2019 Musket 250

New Hampshire Motor Speedway saw the Musket 250 for the Modified Tour and the result was the most competitive race (37 official lead changes) in the history of the Modified Tour.

The 2018 Musket 250 Finish

NASCAR's Modified Tour raced 250 laps at New Hampshire in mid-September 2018 and the lead changed 30 times; the finish exploded, bringing back some memory of Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough as Chase Dowling, thwarted at NHMS in July, stormed to a spectacular win.

At Loudon Bell And Santos Strike While Hebert Stews

New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosts a bittersweet weekend in September 2017.   Twenty years ago the track received a second Winston Cup weekend; now that weekend will run one last time before going to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.   For September 2018 NASCAR's Modified Tour will headline a 250-lap affair, easily the longest Mod Tour race in memory.

For 2017 the Mods were part of a three-way Saturday affair that opened with the Truck Series.   Christopher Bell dominated after some dicing with teammate Noah Gragson and Ryan Truex, and his career arc keeps growing the more he wins.


The most anticipated race was the FW Webb 100 for the Modifieds.   This race took on greater bittersweetness as its unofficial name became the Ted Christopher Memorial.   Christopher became the most controversial racer in New England annals - one incident among many tells the story - in 1998 at Stafford Motor Speedway he spun out rival Chris Jones; with previous encounters leading up to this Jones raced all the way around and plowed over Chrostopher's nose while under caution - and perhaps the most accomplished, winning over 100 SK Modified races at Stafford Motor Speedway alone to go with ten wins in NASCAR's Busch North series and 42 in the Modified Tour.    Wherever he raced in New England, people felt his impact, and controversy would follow him - not least with the criminal dealings of his longtime former team owner Jimmy Galante. 

For 2017's FW Webb 100 the racing centered on Doug Coby and Patrick Emerling, but in the final thirty laps a restart led to a massive fight for the lead among some eight drivers, including the largely-unnoticed Bobby Santos.   Santos stormed into the lead but another late yellow appeared to doom him.   He got away on the restart in the final five laps, then his pursuers made a colossal mistake - fighting each other instead of pushing past Santos, and thus leaving him long gone to he win.  


And yet the Mod Tour 100 wasn't even the big story of the day.   That went to the American-Canadian Tour's regular 50-lapper to close out Saturday's affair.   ACT does not count caution laps for its New Hampshire races and reverts to last completed lap when yellows fly - and both rules blew up in ACT's face as crashes galore required four restarts to complete one lap, and then there were two red flags - one when the leaders plowed into the sand barrels abutting the pit wall off Four - to where it took two hours to complete eighteen laps.

The worst part was the fight for the lead was excellent throughout - ACT's cars run bias-ply tires and are the kind of long-snout lean raked roofline aerocoupe bodies NASCAR once ran and really should be running again - and the one burned when the race was ended short of halfway was ACT regular Jimmy Hebert, a Williamstown, VT native, 26 years of age, who won twice in ACT in 2013 and has thirteen additional top-fives and twenty-one additional top-tens in sixty career ACT starts.   He battled budding New England racing legend Woody Pitkat and before the race was stopped he fell behind Pitkat in Turn One by two lengths then threw the car four lengths deeper through Two into the lead - and the pass was nullified by another yellow.  

Pitkat certainly drove a superb race, and this was one of those times where the fact someone had to lose was nothing to be proud of.    The crowd was angry over the entire caution fiasco, and this affair requires ACT to reconsider two monumentally flawed rule approaches for its New Hampshire races.


Bittersweet thus never tasted so bitter - or sweet.

Remembering Ted Christopher

The shocking death of New England racing legend Ted Christopher brings to mind that he exploded through New England racing as seemingly no one else has.   This 2007 SK 100-lapper at Stafford Speedway illustrates the controversy that surrounded Christopher to go with his enormous talent and success.

Truex, Larson, And New Hampshire Make Their Case

New Hampshire Motor Speedway faces a bittersweet season with its second Winston Cup weekend going to Vegas in 2018, so for right now it is making a case for itself, and the track's July Cup weekend proved rather astounding.  

