NASCAR Veteran Wood Brothers Racing Receives a Major Worldwide Honor from FIA for Its Contribution to Motorsports

Published 12/13/2020, 1:32 AM EST

NASCAR was formally established in 1948, and some teams have rich and long histories in the sport. One of them is the Wood Brothers Racing team, which was founded in 1950 but debuted in 1953.

70 years down the line, the outfit is still going strong, and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) decided to honor the team. To be exact, WBR is now the recipient of the 2020 FIA Founding Members Club Heritage Cup.

This award is presented to recognize outstanding achievements in the motoring world. As it turns out, Wood Brothers not only has NASCAR ties but helped Jim Clark earn his 1965 Indianapolis 500 win. In addition to that, the team helped the Ford team at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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“It truly is an honor to win this award,” said president Eddie Wood. “The fact that it’s a worldwide honor makes it even more special. We’re mainly known in American motorsports, but this is much bigger than that.”

How successful has Wood Brothers Racing been in NASCAR?

In a nutshell, the outfit has been hugely successful, boasting of 99 Cup Series race wins. In addition to that, WBR also helped modernize the pit stop process in the sport.

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The team’s alumni include several Hall of Famers like Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, and David Pearson. In the open-wheel category, A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, and Parnelli Jones were notable Wood Brothers competitors.

Without a doubt, the team has been around for ages and has more than 1,600 NASCAR Cup Series races under its belt. Now, for the 2021 season, the team is fielding Matt DiBenedetto, who has been racing for them since January 2020.

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Out of 31 races, DiBenedetto has racked up eight top-10 finishes. However, the last person to win for them was Ryan Blaney in 2017 at Pocono. Admittedly, DiBenedetto has come close on many occasions but missed out several times. In fact, he finished as the runner-up at both Las Vegas Motor Speedway races in 2020.

“I’ll Pick the 21” – Matt DiBenedetto Projects Confidence Towards Earning Maiden Win in NASCAR Cup Series 2021 Season

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.