Top-Five Run for Wood Goes Sideways in Sonoma

Venue: Sonoma Raceway

Start: 6th

Finish: 13th

Laps Led: 0

Jack Wood, driver of the No. 16 Weyerhaeuser/TimberTech by Azek Chevrolet SS had a heartbreak of an ending to the 64-lap ARCA Menards West Series (AMWS) event after running inside the top-five for the majority of his day in Sonoma. The young driver started the General Tire 200 in the sixth position after a solid qualifying effort on the 1.99-mile road course. The hometown kid quickly cruised up to the top five on the opening lap and remained in that position until the first caution of the day came out with 47 laps to go.

Wood communicated to his team under the yellow flag that he was lacking rear stability in his No. 16 Chevrolet. The green-flag shuffle came into play on the restart and the Loomis, Calif. native jumped up to fourth after teammate Christian Eckes took a spin. Battling hard to stay in the top five, Wood lost minimal track position and settled back into the sixth position before the competition caution arose.

Crew chief Kevin Bellicourt called for minor adjustments and a top off of some Sunoco race fuel for the No. 16 Chevrolet and sent Wood on his way to restart the second half of the event. The driver of the No. 16 locked in another fantastic restart as he jumped back into the top five after restarting sixth in line. With 23 laps to go, Wood was up to fourth until another yellow flag fell. The young driver remained focused and with nine laps to go, he was holding track position while battling off his teammate to hold the fourth position.

The fourth caution of the afternoon forced the field to roll into NASCAR’s version of overtime with just three laps remaining. Wood held his line as chaos started to break out in the front of the field and the green-white-checkered came out until he was forced off the track on the final lap, relegating him to 13th where he jumped back in line and ultimately finished his afternoon in Sonoma.

Jack Wood Quote:

“We had such a fast No. 16 Weyerhaueser/TimeberTech By Azek Chevrolet today that deserved to finish way better than where we ended up. Super bummed that we could not get the finished these guys deserved today but super proud of Kevin and the guys for giving me a top five car today. Huge thanks to them for coming out and doing this deal and also a huge thanks to Weyerhaueser, TimeberTeck, James Hardies, Berry Lumber and Bill McAnally for supporting us today. It has been awesome to spend some time at home with all my family and friends but it’s time to get back to North Carolina and get focused for IRP.”