The most competitive racing at New Hampshire is the Modified Tour and 2017's Eastern Propane 100 proved rougher than most; the early duel between New England racing hero Ryan Preece - he of the aborted Busch Series effort a year-plus back but now a signee for Joe Gibbs Racing - and Winston Cup star Ryan Newman rapidly swelled into a multicar shootout that exploded some twenty laps in into a multicar melee down the frontstretch; the most notable victims were Ronnie Silk (who'd stormed into the top five unnoticed amid the expanding battle for the lead) and Tim Solomito.   The 100 became a Preece-Newman duel, until in the final twenty-five laps Doug Coby and Bobby Santos ran them down and the fight for the lead heated up and rapidly escalated - until with three to go Newman went Ernie Irvan on the leaders with a stupid attempt at passing up the middle in Four; it naturally ended poorly for Newman, while Santos shot the gap on the GWC finish for the win.

The Busch series - no, that isn't a typo - then rolled off and after a thirty-plus minute rain delay the early showdown between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch took a back seat the last ten laps of Segment One to an eye-popping fight for the lead between Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler, a nose-to-nose showdown that lasted some six laps before Kyle Larson seized the segment; it was easily the most exciting Busch/Xfinity series competition at New Hampshire since the early 1990s.  

The two stories of this race had little to do with Kyle Busch - the first was Keselowski was clearly the strongest car, but his victory bid was killed by a penalty on his green-flag stop in the final laps, which put Busch into an insurmountable lead.

 

The second story was - again - Ryan Preece, given up for dead as far as a major-league NASCAR career went after his season with the #01 went nowhere; JGR then signed him for a part-time outing for the time being; driving the JGR #20 in the Overtons 200, Preece turned heads with a solid effort and a superb finish.  

Entering the Cup Overtons 301 one of the big stories was the return of Aric Almirola - months ahead of what a lot of people thought would be the timetable.   But with his return a sad side story is the future of Darrell Wallace Jr., who proved himself commendably in Petty's #43 in his four-race quasi-audition.   One hopes the rumored Petty merger that opens a #44 second car happens so Wallace, who clearly fits well in the Petty organization, returns.   As for Almirola's return to Cup competition it was a miserable day, struggling just to hold onto what he had (he raced people pretty hard, but it never gained him anything) and ultimately finishing 24th - curiously similar a poor start to this run of races as with Darrell Wallace at Pocono in June, albeit without the garish pit road mistake.


The big picture takeaways from New Hampshire -

Though neither won (that went to Denny Hamlin), by now the Cup title fight is a two-car showdown involving Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson, who raced to the front from dead last at the start and erased a big gap to Hamlin in the final dozen or more laps; though Jimmie Johnson is second in the "Chase" lineup with three wins to Truex's three and Larson's two, Johnson and the Hendrick organization do not look like they can consistently contend with Larson or Truex.  

(A hilarious illustration of the absurdity of the Chase format - Johnson is second in the Chase at present yet is only ninth in overall points - with still-winless Kyle Busch third.


Toyota appears now to be gathering some overall momentum, as they cleaned house at New Hampshire - Toyotas led 290 laps to Chevrolet leading eleven and zero for Fords.    It was a striking shutout for Ford, leading with eight wins to Chevrolet's seven; Toyota's four to date merely showcases the brand's sluggish overall start.   Illustrating Ford's curious struggle was the mediocre day for Penske Racing between Brad Keselowski's less-than-inspiring effort and trouble for Joey Logano that cost him a garage trip. 

(A report worth keeping an eye on is that a suspension part from Logano was confiscated while he was in the garage during the race)


SMI's use of VHT resin - Next Generation Bear Grease as I call it - continues to win over people, as New Hampshire showed the usual exciting Modified racing as well as Saturday's eye-popping Overtons 200; for the Overtons 301 some of the racing was spirited, following the halfway point the battle for the lead began to get going and at one point the lead changed twice in one lap between Hamlin and Truex.   Clearly SMI has hit on a genuinely good idea for the racing.


The bitter upshot to the loss of New Hampshire's September Cup weekend after this season is that race secured ISM Connect sponsorship, and the prominence of the company's presence around the track makes nonsense of the idea that the track had to lose a Cup date so Vegas could get a second one.


Speaking of upshots, one couldn't help but detect schadenfreude in the air when Kyle Busch got a pit penalty before the Ryan Newman spin.   JGR's surprising shutout from victories is now over, the story will now focus on whether Kyle Busch can win one.  


So it goes as NASCAR hits the Bricks next week, and Xfinity's race will bear extra attention.

NASCAR Entering New Hampshire

NASCAR enters New Hampshire Motor Speedway following Kentucky's weekend - and it's a bittersweet beginning to Loudon's Cup series with the September weekend going to Las Vegas in 2018.   Some thoughts on NASCAR entering New Hampshire...........

