BRISTOL, Tenn. — I’m sitting high above the turn-three grandstand at Bristol Motor Speedway, watching it rain and seeing a rather sad sight.

When the official announcement came late Friday afternoon that qualifying for the Food City 500 had been canceled, it left the Wood Brothers once again going home. As I sit, the No. 21 hauler sits on the frontstretch as the team loads the cars, toolbox and other equipment for what will be a lonely trip back to North Carolina.

It will be the fourth time in five races the Woods (and Chattanooga-based sponsor Little Debbie) have not started a race in a series they were once so big a part of. Misty-eyed co-owner Eddie Wood had waited until the final moment before packing it in Friday.

Wood and the team had, after talking to driver Bill Elliott, elected to put Jeff Green in the car this weekend. While Green has a good record at Bristol, without Elliott the team had no fallback. As it turned out, if Elliott had been the listed driver, the team would have made the race since both Kurt Busch and Dale Jarrett qualified for the race due to their points standings. Elliott would have been given the past champion’s provisional.

“Jeff Green has a good record here, and we thought putting him in the car would give us our best shot at qualifying on speed,” Wood said. “What he showed in practice today showed we made a good decision. Unfortunately, when I saw the weather forecast, I figured this was going to happen. I guess the most appropriate thing to say right now is that when it rains, it pours.”

It says a lot that, on the eve of his final points race, retiring champion Dale Jarrett was thinking about the Wood Brothers in his Friday news conference.

“None of us can feel the hurt they’re feeling right now, but those of us who have been fortunate enough to get close to that family is feeling a lot of hurt right now,” said Jarrett, a Wood Brothers driver in 1990 and ’91. “You would like to think that a family that put as much into this sport as that one has would have a spot in this sport. It’s a tough day for them.”

Sunday’s race will go on, with nearly 200,000 fans filling the seats — fans the Wood Brothers help bring to NASCAR. Sad indeed.

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