapolis last year, so he’s well aware of what we have going on and is obviously a tremendous supporter of the Wood Brothers and wants to see us have success and run well just like he does with his own race cars, so without a doubt I’ve felt included and at home with that whole alliance and everything that is entailed with that. The expectation is to run like their other three race cars and that’s the fact of the matter. I’m ready to take on that and I think we all are – Miles is and everybody on the 21 team is ready to get back up there and run up front and compete for wins and that’s what we’re here to do.”
YOU DON’T SEEM TO BE THE TYPICAL GUY IN THE PENSKE MODE. DID YOU GUYS HIT IT OFF? “Yeah. At the end of the day he’s a racer and has a tremendous legacy in this sport. When you can sit down with someone as accomplished as Roger, you listen to what he has to say and take in every part of that. It’s like I said, I am a Wood Brothers driver, but we have an alliance there that is a unique situation, but I feel like for me that learning the structure and and the organization of Team Penske along with what we have on the 21 car has really been a positive influence for me. It’s not something that I’m in awe or feel out of place being there. I’m excited for it. It’s been a run offseason getting to know everybody and work with everybody to prepare for this year and we’re ready to go racing.”
CARS TOUR OR NASCAR. IF THEY CAME TO YOU AND SAID THEY WERE THINKING ABOUT DOING A LATE MODEL STOCK RACE AT BOWMAN GRAY, WOULD YOU BE FOR OR AGAINST IT? “I think it would be fine. They’ve raced at Wake County. It’s a similar size. I think I raced there one time and I think it would put on a good show, just like most of the other racing there. It wouldn’t be something they would do multiple times a year, but I think a race there would be cool. The biggest thing about that too, especially this area, is they’ve always had a tremendous turnout of fans in that area. That area is filled with a lot of race fans. We see that on the TV ratings and we see that at Bowman Gray Stadium over the course of the summer, so, for me, I’m all for going and racing at places like that, that have the tremendous support from the fans.”
DO YOU FEEL YOUR SHORT TRACK BACKGROUND GIVES YOU A BIT MORE CONFIDENCE GOING IN THERE AND MAYBE GIVES YOU AN EDGE THIS WEEKEND? “It’s definitely a little bit higher. Looking back, last year the Clash at the Coliseum for me wasn’t a great experience. It was unique with the weather. We didn’t really get a lot of track time. That was my first time in the car, feeling the car, sitting in the car and driving it, so I definitely left there a little frustrated that we didn’t make the feature race. That’s obviously a goal going back there, and I feel like we’ve done a good job preparing for this race the best we can. There are a lot of unknowns, but I feel like the preparation that we’ve done already to get ready for this weekend and now along with having several short track races in with the Next Gen car that in most of them we had good speed and good results throughout the race, so I think we’re more confident going back. I definitely feel more prepared and feel more comfortable in the car, so hopefully I can utilize some of my experience on these short tracks a little bit better.”
HAVE YOU TALKED TO EDDIE AND LEN ABOUT WHEN THEIR DAD RACED THERE? “Yeah, I touched on it earlier. We spent some time with Len up at the museum a couple weeks ago and, I’ll be honest, I need to go spend another eight to 10 hours because there was so much. I told Len this afternwards, ‘It’s amazing just the amount of tradition and history.’ There are race cars and pictures and uniforms and trophies. It’s hard to take everything in in that short period of time because you hear one story and you’re focused on one car or picture, and then your eye catches Leonard building a half-scale carburetor. There are all these projects going on there, but it’s really cool. Going to Bowman Gray, I know they’re excited. They have some history there. We’re running a throwback car to one of Glenn Wood’s rides that he won with at Bowman Gray Stadium, so that makes it a little bit more special.”
WHAT STANDS OUT TO YOU ABOUT BOWMAN GRAY COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS? “It’s gonna be tight quarters racing. The track is narrow. It’s shorter than a lot of the racetracks that we go to with the Cup cars. The biggest thing, like anywhere, is you’ve got to be fast. That’s the biggest thing. You need to have good track position. You need to qualify well and have a good heat race, that way you can get up front. The race is gonna be chaotic in the middle of the field without a doubt. The best way to avoid that is to be fast enough to stay out of it, and I feel like this is gonna remind me a lot of the Valleystar 300 at Martinsville. There was a lot of those races where we would go and there would be eight-some-odd cars and heat races and that’s one of the toughest short track races to win. I think this kind of format reminds me a little bit of that. I guess with it being closer to home and a more traditional short track, it kind of reminds me of that and the biggest thing that we can do is just go out there and be fast and try to stay in front of the trouble and execute the best race we can. Although it might look different, that’s what a lot of these races are and a lot of short track races are across the country.”
