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Wood Brothers Racing wins first quarter NMPA Pocono Spirit Award

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Parker Kligerman, Nate Ryan and Marty Snider discuss Brad Keselowski's Coca-Cola 600 win and potential new deals for him moving forward, as well as how Hendrick Motorsports can bounce back at Charlotte.

Wood Brothers Racing has won the first quarter National Motorsports Press Association Pocono Spirit Award for charitable work in helping seniors in and around its home base of Stuart, Virginia.

The organization spearheaded a campaign to provide COVID-19 quarantined seniors in nursing homes and assisted living facilities -- including Landmark Center and the Blue Ridge Therapy Center in Stuart, and 10 other facilities in the region -- with electronic tablets to allow residents to communicate with family members.

Starting with $1,500 in seed funding, Wood Brothers Racing began a crowdfunding effort that raised $33,000 from contributions of $10 or more. That funding paid for 220 tablets for residents in those 12 facilities. More than 1,100 individuals contributed to the fundraising effort.

“We were shocked at the response we got,” Wood Brothers Racing senior vice president Jon Wood said in a statement. “I think everyone has some connection with a senior and many of those are in facilities that are affected.

“What we didn’t anticipate was the huge number of people wanting to contribute, and it just shows that we aren’t all that divided in a time of crisis.

“It was extremely gratifying to hear the stories since, how this helped ease some of the anxiety and stress from both the residents and the families. These people did nothing wrong. They managed to do something right in fact, that being to live to an age where they needed help, and so it seemed unfair for them to be cut off from the very people that give them comfort.

“Unfair because they were being protected from something many of them didn’t understand or weren’t able to fully grasp and the way they were going about being protected only added to their fears and frustrations. This just helped alleviate some of that, so in every way I can think of, it was a total success.”

Others receiving votes were:

* The Joey Logano Foundation, which teamed with Bobbee O’s BBQ and Elevation Church to provide free meals to children under 18 years old over a two-week period.

* Steve Myers, executive vice president and executive producer of iRacing, for spearheading an effort to bring virtual racing competition to a national audience during the pandemic.

* General Motors, which ramped up its assembly lines to produce personal protective gear for front-line workers and ventilators for patients in critical need during the pandemic.

The Pocono Spirit Award is voted upon by NMPA membership.

Follow @JerryBonkowski