NASCAR Cup Series

Larry Mac: Wood Brothers going full time again is great, and here's why

Published Dec. 4, 2015 10:22 a.m. ET

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Larry McReynolds

As most of you know, the famous No. 21 Ford is returning to full-time racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series in 2016 with young rookie Ryan Blaney behind the wheel.

The Wood Brothers had to cut back to part-time Cup racing in 2008 due to the downturn in the economy. Now they are back full time, plus they will continue their alliance with Ford powerhouse Team Penske.

Now, do I think the Wood Brothers can come right out of the box and be contenders to win races? I think that would be a bit of a stretch as would the thought that they could be a Chase contender.

To be fair, I feel the same way about Chase Elliott, who is climbing behind the wheel of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports car. I think there will be a learning curve that all rookies have to go through before they can start being consistent enough to compete for a win.

I do have to say I am pretty darn excited about our sport having probably one of the better rookie-of-the-year battles we've seen in the past few years.

Do I think there's a pretty steep incline ahead for the Wood Brothers? Yes I do, because things seem to change almost weekly in our sport and when you aren't there every week, it's hard to keep up. Just look at the evolution of restarts in our sport in just the second half of 2015.

With all that said, I think it's great for our sport to see the famous No. 21 back every week at the racetrack. Remember, the Wood Brothers have been racing since 1950. There is a lot of history in that organization and that No. 21.

Our newer fans may not realize that the Wood Brothers have won 98 times in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and did so with some of the sport's greatest drivers of all time. Probably the most surprising win was the team's most recent, in 2011, when rookie Trevor Bayne set the NASCAR world on its ear and won the Daytona 500.

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