Wood returns to scene of last win hungry for another

You have to go back a while since Jon Wood last visited Victory Lane. It was October 2003, the track -- Martinsville, just 28 miles from Wood's hometown of Stuart, Va. Wood wasn't the most dominant truck that day, but he did lead 79 laps and took the checkered under caution for the victory.

The win didn't catapult his career or anything like that, but winning at home is special, and Wood cherished every moment of it.

By the Numbers

Martinsville is turning into a special track for Jack Sprague. Last year, he won the fall race and this year he will make his 400th career NASCAR start.

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"In terms of career advancement, the effect was minimal," Wood said. "But personally, you couldn't have picked a better racetrack or a more prestigious one. My grandpa [Glen Wood] raced there and Martinsville's got a lot of history."

At the time, Wood didn't dare think that victory would be his last. Wood didn't realize that in 2004 as he competed in the Truck Series for Jack Roush, that the success he found the year before when he had two wins, 10 top-fives, 20 top-10s and finished fifth in the points standings would all but disappear, ending the '04 season with just seven top-10s and a 15th-place finish in the standings.

The next two years he would compete full time in the Busch Series for the Wood Brothers/JTG race team. His best finish was a second, coming at Talladega in '05, but he averaged a finish in the 20s both years and never saw the success he expected.

This year, beginning his third year with the family team, Wood struggled out of the gate, had and average finish of 24.8 and just three lead-lap finishes. It was also revealed that Wood suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder and was experiencing painful headaches. So he took a leave from the sport in June to get the medical attention he needed and when he came back in July, he took over the No. 21 truck and instantly made an impact.

His debut was at Kentucky and he brought home a sixth-place finish. Since then, four top-10s in six races and he is currently in a stretch of three consecutive top-10s. But don't for a second think Wood looks at his recent return to the Truck Series as a demotion.

"The level of competition in the Craftsman Truck Series is just as high as in the other two national series so you don't go to any track with high expectations of winning," Wood said. "But I've won at Martinsville so I don't have anything to prove."

In fact, Martinsville ranks as one of Wood's best tracks in the Truck Series. He has the '03 victory, but also has two fourth-place finishes, coming in the last two races he's raced there.

His secret? Acceptance. Yes it sounds crazy, but he says if you go into Martinsville expecting to drive like you're at the local carnival riding in a bumper car, you'll be just fine.

"Don't be fooled by the fact it's a half-mile track," Wood said. "The place is fast and it's really tough on trucks. You're going to get knocked around. You might as well accept that. You're going to knock other people around. They better accept that. You have to know where the line is between beating and banging and being reckless.

"This is good old-fashioned short-track racing at its best. As long as it doesn't turn into a demolition derby, it should be a great show."

What would make it perfect would be another victory for the hometown kid. At just 25 years of age, he's already been through an up-and-down seven-year career in the NASCAR spotlight. With the highest of highs coming in his home state and the lowest of lows coming just a couple months ago when he was forced to watch from the sidelines.

So as he returns to the track where he earned his last victory, Wood would love nothing more than to win again, not only for him, but for the ones who have supported him all along.

"It seems like I've been going to the Martinsville Speedway for as long as I've been alive," Wood said. "Drivers from Virginia have a different kind of pride, and winning in Virginia means more to us than winning anywhere else.

"I've always loved Martinsville because it's been around for so long -- a lot longer than me. My family has raced there for more than 50 years. I can't tell you what it would mean to our family to win there."