Brad Keselowski came out against the design of the modern Winston Cup car after this crash at Kentucky. "You have to put yourself in bad situations," Keselowski noted.   NASCAR's Steve O'Donnell responded that "Keselowski had influence on this rules package."

Of course by now it's anything but a recent issue, and the back and forth between Keselowski and O'Donnell illustrates the sport-wide myopia (and hypocrisy) that has seemingly forever permeated the raceability of the cars.   O'Donnell noted a redesign of the car is years away, which may be true yet also illustrates how racing keeps putting off actually confronting its problems in a proper way.   The reality is racing seemingly hasn't gotten it - the Winston Cup car should never have been a top-heavy sedan body with low downforce.   Low downforce has never worked.   The Cup car needs to be a long-snout lean raked roofline aerocoupe body with a conventional airdam (a change all but confirmed by O'Donnell in recent media), squared off bumpers to allow push-drafting, a larger rear spoiler made of clear-vu so drivers can see through the lead car's windshield, and now drag ducts as will debut with the Xfinity cars at Indianapolis in a few weeks to blast open air and channel out a drafting effect.   The side skirts and sharkfin have become controversial in recent years as well and would seem to have worn out their welcome as well.

But the issue has always gone beyond just aerodynamics.   The myth is always pushed for more horsepower, yet nowhere has any example come up where adding horsepower increased passing in any way; it would seem the opposite is needed - a major restriction in horsepower (with Xfinity at Indianapolis again about to showcase this come late-July 2017), while the issue of the tire has gone un-analyzed.   It should be painfully clear after some twenty-eight seasons that radial tires simply are not good for racing - too unforgiving to drivers, far too difficult to set up for; as observer Randy Cadenhead has noted, NASCAR nowadays sees seemingly endless redesign of tracks and application of substances (reminiscent of the 1970s-80s era of "bear grease" sealant, which filled in asphalt cracks; drivers long claimed it made the tracks slicker, yet it also seemed to make them more pass-happy) for low-line grip, all in effort to increase passing.

Whether a car redesign is indeed years out - and there's no particular reason to doubt that - one hopes NASCAR does figure out with an eventual redesign that the "old" school of  downforce long lean aerocoupes works better than the top-heavy low-downforce sedan concept.


*****

Darrell Wallace has yet to win outside of the Truck Series - here are his wins there to date

One of the wildest moments of Kentucky was the last-lap crash when Darrell Wallace Jr. in Richard Petty's #43 swerved into Matt Kenseth.   The Winston Cup rookie may have driven his last race for Petty's team with Aric Almirola surprisingly recovered much faster than a lot of people expected.

Bubba, as is his nickname, showed something in Petty's #43, and the rumor has circulated the last month or two that Petty will pull off some kind of merger deal where he will be able to field a #44 again - a big IF, of course, given the still-shaky economics of the sport, especially with Barney Visser after his big win with Truex at Kentucky admitting he may not be able to field the #77 of Erik Jones next year - Jones is slated to replace Matt Kenseth in JGR's #20; Kenseth's 2018 fate is as yet unknown.   Should it happen, Wallace seems likely to pair up with Almirola; it's certainly clear in his four races with Petty that Wallace can race, and even has a nasty streak.


*****


O'Donnell has also stated NASCAR is "aggressively pursuing" at least one other manufacturer - with the rumored return of Dodge high on the presumptive list.   One, though, shouldn't be enough, for motorsports power Honda would seem a natural NASCAR fit along with Dodge; adding two would certainly help with some of the sport's economic problems, though getting control of overspending remains the top priority as far as the sport's economics goes.  

Should two more manufacturers come to NASCAR, they need to make all the teams they back work together, as Pontiacs began doing in 1994, as RCR, DEI, and Andy Petree's teams did in the late 1990s, and as Dodge's Truck teams did 1996-2000 under Lou Patane.   Heavy inter-team cooperation has long proven competitively beneficial. 

And speaking of aggressively pursuing more manufacturers, one recalls the rather prominent Firestone signage in Pocono's Tunnel Turn back in June - a case of passive-aggressive pursuit?


It all leaves the mind engaged as New Hampshire beckons.

