On the chilly Saturday afternoon in Martinsville, VA., the no. 21 Barnhill Group Ford F-150, driven by Jon Wood, took the green flag for the Kroger 250 in 34th position.

At the start of the race, Wood was confident that he had the tools, crew and the race truck to get him up through the field to the front. By Lap 40 Wood had raced his way to the 22nd position when the first caution of the afternoon came out.  Crew Chief John Monsam made the call to make slight track bar adjustments to help the race truck turn better in the center of the corners.

Another caution flag flew on lap 48 as Wood and Monsam discussed how it would be better not to pit since they climbed to the 19th position. By lap 74, the 21 advanced to the 10th position. Another caution came out on lap 84 when Monsam requested to pit for two tires and fuel. Unfortunately, NASCAR called the #21 Barnhill Ford back to the pits for a "pass through" penalty for speeding on pit road. Wood drove the race truck back in, changed the other two tires and added more fuel. He restarted the race in 30th position on lap 91 and was still scored on the lead lap.

By lap 100, Wood gained five positions to 25th. Wood commented, "if there's something positive that came out of speeding on pit road, it was the timing of it. I feel that I can get the truck back up into the top 10."  And he did just that - by lap 132, he was in eighth position.

However, the caution filled race was not as accommodating when Jon wheeled up the track and collided with the no. 47 truck driven by Timothy Peters. It spun the no.21 causing slight rear end damage and the need for new tires.

With 83 laps left in the race, Wood knew he had his work cut out for him to get the race truck back up to the front, but there was still enough time to do this based on his progress throughout the day.  He moved up to the 23rd position when NASCAR called the #21 Barnhill Ford F-150 back in to repair a dangling piece of the rear bumper on lap 179. He returned to the track in 29th position. 

Once again, the caution flew and Jon had worked the truck up to the 17th position when NASCAR noticed a piece of the bumper bar hanging from the rear of the truck. They requested the #21 truck to come in to repair that damage on lap 230.

Unfortunately, when Jon finally got the message to pit, NASCAR was ready to restart the race. This caused the Wood Brothers race truck to go one lap down as he came in to repair the damage and the rest of the field took the green flag.  He returned to the track in 30th position. As the laps wound down, he was able to work the truck up to the 28th position when he took the checkered flag on lap 250.

The team left Martinsville knowing they and a strong race truck that could take them into the top 10 if they just had some luck behind them.  They will have three weeks off to prepare for their next race at Kansas Speedway for the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 on Saturday April 26, 2008.