Rutledge Wood dishes on the 2017 NASCAR season with FanSided and discusses his new car restoration project in partnership with eBay Motors.
Rutledge Wood is one of the most beloved personalities in the NASCAR world, and he’s also one of the world’s biggest gearheads. In addition to his work covering NASCAR for NBC Sports, Rutledge has teamed with eBay Motors to restore a 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback and take it on the road to car fans across the country.
Between races he spoke to FanSided to give us his thoughts about the 2017 NASCAR season and bring us inside his latest restoration project.
Who does Rutledge have his eye on in what’s left of the NASCAR season? “I think Kyle Larson is going to win some more,” he said, referring to the winner of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan.
“I get the weirdest feeling Jimmie Johnson is going to get [championship] number eight this year,” he added, “which is going to be a total game changer, because no one’s ever done that before. Hand to heart, I wish that Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the championship going out, because I think that would be so cool.”
With Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s retirement still being one of the buzziest stories in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, does the paddock feel different to someone like Rutledge Wood, who’s been as much a part of the community as anyone?
“The past three years, we’ve had Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and now Dale Jr. retire,” he told us, “and what’s funny, they’re not all just huge racers, they’re also huge car guys.
“They all do so much charity work, they all do so much in the motor world so it’s kind of weird to see them move from one space to another. I think that’s the big thing that’s so interesting to me, is how that changes. We get to see Jeff Gordon in the booth for FOX [and] I think at some point, Dale Jr. will do some TV stuff.
“But also you see the transition of guys like Chase Elliott and Clint Bowyer,” Rutledge continued, giving his endorsement for who should be Junior’s successor. “I hope Alex Bowman gets the nod to take over the No. 88 car for Dale Jr. He helped so much last year.”
When he’s not covering NASCAR, Rutledge Wood is known for his love of restoring vehicles. He even had a series about that for History called Lost In Transmission. So when eBay Motors came to him about doing a restoration project for them, he was immediately game.
“The whole premise was let’s buy a car and everything we need to build it on eBay, and I sat there for about 20 seconds then said totally, because that’s how we’ve done a lot of stuff,” he said. “For either Top Gear or Lost In Transmission, we’ve always bought tons of goodies off eBay.
“So I started looking at my friends of who I thought would be fun to do this with and Mike Finnegan and K.C. Mathieu were some of the top guys I thought about. I thought about [his Top Gear co-hosts] Tanner [Foust] and Adam [Ferrara], but those guys being as busy as they are, I knew they couldn’t do it.
“But Casey and Mike, we put our ideas together and said let’s come up with something really fun and try to do an iconic car in a totally different way,” he added. “That’s where we came up with the ’67 Mustang Fastback.”
“Everyone in the world has some sort of Mustang story or a friend with a Mustang,” Rutledge continued. “I have a friend that totaled a Mustang leaving McDonald’s. He told his friend to hold the bag of McDonald’s and he revved it up and wrapped it around the tree about 30 feet outside the drive thru.
“That’s why we thought, you know what? Why don’t we take this one car that so many people know as either Bullitt or Eleanor and totally rethink it.”
“For us it’s all about trying to build a car just using eBay, making something totally different that people haven’t seen before. Mike coming from Roadkill and KC coming from Fast ‘n’ Loud, we’re these three friends that are coming from three totally different areas.
“Then there’s my friend Randy Allgood [from Kenwood Rod Shop]. Randy is the glue to everything I do automotive now and I’m so glad that I met him. Whether it’s power tour project or my wife’s blaine cruiser, whatever it is, Randy is my guru. He can take anything and build it, he can create it, he can find the guys to make it happen.
“It’s been a really fun project so far,” he concluded. “I’m just excited people are going to get a chance to see it. I’ve never done a project before where people could stop in at different points and check out the progress of it. I think that’s what makes this project really exciting.”
NASCAR fans can check out the Ford Mustang Fastback at several stops throughout the summer, with appearances by either Rutledge, Mike and/or KC to show off the progress of their restoration project.
KC Mathieu will be with the Mustang at the Goodguys PPG Nationals in Columbus, OH (July 7-9), while it will also appear at the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit (Aug. 18-19), Rutledge will be with it at the Goodguys West Coast Nationals in Pleasanton, CA (Aug. 25-27) and the final curtain call will be at this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas (Oct. 31-Nov. 3).
Between his NASCAR duties and working with eBay Motors, Rutledge Wood has racked up more than a million miles of air travel, and he’s not stopping any time soon. In fact, he would only be getting busier as he and his former Top Gear cohorts Tanner Foust and Adam Ferrara are still hoping to make a TV comeback of their own.
“There’s a lot of great things happening in that arena and we’re really thankful people keep talking about it, because people are paying attention,” he told us. “We will be putting out good stuff just as soon as we can.”
Next: Starting lineup for NASCAR from Michigan
Fans can follow Rutledge Wood’s restoration project at eBay Motors. For the latest NASCAR news, follow the NASCAR category at FanSided here.