Wood Secures Best-Career Finish in Doubleheader at Irwindale

Jack Wood ended the doubleheader weekend at Irwindale Speedway with a career-best second-place finish in Saturday night’s BlueDEF / NAPA Auto Parts 150 with a late-race rally. The driver of the No. 16 BlueDEF Platinum, NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet rebounded in thrilling fashion from a 14th-place result in Thursday night’s event to reclaim the third position in the ARCA Menards Series West championship standings. The Loomis, Calif., driver has now tallied two top-five finishes in the last three events.

Wood began the double-feature weekend in Southern California with a stout fourth-place qualifying effort for Thursday night’s 150-lap event. Once the green flag dropped, Wood battled a tight handling condition for most of the event. After rejoining the lead lap prior to the halfway point, Wood was involved in an incident on lap 84 which caused significant damage to his Chevrolet and resulted in a 14th-place finish.

Wood, crew chief Kevin Bellicourt, and the entire BlueDEF, NAPA Auto Care team responded vibrantly on Saturday evening. The team pulled out backup chassis No. 99 for Wood to run in Saturday’s showdown, and the effort paid off. After Wood qualified eighth, he employed a methodical approach to the 150-lap race. His Chevrolet exhibited a tight condition in the center of both turns, but the balance came to him as the event wore on.

While running seventh and running some of the fastest laps in the field, a fortuitous caution flew on lap 132. Wood was able to line up sixth for the restart on lap 141 and took full advantage of the opportunity. He took the fifth spot on the restart and narrowly escaped a spin in Turn 4 to claim the fourth position. A one-lap dash to the checkers settled the event on lap 152, and Wood ripped the high lane to take the second position for his best finish of the season. The runner-up result was his second top-five of 2024 and his best since finishing fourth in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway in 2023.

“The cautions fell and some of the guys in front of us got knocked out,” Wood said. “We just managed the night the right way. We still have some work to do to have the race-winning speed, but just came up one spot short. Happy with the result and really proud of these guys on our BlueDEF, NAPA Nightvision team to work as hard as they did to get us in this position tonight.”

Start / Finish: 
Thursday, July 4: 4 / 14
Saturday, July 6: 8 / 2
Points Standing / Total: 3rd / 262 pts. (-31)

Next Race: Saturday, July 27, Shasta Speedway
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