Sunday’s surprise win of the Daytona 500 by the legendary Wood Brothers racing team with 20-year-old Trevor Bayne at the wheel was bittersweet. Once based in Stuart, the team now runs most of its operations out of the Charlotte area — like most other NASCAR teams — but maintains some “administrative” operations and a museum in Patrick County.

There was a time when the Woods dominated NASCAR. Their pit crew was so good that Colin Chapman picked them to work Jimmy Clark’s car when the British Formula One driver won the Indy 500.

But the Woods, like too many other oldtime teams, have fallen on hard times and they continue now with help from Ford and Jack Roush. The win was their first in the series in 10 years and last won the Daytona race in 1976. Wood, at least, has survived. Too many other teams once based in Virginia — like Morgan-McClure’s team in Abington — have long disappeared.