Wood Finishes 16th in Fourth Nashville Start

Venue: Nashville Superspeedway

FINISH: 16th

Start: 15th

Laps Led: 0

NCTS Owners’ Point Standings: 12th

Jack Wood’s fourth-career appearance at Nashville Superspeedway (NSS) resulted in a 16th-place finish on Friday night. The driver of the No. 91 Chevrolet Silverado RST battled back from a late spin to notch the 16th-place finish, which places the team 12th in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series owners’ point standings after 13 events.

The Californian stopped the clock at 30.609 seconds in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session and started the 150-lap event from the 15th position. As two early cautions slowed the pace, Wood settled into 17th position after a restart on lap 15. A tight handling condition on both ends of NSS’ concrete surface held Wood back from making forward progress and was scored 19th at the end of Stage 1 on lap 45.

Wood came to the attention of his MHR pit crew under the stage caution for four tires, fuel, and a track bar adjustment to improve the drivability. The No. 91 team ripped off a strong stop which netted Wood two positions and allowed him to restart 15th on lap 53. The adjustments proved to be worthwhile as he climbed to 13th by lap 68. Moments later on lap 69, Wood made an aggressive evasive move to dodge multiple trucks out of shape on exit of Turn 4 and briefly contested a top-10 position. He netted three positions in Stage 2 and was scored 12th at lap 95.

Crew chief Kevin Bellicourt called Wood back to pit lane during the second stage caution for another set of fresh tires and fuel. Wood restarted seventh on lap 103 after a phenomenal pit stop by the MHR team. However, Wood spun in Turn 4 on lap 113, but avoided contact and tagged the tail of the field as a result. After restarting 21st on lap 119, Wood managed to make forward progress over the final 36 laps to take the checkered flag in 16th.

Jack Wood Quote:

“Our guys worked really hard on our Chevrolet Silverado RST, and unfortunately didn’t get the result that we wanted. We were on the tight side early in the race and Kevin (Bellicourt) and the guys made an adjustment and we were able to go forward in the second stage. I felt like we were trending the right way, but that spin set us back. I’m proud of the effort of this team and we’ll be ready to go to Irwindale and try to get a win in our NAPA Auto Care Chevy out west.”