DO YOU THINK TEAMS ARE PUTTING IN VARIOUS AMOUNTS OF EFFORT INTO THIS RACE? AND WHAT ARE YOU GUYS EMPHASIZING FOR THIS RACE? “I don’t know. That’s a good question. I think it just kind of depends on the scenario. A lot of it in my eyes is kind of led off with the driver and their attitude to go to a race like this. I’m sure you’ve got guys in the field that are thinking this is not for them or not traditional in a way that maybe they wouldn’t quite prepare, but I think for us it’s our first race together, so we’re gonna put in the extra effort. We’ve made a lot of laps on the sim and we hope that stuff correlates without being there the best we can, but, for me, the best way to prepare – I feel like you prepare for every race no matter what and I feel like a majority of the field would feel the same way. I learned a long time ago short track racing that it’s easy to say if you go to one of the big races of the year, you didn’t try extra hard for that race compared to what you did week in and week out. You establish the habits of being prepared and working hard and putting the best race car you can on the race track each and every week and that’s what allows you to capitalize on the crown jewels and the big races and the championships. So, for us, this was just an opportunity to prepare for something new, utilize some of my experience on the short tracks and knowledge that I have there and go to a race that is gonna be really fun and it means a lot to my race team and NASCAR and Ford and everybody to just go have some fun, but try to put on a good show, too.”
HOW MUCH HAVE THE WOOD BROTHERS FREED YOU UP TO DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IN THE RACE? “We haven’t had that specific conversation, but I have a feeling I know what they’re gonna tell me – to go do what I’ve got to do to put the 21 car up front. It’s a hard balance in these races. It’s gonna get rough. For me, I think just settle the scores immediately. I think Kevin said that a couple years ago. I think that’s my mentality going into it, so if I get ran into, they’re gonna get it back probably the next corner.”
LEN WOOD, Chief Operating Officer, Wood Brothers Racing – WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT WINS AT BOWMAN GRAY AND WHAT MADE THOSE SPECIAL? “I was about five years old or six years old when daddy was winning there. Eddie would have a better answer on it, but I remember where we used to sit in the grandstand was the backstretch near that little spotter stand, a little bit towards turn three down about four rows. I don’t remember watching daddy, but I remember watching Sonny Hutchins in a modified that we had. It didn’t do very well up there, but Eddie would have a better answer on that.”
EDDIE WOOD, CEO, Wood Brothers Racing – “I would have been eight years old when my dad raced there. In 1960 he won a championship there in that ‘37 flatback coach, which we referred to it as the backseater, which is what the paint scheme this weekend kind of represents. We sat in the same place. I watched the program last night on Fox and I think it was Chocolate and Burt Myers were talking about where their family sat. We were the same way. There were probably a dozen people that went every Saturday night and you sat at the same place. You’d go get french fries with vinegar on them. We couldn’t have peanuts. I wanted some, but they wouldn’t let you because of the peanut thing. Bowman Gray is really special to me. When I first heard they were even thinking about going to the stadium to race the Clash I thought, ‘Man, that’s the coolest thing ever.’ I’m really into the stadium. I keep up with it weekly during the summer with the Myers boys and Brown and Buttner. All those guys. I was listening to Josh and he was talking about the fighting and the stuff that goes on there, you didn’t really see any of that out in L.A., but there’s something about Bowman Gray that brings out the worst in people, or the best. You can say it either way you want it, but I think everybody is really amped up about doing well there. I know we are and everyone I’ve talked to and been around is really looking forward to it. I have nothing but good memories about Bowman Gray Stadium.”
ANY IDEA IF YOU EVER BOUGHT POPCORN OR PEANUTS AT BOWMAN GRAY? “We probably did because he was selling peanuts and popcorn in the timeframe that my dad was there in the early sixties – late fifties too. We probably did. I mean, I didn’t know Richard until later. He raced Grand National/Cup cars. I’ve known him for a long, long time, but that’s really cool that he started there. You just look at the people that have gone through Bowman Gray Stadium and there are so many Hall of Famers and if you just go beyond the drivers, you look at the France family and the Hawkins family and how important it was then. In the sixties it was almost the center of what was going on in NASCAR. The whole hot dog thing with Pulliams. My family is a part of that, too. There are places when you would come home from the racetrack, I can remember sitting in my dad’s pickup truck, which they towed the cars on the ground. They had tow bars. They didn’t have trailers back then, but I remember towing the car, riding in the pickup truck, waiting for him to go to the pay window, which was on the back side of what is now the fieldhouse – that big white building then – but it’s still the same. That was just the coolest thing ever. I am really looking forward to it.”