Shawn Solomito Sizzles While Coby Cruises At Stafford

Stafford Speedway's Spring Sizzler showcased again that sometimes in racing it is all about one guy.   Not that it started that way.   The track is celebrating the 35th season of its SK-class Modifieds, a class founded in 1982 amid considerable controversy but which has long been the track's most competitive class.   That showed again in 2016's Sizzler - the lead changed hands on all three of the opening laps as Cam McDermott, a newcomer to Stafford, led from the pole and battled Beian Sullivan and Jeremy Sorel, but following a Mike Christopher Jr. spin (Mike Jr. is the namesake son of Terrible Ted's twin) Todd Owen - driving car #81, TO #81 an irony lost on everyone - stormed to first.

Eric Berndt clawed into contention but it was Rowan Pennick's #99 that grabbed first amid a series of spins that eventually claimed Berndt and Owen, while Woody Pitkat challenged late but couldn't seize the win, setting for second with Sorel third and Teddy Christopher, still the winningest driver in SK history, in fifth.

The Late Model feature was calmer, but not by all that much, as early leader Tom Fearn got swerved in Turn Four by Michael Bennett around halfway; Fearn rallied from deep in the field to finish fourth, futilely chasing Bennett and Michael Wray as they finished 1-2 and Jim Mavlouganes quietly grabbed third.


Once the Mod Tour 200-lapper got going it became an exercise in trying to keep up with Doug Coby.   It proved an exercise in frustration and no one could.   Coby checked out on virtually every green flag run.   In contrast, Jimmy Blewitt in Bob Garbarino's #4 started alongside Coby on the front row, fell back in the back, then wrecked.   "It was just starting to come around," Blewitt said of his handling before the wreck.   It nonetheless marked his second dismal outing in the Garbarino #4, though a brand new racecar beckons for the Garbarino team down the road in the early part of the season.

Coby's only challenge came on the restart following Blewitt's mishap.   Ted Christopher led the pack but was dusted off a lap later by Coby and that ended the competitive phase of the race.   Teddy's day went from bad to worse as he gagged, fell to 14th, and eventually got lapped. 

In the end Doug Coby checked out.   Todd Szegedy and Rowan Pennick salvaged podium finishes, but the unsung story of the race was Shawn Solomito, driving Wayne Anderson's car, a former Modified champ at Riverhead, NY.   "For this (#75) team it was a great day," Shawn said afterward.   "It was a team effort.   We ran in the top five with the good guys, and we're on the Tour for our second year."  

Shawn's #75 came home with little to no damage - in contrast to Tim Solomito's #16 that sported a mammoth crease in the left-side quarter of the back

It wasn't much to write home about for George Brunnhoelzl III, driving the #28.   A standout on the Southern Mod Tour, George III has won 27 times there, won the tour title last season, and has won twice already in 2016.   Today at Stafford it started decently as he started third and ran in the top five but by Lap 163 he was a lap down, ultimately finishing 17th.  


So it went for the 2016 Sizzler.  

Solomito Steals Preece's Thompson Thunder

Thompson Speedway kicked off the Icebreaker of 2016, and it put the Ice in Icebreaker given the usual chilly mid-April temperatures that greeted the capacity crowd as well as the multiple features hitting the 5/8th miler.    In the larger sports world that Sunday the 1992 Houston Oiler-esque collapse of Jordan Speith stole all the headlines; at Thompson there wasn't a collapse, but the NASCAR Modified Tour did see an upset of a win.

Entering Sunday's plethora of features the favorite was Ryan Preece.  Driving both the #6 Mod Tour car as well as an SK-class Modified, Preece flew from a disappointing Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway in Johnny Davis' #01 racecar for the Icebreaker.   But a harbinger of the outcome of the 150-lapper for the Tour came in the SK-class feature as Preece had to pit after two early yellows and was never really a factor for the win.   The SK race shook into a showdown between Keith Rocco and Ted Christopher.  A Rowan Pennick spin set up a green-white-checker finish and Christopher got a huge run on the white flag but couldn't finish off the pass, even when a seven-car scramble set up another green-white-checker finish; Christopher's second shot wasn't enough to stop Keith Rocco.

What did become enough to stop Keith Rocco later on was his twin brother Jeff in the Late Model race.   The two basically monopolized the race until near halfway they were side by side and Jeff lost it in Three and they both wrecked hard, the kind of air-off-the-spoiler-flavored wreck we thought we'd last seen in the 1990s at the Cup and Busch/Xfinity level.    The same fate bit Rick Gentes and it all left William Wall with the win, his first in the Late Models at Thompson.

Amid that, the Pro All Star Series stockers went through a rough and competitive outing won by Garrett Hall.   Meanwhile Ryan Preece prepped for the Mod Tour 150.  Driving the #6, Preece seized the lead from polesitter Doug Coby and for 80 laps was unbeatable, putting seventeen of the field of 27 a lap down or more.   Jimmy Blewitt's spin set up pitstops and Justin Bonsignore got out first.  

