Stuck on 99: Wood Brothers Looks at Every NASCAR Race as 'Another Opportunity to Win'

• Ryan Blaney notched win No. 99 for Wood Brothers Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series—that was four drivers, 209 races, and almost six years ago.

• There’s nothing to suggest it will end anytime soon with Cup newcomer Harrison Burton.

• Or maybe it will.

They’ve been a beloved Virginia institution for 73 years, so it was altogether fitting that Governor Glenn Youngkin proclaimed April 2 as "Wood Brothers Racing Day" in the Commonwealth.

Alas, the pre-race ceremony at Richmond Raceway might have been the company’s highlight moment since Ryan Blaney delivered its 99th Cup Series victory at Pocono in 2017.

That was four drivers, 209 races, and almost six years ago, something of a lifetime for the family-owned, single-car, Ford-based, No. 21 team that once thrived with such luminaries as Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt, Buddy Baker, Dan Gurney, Neil Bonnett, and the incomparable David Pearson. The losing streak is depressing enough, but there’s nothing to suggest it will end anytime soon with Cup newcomer Harrison Burton.

Or maybe it will.

After all, the team was winless with eight drivers in 298 races between Elliott Sadler at Bristol in March of 2001 and Trevor Bayne at Daytona Beach in February of 2011. It was then 131 more losses over six seasons before Blaney won at Pocono. (After running a limited schedule for several years, the team went full-time in 2016 with Blaney as part of Team Penske’s developmental program).

“We’ve been there before, not winning like we once did,” team president Eddie Wood said during Martinsville week. “We didn’t have any idea Trevor was going to win the 500, but it worked out for us. And I don’t think we expected Blaney—running on older tires—could hold off Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick at the end in Pocono. But that worked out for us, too.

“I don’t look at it as ‘we’ll never win again.’ It’s like with ballplayers or any other kind of athlete: each game is another opportunity to win. Each weekend is another chance to win. Every race is another chance for something good to happen. You put last night’s game or last weekend’s race behind you and look ahead; you keep looking at the sunshine. Yeah, it’s harder to win now than ever, but it’s out there available ever weekend and we’re working hard to win again.”

The multi-car juggernaut of Hendrick Motorsports leads all organizations with 294 all-time Cup victories. Petty Enterprises is credited with 268, Joe Gibbs Racing with 201 (including last weekend with Christopher Bell on Bristol’s dirt), Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing with 138 victories, Team Penske with 136, Junior Johnson and Associates with 132, and Richard Childress Racing with 114. Hendrick, Gibbs, RFK, Penske, RCR, and the Woods are active going into this weekend’s 400-lap race at the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, 30 miles east of the Woods’ hometown of Stuart. Yarborough won for the Woods at the flat, half-mile bullring in 1968 and Pearson won for them in 1973.