In the past few days, Wood Brothers Racing has earned a lot of spotlight. First, they parted ways with their driver, Josh Berry, for the 2027 campaign. And now, they are in the news once again for poaching Jesse Love from Richard Childress and their NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts campaign. But behind these surprising decisions lies the invisible hand of one of the biggest teams. He is playing all the cards.

While speaking with SiriusXM Radio, President Jon Wood of Wood Brothers Racing revealed that Roger Penske has been influencing the team’s decisions for quite some time.

“It’s no secret that Roger Penske has some influence,” he said. “We’d be lying if we said that he didn’t, but it’s for a reason you wouldn’t think. Their sponsors and some of their partners account for upwards of two-thirds of our season.

“So of course they are going to have some say in what driver that we have. Being able to make these decisions, and again, the voice that Roger Penske has would be because they help us with not only the technical side of our racing but also their partners fund a lot of our races. So, we got to keep everybody happy.”

Wood Brothers Racing is not a team that can sustain itself as a standalone factory team. It needs to rely on bigger teams and siphon off their sponsors in order to keep racing in the Cup Series.

The top-most NASCAR series is already an expensive series to field cars in, and naturally smaller teams like Wood Brothers Racing end up allying with bigger teams to continue their operations. However, this alliance does not come for free.

When a bigger team is helping the smaller team, the former tries to influence the decisions within the smaller team. It depends on the amount of help the small team receives. In Wood Brothers Racing’s case, it seems that they have evolved into a sister team of Team Penske.

But this is the situation that Denny Hamlin wanted to avoid with 23XI Racing. Initially, he started his team with a technical alliance that involved Joe Gibbs Racing. They would also borrow the pit crew from JGR during multiple events.

However, Hamlin ensured that his team progressed rapidly and was able to claw out of JGR’s shadow. They were soon able to become an independent who didn’t need the technical alliance. And today, 23XI Racing has no issues existing and going up against JGR on multiple occasions.

Regardless, while Wood Brothers Racing earned all the spotlight with the latest Cup signing, what about the other team that lost its driver?

Richard Childress Racing responds to losing Jesse Love

In its latest statement, Richard Childress Racing announced: “Richard Childress Racing is appreciative of Jesse Love’s contributions during his three seasons with our organization and wishes him nothing but success in the future.

“Jesse is a talented racer, and we are proud to have played a role in his development into a NASCAR champion. All parties remained aligned and committed to defending the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship in 2026.”

Jesse Love is their 2025 champion in the NOAPS and is well on his way to claim a second title, sitting in P2 in the driver standings currently. But his poaching does beg the question. Was all of this avoidable?

In this case, Love was not allowed the opportunity to drive the No. 33 car in the Cup Series full-time. The idea of Austin Hill being chosen over him might have acted as a catalyst that made him think twice about where his loyalties lay.

Jesse Love ultimately shares the same fate in the Cup Series no matter which team he joins. Richard Childress Racing would’ve been a better option compared to Wood Brothers Racing, no matter how slow RCR cars are currently. But with Austin Hill being the preference, it might’ve taken Love some years before he could earn himself a shot at some full-time Cup action.