Blaney, Wood brothers need good race today

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — If the Wood brothers need any advice for today’s critical playoff race at Martinsville Speedway, the team can turn to family patriarch Glenn Wood.

Wood, 92, records every race on a VCR as he follows Ryan

Blaney’s breakout season. Then he calls sons Eddie and Len, who now run the team, to talk about the race.

“He’ll go back and analyze it and talk to us about it, like if we do something — we ran out of fuel somewhere and he was like, ‘Did you all think you were at Darlington?’ ” Eddie Wood said Saturday at Martinsville.

The whole gang expects to hear from Wood as the No. 21 Ford unexpectedly begins this third round of NASCAR’s playoffs. It’s not that Blaney doesn’t deserve to be in this elite round of eight, it’s just that few predicted the second-year Cup driver would make it this deep into the playoffs.

Blaney is going to need another huge run today to remain in contention for one of the four spots in the championship race. A victory in any of the next three races earns an automatic berth into the finale, and fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski has already said his team believes it must win Martinsville to advance.

So Blaney, who ranks seventh ahead of Chase Elliott in the playoff standings, has his work cut out for him today. He’s never finished higher than 19th in three previous Cup starts at Martinsville.

“I look forward to … doing what we need to do to be good here,” Blaney said. “I feel like when we worry about ourselves, we’re our best, when we’re not paying attention to everybody else. When we can focus on the 21 car, that’s when everybody is at their best.”