As Jon Wood was growing up in one of stock car racing’s first families, his father, Eddie, kept making him the same promise.

“Growing up and going through high school, there were a lot of things I gave up during that time,” the 24-year-old Busch Series driver said. “He’d say ‘This will all be worth it one day, I promise.'”

Eddie Wood will be there Saturday when his son races at Kentucky Speedway.

For the past four years, Jon Wood said, his father has done what he’s had to do to be there for his races despite having to help watch out for the Wood Bros.’ Nextel Cup team.

“There’s no way I could have got even close to where I am right now without his help,” Jon Wood said of his father. “His knowledge of the sport and his leadership capabilities enabled me to make the right decisions. … It has all played a huge role in getting me to the Busch level right now.”

On Sunday – Father’s Day – Ken Schrader will drive the Wood Bros.’ No. 21 Ford in the 3M 500 at Michigan International Speedway. Schrader will be the 1,252nd entry the team has fielded in the Nextel Cup Series.

Glen Wood himself entered one race in the 1955 season. In every year since, the family-owned team has entered a car in at least one race in what is now the Cup series.

The Wood Bros. team, which fields the No. 21 car, has won 11 races at Michigan International Speedway.

Glen will not be in Michigan this weekend. He’s home in Stuart, Va., recovering from a recent hip surgery. His brother, Leonard, however, will be at the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway along with Glen’s two sons, Eddie and Len, who now pilot the team’s operations.

Michigan is just one of the tracks where the Wood Bros.’ Fords once ruled. Starting with the first race there in 1969, the team won 10 of the first 18 races and finished in the top every single time.

Dale Jarrett’s win there in 1991 was the team’s 11th Michigan win. Among the team’s 97 Cup victories all time, they have more only at Daytona, with 14, and Atlanta, with 12.

“I just kind of grew up and it started off as a little bitty thing, you know, working after school and stuff like that,” Eddie Wood said of how he followed his father into the family business. “Then all of a sudden, you’re 40 and that’s what you’re doing, and then you’re 50 and you’re still doing it.

“It’s the way of life. …When I was a kid, I can remember I used to go race at Atlanta and leave on Monday, practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday change motors, and later on it got to where it was Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Now it’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and it works pretty well, but you didn’t run as many races.”

The Wood Bros. have moved their team’s headquarters from Virginia to the Charlotte, N.C., area as they try to keep up with the fast-paced growth of the sport. But with Glen recuperating, they’ve been trying to get back home as much as they can, too.

“We try to be in Stuart almost once a week since he’s had the hip surgery,” Len Wood said. “One of us was there to take him to the hospital and the next one was there to take him home, trying to be there if he needed us and, of course, he’s, ‘Go on do your business, keep the shop going,’ but we tried to be there.

“I think he’s getting around much better now and hopefully he’ll be able to come to Charlotte and see us.”