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Wood Brothers show their colors, allegiance to Virginia Tech

Wood Brothers Racing will pay tribute to its favorite university in a unique fashion.

The Ryan Blaney-driven Ford Fusion of the legendary NASCAR Sprint Cup team will carry a special Virginia Tech-themed paint scheme for this Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Bristol Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

With the Hokies’ football team surrounding it, the theme was unveiled Monday morning on VT’s practice field (see video above).

“Virginia Tech has been a big part of the Wood Brothers for a long, long time,” NASCAR Hall of Famer Leonard Wood said in a media release. “We’ve been friends with Coach [Bud] Foster and just met the new coach (Justin Fuente).

“I never dreamed when my daughter was going to Virginia Tech that we’d have a race car on the practice field here at Virginia Tech. It’s just awesome. That ‘VT’ on the hood just jumps out at you and I love the color combination. It’s one of my favorites.”

Leonard and brother Glen Wood founded Wood Brothers Racing in 1950. It is the oldest active race organization in NASCAR.

The paint scheme features a primary color of maroon, with orange and white accent stripes. Blaney’s firesuit and shirts to be worn by the team will have a complementary look promoting VT.

The scheme is promoting the upcoming game between VT and Tennessee in Bristol Motor Speedway’s infield on Sept. 10 – which is on target to set a new college football single game attendance record – as well as the school’s academic and athletic programs as part of its “This Is Home” marketing campaign.

The Wood family has strong ties to Virginia Tech: eight members have attended school there.

“We’ve got a long of family ties with this and we felt like the deal with our race at Bristol and then the Battle at Bristol coming up that it was kind of important to do this,” Len Wood said. “We teamed up and here we are.”

The same paint scheme will grace the No. 21 at the Chase for the Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 30.

Follow @JerryBonkowski