Wood Records Season-Best Finish at North Wilkesboro

Venue: North Wilkesboro Speedway

FINISH: 12th

Start: 17th

Laps Led: 0

NCTS Owners’ Point Standings: 10th

Jack Wood captured his best result in six starts this season with a 12th-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway (NWS) on Sunday afternoon. The driver of the No. 91 Cometic Gasket / Klotz Synthetics Chevrolet Silverado RST collected nine stage points during the event to total 34 points on the day, eighth-most of all drivers in the field. The No. 91 team increased their gap on the provisional playoff cut line in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) owners’ point standings to 42 points in 10th position after 10 events.

Wood started the race on Saturday afternoon in 17th position after qualifying was cancelled due to inclement weather. When the race went green, Wood contested a top-20 position until a caution on lap 58. While most trucks pitted, crew chief Kevin Bellicourt kept Wood on track and in position to score stage points. Wood restarted fifth on lap 68 with old tires and collected two points in ninth at the end of Stage 1 at lap 70. During the stage caution, Wood pitted for four tires before severe thunderstorms engulfed NWS and forced the postponement of the event until Sunday morning.

The event resumed Sunday on lap 87 with Wood in 28th position after his pit stop on Saturday. He made steady progress to 21st until a caution at lap 117. Bellicourt, again, employed an aggressive strategy to keep Wood on track to inherit track position. Wood worked the outside lane efficiently to preserve his track position and ran fourth to collect seven points at the end of Stage 2 on lap 140.

Wood stayed on track and restarted sixth on lap 147 and stayed inside the top-12 until an opportunity to pit arose during a lap 177 caution. He took fresh right side tires and restarted 22nd on lap 185. The call proved to be beneficial as Wood has some of the freshest rubber on the track and put it to good use over the final 65 circuits. Wood blitzed his way into the top 15 by lap 225 and took the checkered flag in 12th. The result marked his best-career short track finish in NCTS competition and his best finish in six starts this season.

Jack Wood Quote:

“This was a real solid weekend for us. It feels good to have a solid finish with our Cometic / Klotz Chevrolet and we unloaded with some good speed in practice on Friday too. Kevin (Bellicourt) did a great job calling our pit strategy to get some points throughout the day and we were able to stay on offense at the end with fresh tires and netted out ahead of where we pitted from. All in all, a solid day for our group. It’s a good points day for us and we’ll look forward to Charlotte on Friday night.”