What's in a name? HOFer Wood comes clean

Glen Wood, who soon will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, answers this week's six questions.

1. What was it like to see the retro paint scheme of a Wood Brothers Racing car from 1963 driven by Trevor Bayne in last Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway?

Wood: Something like this rarely happens and I think [sons] Len and Eddie [Wood] and all the guys at the shop came up with a good idea to do this. The color scheme on this car was the same one Tiny Lund won the 500 at Daytona with -- and a little bit later in that season I won the last race I ran in that same car, so it's a good time for it to happen with the Hall of Fame and everything that goes with it. Seeing my name on the top of the door and my picture on the hood is heartwarming to me.

2. What's it like to see your picture on the hood of your car?

Wood: It's kind of unbelievable, but knowing my kids I wasn't surprised.

3. Why over the door of the car was your first name spelled with two 'N's' at the end, when it routinely has been spelled with only one?

Wood: Somewhere along the line it possibly happened from

signing autographs. I somehow might not have spelled it all because it was shorter and easier to do, so that is possibly the reason why it is that way. But my birth certificate is two 'n's'."

4. What about when you write a check?

Wood: It's still just one. I guess over time I forgot how to do the two n's.

5. What's the feeling like as the Hall of Fame induction inches closer?

Wood: It's just amazing to me the people who congratulate me on that and a lot of times it's people that I don't even know. Somehow they know me and it's just very gratifying to have been chosen this early in the balloting.

I guess I just didn't expect it so soon, but like Willie Nelson said, 'If you think I'm gonna stand up here and take this over all those other deserving people out there, you're darn right I am.' I thought that was pretty neat.

6. How did the iconic No. 21 come about to be on the Wood Brothers racing car?

Wood: We've had different numbers. We started out with the number 50 and we had a little accident with that and it caught fire and burned up. We decided to change the number after we fixed it back up and we put a No. 16 on it. But along the way somewhere we just put a No. 21 on it and a little later we put a No. 22 on it.

We ran a No. 22 for a long time and then during the time they ran convertibles and Grand Nationals together, Fireball Roberts had a No. 22. That was his Cup number and mine was a No. 22 in the convertible. Sometimes he would run a convertible race and guess who had to change his number? It wasn't him [laughing]. So we kept doing that a time or two and we decided we would just leave a No. 21 on it. It's been a good number ever since. Other than one year with [sponsor] 7-Eleven -- you can understand they wanted a seven -- but after that Citgo came along [as a sponsor] and we went back to the No. 21 and it's been there ever since. I hope it stays.

Related:
Induction adds to already amazing year for Wood