NASCAR Trucks: Third generation Jon Wood looks to make history at Kentucky
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
July 11, 2001
Jon Wood, third-generation racer and 19-year-old son of Eddie Wood, will make his fourth Craftsman Truck Series start for Roush Racing this weekend at Kentucky Speedway. Wood, the youngest competitor in the series, first took the wheel of one of Jack Roush's trucks at Memphis and has made significant improvement each week, grabbing his first top-five finish last weekend at Kansas Speedway. Wood, who finished fourth at the inaugural O'Reilly 250, will be tackling another track this weekend that he has seen in the past. Wood, who tested at Kentucky in December in a Wood Brothers-prepared Ford Taurus with Elliott Sadler, spoke about his return to the Kentucky Speedway and his first three races.
JON WOOD-50-Eldon Ford F-150 - YOU TESTED WITH ELLIOTT SADLER AT KENTUCKY IN A WINSTON CUP CAR. HOW WILL THAT EXPERIENCE HELP YOU THIS WEEKEND WHEN YOU RETURN? "That was the first time that I had ever been on radials in my life and the first time that I had ever been in a Cup car or anything like that. More importantly, that was the first time that I had been on a track bigger than three-quarters-of-a-mile. Two or three hours into the test, I had already run a 30-flat which is about 180 mph average and that was close to what Elliott was running, so I thought that was pretty good. With the exception of Fontana and Michigan, that was the fastest that I had run. It's always good to see a track before you race on it and that's where we struggled a little bit the first two races. Memphis and Milwaukee were two brand-new tracks to me; I had never seen them before. I raced on Kansas Speedway in the Winston West Series and tested at Kentucky, so seeing those tracks may help me out a little."
YOU SAID LAST WEEK THAT YOU THOUGHT KANSAS SPEEDWAY AND KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY WERE SIMILAR. WHAT CAN YOU TAKE TO KENTUCKY THAT YOU LEARNED AT KANSAS? "I never had driven a truck on that size track. You have to drive them so much different than you would a car and I think it will help out some when I get to Kentucky because at least I know what to expect, how deep I can go in the corner and small things a like that that I didn't know this past week."
HAVE YOU FOUND THAT THERE ARE CERTAIN CHANGES ON THE TRUCK THAT WORK BETTER THAN WITH THE CARS? "For us, it's more or less raising or lowering the back of the truck up and down. That creates a ton of rear downforce or takes it away and I've never felt anything like that before. That's what we're playing with right now, trying to get the truck comfortable for my driving style. Nothing else drives like these trucks. A car is a car, and a truck is a truck. You can switch between some different types of cars and still know what kind of changes will work best, but the trucks are missing about 600 pounds of rear downforce because of their design, so it makes them a beast of their own."
RICKY HENDRICK BECAME THE SERIES' YOUNGEST WINNER LAST WEEKEND AT 21, BUT YOU'RE STILL 19. IS THAT A RECORD YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE? "I would say it's one of the team's goals, but I don't know if it's one of mine yet. That's a lot to expect this early on. Sure, we ended up fourth, but I don't know how we did it. We had a good enough truck to do it, but I didn't think I was capable of running with those guys this early on. I'm sure it's a goal, but it's not an expectation by any means."
THIS WEEK YOU'RE GOING FROM A 1.5-MILE TRACK TO ANOTHER 1.5-MILE TRACK. DOES THAT MAKE IT A LITTLE EASIER? "I think it makes it a little easier going from big track to big track because you have to drive them so much different and it makes the learning curve quicker and easier. I still have last week's race fresh in my mind and I think that will help when we first start out in Kentucky. That may make it a little easier to get adjusted to the track and the quicker you can get adjusted to a track, the more practice time you have to tweak on the truck because you already have the baseline setup."
YOUR FATHER, EDDIE, WAS AT MILWAUKEE, BUT WITH HIS WINSTON CUP DUTIES, HE HASN'T MADE IT TO ALL OF YOUR RACES. WE KNOW IT'S HARD ON HIM, BUT HOW HARD IT THAT FOR YOU? "It wouldn't be any tougher. Basically, that's all I've ever done is race when he's not there because he's always done the Winston cup stuff and I've just slowly progressed from go-karts on up, so it's nothing new to me. I know he's always watching and we make sure to give him updates as the weekend progresses, but I think it's easier if you're the one racing because you have stay focused on one thing, the competition."
ELLIOTT SADLER TALKED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING YOU AS A TEAMMATE IN A FEW YEARS. IS THAT YOUR ULTIMATE GOAL? "That would be the ultimate goal, but we have to have success at this level first. I'm trying not to get caught up in that because I have plenty of racing ahead of me. This opportunity that I've been given is so important and I don't want to mess it up. I only have four truck races under my belt, so I'm not event thinking about Winston Cup. Sure it a dream of mine, but that's all it is right now. I want to prove myself first and then when I get closer to that level, I will start think about it. Elliott and I get along great and I would want to race for family's team, but I've got a lot more obstacles to cross before I get to that level."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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