HOW COME YOU WERE NEVER ALLOWED TO GET ANY PEANUTS? “Peanuts were, I mean, I wouldn’t eat a peanut now at a race track. They were bad luck. Why they were bad luck? I don’t know the correct answer. The only answer I’ve ever really heard anybody, my dad or Leonard, the answer would have been that somebody crashed somewhere – it wasn’t Bowman Gray – but it was somewhere, and the car was turned over and in the roof there was peanut shells. Somebody had been eating peanuts with the shell in the car and from that day on it was considered bad luck, just as the number 13 was, but that’s kind of gone away, and green. Green was really bad. In our family, $50 bills were bad. It’s just that everybody has their thing, but the peanut thing seems to be pretty consistent. You could ask Chocolate or Burt or any of those guys that raced and their family raced there when you were kids. It was just a no-no, but I remember the little bags. They still sell them like that. The guys over at the Peanut House in Winston-Salem. I think they’ve sold peanuts over there at the stadium for years and they have these little bags and you want one so bad, but you couldn’t get it. They wouldn’t let you have it.”
WHY DOES BOWMAN GRAY BRING OUT THE WORST IN PEOPLE? “I also said that it also brings out the best. Everybody I think is gonna try their hardest and if that doesn’t really work out, then maybe the worst is gonna come out. What I mean is how competitive everybody will be. The modified race on Saturday, I’m looking forward to that just as much as our race because I think it’s gonna bring out the best and the worst in everyone and our race will, too. One of you guys asked Josh about how much preparation and how much want to people want for this race. To me, every race is a big race. When Jon was racing go-karts, we were gonna go race somewhere and then we weren’t. There was an argument about it and I said, ‘That’s just a little race. That’s not important.’ And he said, ‘Every race is important,’ and I kind of live by that.”
JON WOOD, President, Wood Brothers Racing – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS EVENT BEING TAKEN TO OTHER PLACES BESIDES DAYTONA, WHERE IT TRADITIONALLY USED TO BE UNTIL THE LAST FOUR YEARS? “I think it’s a welcomed change. Speedway racing seems to be the best when there’s a full field and rarely did we see more than half the field for the Clash and most races historically seemed to be a little bit maybe less interesting. So, taking it to the shortest of short tracks and experimenting with the L.A. Coliseum, I think it showed that garnered more interest than what had been happening, ratcheting it up one more notch and bringing it to Bowman Gray. I actually think that was an experiment. Looking back on it, I think they experimented with the Clash at the Coliseum hoping to bring it to Bowman Gray. I don’t know that anybody would ever admit that. I don’t know that Jim would ever admit that, but it seems to be that that’s how it evolved and I feel like there’s no reason it wouldn’t be one of the best exhibition Clash races that’s ever been.”
LEN WOOD CONTINUED – “I would say back in the days of Daytona they were 20 laps and you were talking about being over in like 16 or 17 minutes. That was a short show. What they did at the Clash with the heat races and the concerts like Ice Cube, they made a whole day of it and I think that went over much better than a 17-minute show.”
EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED – “I agree with that. If you go way back to when the Clash started, one of those years I think there were eight cars – maybe one of the years Cale Yarborough or Baker won the thing – but they all just kind of got in line and ran their 20 laps and it was over. At the time, it was a big deal. It was a big honor to be in it. In those days, you had to sit on a pole the previous year, but the way they’re doing it now instead of a race it’s an event to me. You’ve got so many things going on with it, back to the modifieds, those are the guys that have raced their weekly and I just think it’s good for Winston-Salem. I’ve been down there in the middle of the summer and been there opening night for the weekly series and it’s packed. I’ve seen 18,000-20,000 people there. I tell you what I’m interested in seeing is the back wall above the grandstand. I’ve seen that thing with people that are six deep, so I’m interested to see how that shakes out, but I like what they’re doing.”
LEN WOOD CONTINUED – “There was a couple of times in those races that the highlight of it was getting your Busch Clash coat. They gave them to all the team members. That would have been the highlight of the week.”
JON WOOD CONTINUED – HOW MUCH PROGRESS HAVE YOU MADE IN TERMS OF YOUR VISION FOR THE TEAM AS PRESIDENT, AND WHAT DO YOU STILL HAVE TO ACCOMPLISH TO GET THE TEAM WHERE YOU WANT TO GO? “I think for years and years and years I always felt like I could do it better. I was smarter. I could make whatever changes that needed to be made that they would always work, and looking back on that these two didn’t succeed for 50 years of the 75 years we’ve been in business by making stupid decisions. I don’t think that there’s really anything, in fact I know there’s not anything that I’ve done that has changed anything in a meaningful way. I just try to do what is right and 99 percent of the time that’s not opposing their vision and what they think would be right. I think you’re seeing a shift in the leadership model in NASCAR. You’ve got guys like Justin Marks coming in that is a lot younger and he does things differently, so it’s not wrong to bring in younger guys to try to run these teams, but I don’t want to do anything different and I’m not from the ideas and the model that they’ve created for this race team. We do things quite a bit differently than anybody. Every team has their own nuances and with that there are pros and cons, but we do things quite a bit different and some of it may not be the best, but if you add all of it together I think what we do seems to work.”
EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED – THIS RACE IS A BIG DEAL FOR JOSH AND YOU. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT AND THE FREEDOM TO JUST GET AS ROUGH AS NECESSARY? “I’m the oldest, so I guess I’ll start. I like what Josh said. ‘If somebody runs into me, I’m gonna run into them.’ I like that. That fits Bowman Gray Stadium. This race in particular is gonna be short and things are gonna be tight and stuff like that, but everywhere we race every week they’re so competitive that you just about have to run as hard as you can run all day long and the days of planning strategy and waiting three quarters of the way through the race, you can’t do that now. If you don’t run as hard as you can run, they’ll be lapping you quick. If you don’t have a good qualifying spot, they’ll get to you anyway because somebody always gets out front and goes, so I’m leaving it up to Josh. Anything he does I’m good with it.”
WHEN IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT BOWMAN GRAY WAS GOING TO HOST THE CLASH WHAT EMOTIONS DID YOU HAVE AND DID YOU START REMINISCING? “Yes, I think I did. He raced three different numbers at Bowman Gray. He raced the 22, which he kind of started with that. He raced the 16. He actually won three races with the number 16 and the last race he won in ‘63 was in the 21, so just having it being back over there takes me back to when you were a kid. It’s like when you remember going to elementary school that was good. You don’t necessarily miss it, but when it gets brought up again you’re reminded of it and how good it was and that’s kind of the way I am with Bowman Gray. I don’t have to go sit down and watch, just being in the area. Every time I go down 52 going to Charlotte, Bowman Gray is on the left and I look over there and I think about it. I always try to look at the lights because the lights, those are the first lights I ever saw or remember at the racetrack. Those are kind of special with the way they were and that’s one thing I really applaud Joey and Justin and Jim, everybody that’s got anything to do with this – the lighting that they did is great. I haven’t seen it myself in person, but the way they did it and the formation of them with the way they’re shaped, they didn’t take away from what it used to look like. That’s what I think is so cool about the stadium. It’s still like it was. They could put up two goalposts in the infield and you’d have it. Like I said, I’m all about it.”
LEN WOOD CONTINUED – “It brings back the history of everything that our family did, what daddy did in particular. The oldest dated trophy we have is 1952 at Bowman Gray Stadium and daddy won 29 races there. He won in modifieds, sportsman, convertibles and grand national, which we now know as Cup. We’ve got a long history there.”
DO YOU STILL GO TO EAT AT STEAK ‘N SHAKE IN WINSTON? “We ate at Kermit’s the other day with David Hoots and Leonard.”
EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED – THIS IS YOUR 75TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON. WHAT ARE THE MOMENTS THAT GO DEEPER THAN THE BIG WINS OR THE MOMENTS THAT YOU EXPERIENCED IN A DIFFERENT WAY THAN THE FANS DID? “For me, just picking out races if you asked me what my three favorite racetrack were it would be Bowman Gray, Martinsville and Daytona Beach and Darlington. Those four would be my pick, but we’ve had a lot of great wins at Daytona. The one with Pearson and Petty crashing in ‘76 probably sticks to me the most because I was on the radio with David. We only had two radios in those days, but then I remember my dad’s last win at Bowman Gray in ‘63 he got spun out early and drove back through the field and won the race. You think back and a lot of those wins they’re all special. It gets back to every race is a big race, but those four tracks are probably my favorite or anything that happened at those tracks I remembered it more.”
LEN WOOD CONTINUED – “I’m kind of the same things on Daytona and Martinsville and Darlington are probably my favorite ones. Delano was at our shop the other day and he said something on the order of, ‘You know, I’ve got more superspeedway wins probably than any other jackman that’s ever done it.’ I said, ‘Well, wait a minute. Forget about superspeedways. Jefferson, Georgia, a 100-miler in 1968, means just as much as the Daytona 500 as a win when you count to 100. We counted it up and he has 92 wins as a jackman, and then uncle Leonard has 96 as a crew chief. That’s pretty amazing.”
JON WOOD CONTINUED – “It’s cliche to say, but this most recent win would be the one that sticks out to me the most and it’s for a couple of reasons. All three others in the recent era I didn’t really have a role in those. I didn’t really have a place it felt like. I was just there, and this one it was on the heels of the change in our structure that we had talked about a few minutes ago, but being at that race and it unfolding the way it did it was more of a feeling of belonging and like I contributed. And then to have my youngest son there, which was just a total freak occurrence because he only goes to three or four a year, that probably made it the most memorable in and of itself because it was just such a neat thing for him to experience that doesn’t happen. It’s just not something that we get to do and so all of that stuff happening all at once it was sensory overload. It was definitely the most memorable.”
