To celebrate 75 years worth of memories, the legendary Wood Brothers Racing team will be celebrated throughout the summer with “Wood Brothers Wednesdays” on The NASCAR Channel.
Wood Brothers Racing has been around since 1950, when Glen and Leonard Wood teamed up to pioneer a legacy that has transcended time.
Glen was behind the wheel of their car at Bowman Gray Stadium in 1960 and took the Wood Brothers Racing team to Victory Lane for the first time. The team scored its 101st NASCAR Cup Series victory in 2025, when Josh Berry took the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bookending those victories were triumphs everywhere from Daytona to Darlington to Rockingham and everywhere in between. Twenty of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers have piloted a car for the team throughout their storied history, one that is well worth celebrating.
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This Wednesday’s content will highlight the 1991 Champion Spark Plug 400 from Michigan International Speedway.
Dale Jarrett raced full-time in the Xfinity Series from its inception in 1982 until 1987, when he also made 24 starts in the Cup Series. The son of two-time Cup Series champion Ned Jarrett, Dale finished fifth or better in the Xfinity Series standings from 1983 to 1987, while winning two races.
It led the second-generation driver to make those 24 starts in the 1987 Cup Series season for Eric Freelander. He showed tons of promise on short tracks, compiling a 10th-place finish at both Bristol and Martinsville, while also finishing 12th at North Wilkesboro.
He split the 1988 season between the No. 29 car for Cale Yarborough and the No. 1 for Hoss Ellington. Jarrett and Yarborough split the No. 29 car that season, and Jarrett later raced for Yarborough’s team full-time in 1989 following Yarborough’s retirement from driving.
He picked up five top-10 finishes in 1990 but was replaced with veteran driver Dick Trickle for the 1991 season, leaving Jarrett without a Cup Series ride and forcing him back to the Xfinity Series.
Jarrett didn’t let the setback put him down, as he started the season with four straight top-10 finishes and found himself on top of the series standings. Fast forward to April 1, 1990, and Neil Bonnett, who at the time was driving the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing, was injured in a crash at Darlington Raceway.
Bonnett was knocked unconscious in a 13-car crash at the track, sustaining total amnesia due to the incident. It was the fourth time in five years that Bonnett was hospitalized with injuries. This left the legendary team without a driver, as Bonnett recovered at home in Alabama.
Enter Jarrett into the picture once again.
He finished out the 1990 season with the team, as the partnership grew stronger throughout the year. Jarrett finished the season with four top-10 finishes over his final seven races. He entered the season with just eight in his career.
Hopes were high for the 1991 season when it was announced that Jarrett would continue to race the iconic No. 21 car for Wood Brothers Racing that season.
The team put up a handful of solid runs throughout the first few months of the season, notably notching a sixth-place finish in the Daytona 500, a fifth in the Coca-Cola 600, and then three straight top 10s heading into the August date at Michigan International Speedway.
Jarrett, who sat 13th in the standings, qualified 11th for the race.
The 34-year-old Jarrett finally had a chance at grabbing that elusive first checkered flag of his Cup Series career after so many years of working to get to the Cup Series. The race came down to Jarrett trying to catch another driver, whose father had won a championship, Davey Allison.
The two drivers ran side by side over the final few moments of the race, making contact several times. Jarrett inched in front of Allison at the last moment, finally taking the checkered flag in a thrilling finish.
The victory was not only significant for Jarrett but also for his team. It was the 95th win for the Wood Brothers Racing team, but the first in 154 starts since Kyle Petty won at Charlotte in 1987.
Jarrett credited his team with making the call not to take tires, which gave him the best shot at finally driving into Victory Lane.
It was also bittersweet for the Jarrett-Wood Brothers combination, as Jarrett had already announced that he would be leaving the team at the end of the season to join the new Cup Series team owned by Super Bowl champion coach Joe Gibbs.
In addition to the exciting race at Michigan, there will also be a documentary titled “The Wood Brothers” on the schedule to watch.
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