“We started out with a little ’38 Ford, and ironically before we got home with it, we’d been involved in a little crash, and it caught fire and burned up,â€� Wood recalled Tuesday after he was named one of five inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fameï¿

CHARLOTTE – Glen Wood ( of Stuart, VA) and his brothers had just ventured into racing when the team hit its first real bump in the road. Literally. “We started out with a little ’38 Ford, and ironically before we got home with it, we’d been involved in a little crash, and it caught fire and burned up,� Wood recalled Tuesday after he was named one of five inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s 2012 class. “So somebody said, ‘Well, maybe he’ll quit this foolishness now.’ But rather than forget about the rough-and-tumble sport – the incident took place well before the birth of NASCAR – Wood said it only increased his desire to compete. “That sort of lit a torch – we fixed it up and got back in racing in the next week or two,� he said. Wood will be inducted in January 2012 along with championship-winning crew chief Dale Inman, three-time NASCAR Cup champions Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough ad nine-time Modified champion Richie Evans. “Somehow we have struggled through the hard times, and with the help of Ford Motor Company we’ve been able to do it our way,� Wood said. “Our way� for Wood Brothers Racing has been, until the last couple of years, fielding a single-car team out of a shop in Stuart, Va., an out-of-the way berg that’s north of Charlotte and not really near anything. As a driver, Wood won four times in just 62 career starts. But along with, among others, brothers Leonard and Delano, the group established one of the most successful, and longest-running, teams in the sport.