To long-time motorsports fans; and lots of others too, things will be back like they should be as NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series runs the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on its traditional Labor Day weekend date.
To mark the return of NASCAR racing to Darlington on Labor Day, the track and the participating race teams have adopted a throwback theme for the weekend, and that’s certainly the case for the Wood Brothers race team and Snap-on, the sponsor of the iconic No. 21 Ford Fusion and driver Ryan Blaney.
It’s fitting that the Wood Brothers, who have run 88 races at Darlington with eight wins and four in the Southern 500, will be back at the track for the first time since 2008. It’s equally appropriate that the throwback weekend will feature sponsorship from Snap-on, a company that has been in business long before the first Southern 500 was run at Darlington back in 1950.
“Having Snap-on back with us this weekend really fits well with the throwback theme,” said Eddie Wood, co-owner of the Wood Brothers race team. “They’ve been a staple of the motorsports industry from the very onset so it’s a very fitting time to have them on board”
“And for us, it’s good to be back at Darlington for the return of racing on Labor Day weekend. That track and that race have been good to us over the years.”
The Wood Brothers won their first Southern 500 in 1968 with Cale Yarborough driving. David Pearson won back-to-back 500s in 1976-77, and the late Neil Bonnett won in 1981.
While many race teams are running throwback paint schemes this weekend, with their cars painted similar to legendary cars of the past, the Woods, whose cars today are painted similar to those that won the Southern 500 back in the day, and Snap-on have gotten creative.
They chose a mosaic-style paint scheme made up of more than 2,000 images from the team’s 65 years in the sport.
Like the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words,” the Snap-on paint scheme, unveiled Aug. 4 in a ceremony at the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion, is like a NASCAR and Wood Brothers history class.
“Each one of those images has a story behind it,” Wood said.
While the weekend will feature a series-wide tribute to NASCAR’s past, the Snap-on Fusion will also carry a decal honoring Alison Parker and Adam Ward, the journalist and cameraman that were killed in last week’s news channel shooting. The Roanoke, VA based affiliate WDBJ7, is one of the Wood Brothers’ local stations and particularly, Alison was a Martinsville native. “It’s such a tragic thing to happen. We want to show our support and sympathy for those two young people this weekend and our heartfelt condolences go out to their friends and families,” Wood said.
Wood Brothers Racing PR
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