This Week in Ford NBS Racing: Jon Wood

Jon Wood, driver of the No. 47 Ford Fusion, is closing in on the completion of his sophomore season in the NASCAR Busch Series. Wood, who finished 15th in the final driver standings last year, is currently 14th in the points with two races remaining. Wood spoke about his season and the ongoing preparations for his Nextel Cup debut in 2007.

Jon Wood

JON WOOD—47—Clorox/American Red Cross Ford Fusion — WITH TWO RACES REMAINING, HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS YOUR SOPHOMORE SEASON IN THE BUSCH SERIES? “I wouldn’t necessarily call it the stellar season that we had hoped for and anticipated this time last year. We are showing some improvement and progress toward the end of the season, both with our ability to have fast race cars and the ability to finish where we deserve. We have gotten back to the point where we have fast cars, and barring no bad luck each week, we are able to capitalize on those types of cars. This past week at Texas we had some troubles early on in the race, but still bounced back and had a respectable day. We’re making forward progress.”

WITH THE FORMATION OF WOOD BROTHERS/JTG RACING IN THE OFF-SEASON, AND THE ADDITION OF TWO TRUCK SERIES PROGRAMS, DID THE EXPANSION PROCESS HURT YOUR TEAM IN THE SHORT TERM? “It helped in a lot of ways and it hurt in a lot of ways. I don’t think that the off-season can ever be long enough to get prepared for what you’ll endure throughout the entire racing season. I don’t think there was enough time to get our program where it needed to be. We had really good cars. The finish work was unbelievable, so you can’t fault anybody in the shop. You can’t fault anybody in particular at all. It’s just a matter of having too many hooks in the water and no fish were biting. In the long term, I think the benefits will far outweigh the difficulties we faced in the short term. Like I said earlier, we’re back to the point where we have fast race cars each week and that to me is a sign that we’ve gotten over the hump.”

YOU ARE SLATED TO MAKE YOUR NEXTEL CUP SERIES DEBUT NEXT SEASON, SPLITTING DRIVING DUTIES WITH KEN SCHRADER. ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH THE WAY YOUR RACING CAREER HAS PROGRESSED UP TO THIS POINT? “I don’t think that you can ever move too slow in this sport, as long as you’re not getting old. Running the full season in Cup is almost a make-or-break scenario for a person, more or less, in my age group. You establish yourself in the Busch Series or Truck Series and then you make that jump, and if it doesn’t go as smoothly as you would like – or other people would like – there’s always somebody else standing in line to take that spot. And, the easy fix for everything is to put a new driver in it. I’m glad that it’s taken this long and I’m glad that I’ve been presented with a bunch of different scenarios and a bunch of different types of race cars before I’ve gotten to this point. I think it makes for a better-prepared driver when you have more experience.”

DISCUSS THE ROLE THAT MICHAEL “FATBACK” MCSWAIN PLAYS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION AND THE IMPACT HE HAS HAD ON YOUR DEVELOPMENT AS A DRIVER. “Fatback has a very unique job or role, or whatever you want to call it. I guess at the beginning of the year he started out wanting to be general manager. I don’t like to use those words because it sounds too much like a factory, but he kinda wanted to be the guy that oversaw everything and was hands-on in every race car and everything that we had. Then him having to go crew chief the 21 car midway through the year, it obviously helped their program, and that’s the most important, but it probably hurt the rest of our programs a little bit because not having Fatback there 24/7 to watch over everything, I don’t think it helped. But, you have to do what you have to do, and keeping the 21 in the top 35 in owner points was what was most important. I had him there atop my pit box in Texas, and I think his presence alone was a motivating force for the entire team.”