The Drill: Q&A with racing legend Glen Wood

The Wood Brothers team has been racing since 1950. In anticipation of the 53rd Daytona 500 on Sunday, 85-year-old founder Glen Wood talked this week about his experience at Daytona that precedes even that.
Q. How long have you been coming to Daytona?
A. I started coming here in 1947 and this makes the 65th straight year I've been down here. I came here for the first time with (wife) Bernice's dad and brother in 1947 in a little '44 Ford. We just sort of started going to races back at home after the war, and I asked them about going down to Florida and they agreed. That was the start and we decided to go back the next year and I've done it every year since then. I'm lucky that I've felt good and haven't been sick to where I couldn't go during this time, but the other thing about coming down here (from Virginia) is I've always driven.
Q. How has this area changed?
A. I remember when there wasn't a track here and you'd come by (U.S. Hwy) 92 and see stumps rooted up out of the ground because it was just wilderness out here. I'm sure Big Bill (France, NASCAR's founder) noticed that it was getting built up on the beach with houses right along where the track was, and that was a big change.
Q. You raced on the beach. What was it like?
A. You would start down by the lighthouse, and I can remember the first year I ran it there were more than 100 cars in the race. Can you imagine that many starting and then realizing that we've all got to slow down and make that turn? . . . Back then, it was common to have a vibration break a brake line and you wouldn't have any brakes, so that was the worst thing you could do going down in there without any brakes. Curtis Turner was the best that ever was on the beach. I'd say he would throw it sideways for at least 100 feet and it was the prettiest drift you ever saw . . . and he never did go wobbling out like a lot of them.