WOODS’ SEASON ENDS EARLY, WITHDRAWS FROM TOYOTA ALL-STAR SHOWDOWN

Source: Gene Woods Racing
Date: 11/01/2004

Motorsports is full of highs and lows, just ask any competitor from the Saturday night short tracks to the Nextel Cup circuit. One week you can be at the very top of the heap, the next week you can be at the very bottom and a season of such highs and lows can take its toll. This is a lesson that Gene Woods has learned over the decades he has raced and this season racing the Monster Energy Drinks / Circle K Food Stores Dodge Intrepid on the NASCAR Grand National Western Division has been a prime example as the bottom fell out of an otherwise good season with several races to go forcing Gene and his team to pull out of the season ending Toyota Showdown at Irwindale Speedway.

For most of the season things went well for Gene Woods Racing, a team literally run out of Woods’ back yard in Bloomington, California. A season that began with little financial backing was aided by the addition of sponsorship from Monster Energy Drinks and Circle K Food Stores beginning at Fontana and with the additional dollars the team was able to build a new car and new engines and their performance improved and Gene seemed well on the way to his goal of a top ten points finish. Then came the fall Phoenix race.

A crash destroyed their new car and the team was forced to scramble to get their old car ready for Colorado. Another crash in qualifying there appeared to be the end of their season but help from other crews allowed them to get the car patched together and they scored a top ten finish and another good finish in Bakersfield put them back into the top ten in points going into the season finale at Irwindale. But Irwindale was a disaster as the old car and engine simply weren’t enough for Gene to be competitive and while he finished the race he was many laps behind at the end and ultimately lost his tenth place points finish. Although 11th was still good enough to qualify for the Toyota Showdown, with nothing new to bring out for the Showdown Gene decided it would be best for the team to skip the event to work on preparing for the 2005 season.

"We simply used up all of our equipment and budget for the season and with no new cars or engines left we need time to rebuild". Gene explained. "We did finish the season not too bad with 11th in the points. We wanted to be in the top ten again but going into the last two races we were just out of everything. But all in all I think we did very well considering out budget and if you know what other teams spend a season compared to us we did exceptionally well. It was simply not financially possible for us to compete in the Toyota Showdown this season even though we earned the spot. That was an accomplishment in itself just making it."

"I would like to personally thank the crew that worked so hard to do the things we did to keep us at the race track. I also want to thank Circle K, Monster Energy Drinks, Auto Trader, Dodge and all the people that helped us do what we got to do this season. We will regroup for next year and plan to build a couple of new cars and engines over the winter months and come back next season stronger than ever and give them our best season yet".

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