On the Lap 92 restart Bonsignore got a huge jump and Timmy Solomito,  in the Flamingo #16, grabbed second; he then seized the lead and withstood a hard counterattack from Bonsignore on Lap 93.  Preece got to second following Jimmy Blewitt's second spin of the day, and at Lap 109 he wernt after the lead; Preece and Solomito raced for a lap before Preece cleared into first and it appeared the race was over - but on Lap 116 Solomito ran down Preece and retook the lead.   Bonsignore grabbed second on Lap 121 but Preece fought back and retook the spot, then closed on Solomito by Lap 130.

The challenge, though, would not develop, as Solomito edged away and by Lap 140 was over a second ahead, and kept inching away to the win, denying Preece the expected triumph.

It also gave Solomito a first - his first Mod Tour win.   "I feel like I'm dreaming," he summarized of his breakthrough win, while Preece was left summarizing that "my car didn't have the drive it had before" of his second-half effort.

Others likewise were left a little mystified by the changing track condition.   ""It was just a good top five,: said Doug Coby afterward.  "It's all you can hope for.   I thought, 'all right, I'll fish around (for another line).'"

Jimmy Blewitt, making his debut in Bob Garbarino's famed Mystic Missile #4, struggled even when his car wasn't going around.   "At first I was stuck tight," he said.  "I got free but it was still tight, like a four-wheel drift."

Bonsignore summarized that "The 16 was the class of the field."  Like others his #51 "was too tight." 

Playing it tight thus proved the order of the day in a 150-lapper where a first-timer stole the thunder of one of the Tour's stronger stars.

Todd Szegedy Pulls A Tim Richmond Move

2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the debut of New Hampshire International Speedway. The Magic Mile debuted in July 1990 and it has raced varied NASCAR stock car classes as well as Indycars since. The class that seems to breed the most enthusiasm is the NASCAR Modified Tour, as the track's most exciting races have invariably been from the Mod Tour.


2015's first Mod Tour slugfest at New Hampshire was the Andy Blacksmith 100, named in honor of WGIR FM 101.1 radio personality Andy Blacksmith, who had passed away recently.   Held on an overcast and somewhat muggy day, The Andy Blacksmith 100 lived up to the Manchester, NH station's motto as The Rock Station, and also lived up to the station's status as an affiliate of NASCAR's radio networks, MRN Radio and PRN.

In short, it rocked.

The early battle was dominated by Doug Coby in the Mike Smeriglio #2 and the Bob Katon Jr. #13 of Ted Christopher, who combined to lead 26 of the first 50 laps, but as the first half went on Woody Pitkat in the #88 Buzz Chew car, #6 Ryan Preece in the Ed Partridge car, and Donny Lia's #8 Mark Sypher car took over, and both escaped a huge wreck on the second-half restart, though Pitkat's escape was razor-thin; he spun when the leaders on the outside line gagged and stacked up the outside line.

Under the ensuing red flag, it got notice who the new leader was - Todd Szegedy, driving the Garbarino #4 Dodge.    Szegedy hadn't won on the Mod Tour since the  FW Webb 100 at Loudon in 2013 and had driven only a partial schedule in 2014.   He's made all the races so far this season, and he was running a "spec" motor that team owner Bob Garbarino had complained about because it's not something built by an independent outfit like Ron Hutter.  

The politicking of racing can be its most annoying problem, and the irony of the situation became that the last 50 laps of the 100 became a tense shootout in which Szegedy's #4 was drafting and push-drafting with Lia, Preece, and Ronnie Silk's #15 Rob Fuller car, and also making his way into the fight was the damaged Curb Motorsports #44 of Bobby Santos, involved in the halfway wreck. 

Szegedy drafted past Silk with ten to go, but a four-car crash in Three set up a three-lap showdown, and on the final lap Donny Lia, a former Garbarino driver, stormed to second then stormed nose-to-nose with Szegedy, and they hit the stripe abreast and Szegedy the winner by about a wheel.   It was strikingly reminiscent of the 2014 Sunoco finish where Santos took the lead, Ted Christopher crossed underneath in Four, then got sideways and lost second.   This 2015 finish wasn't quite as chaotic,  but it was a near-photo finish reminiscent of Tim Richmond hanging tough on the outside to take the win - the second time in three races New Hampshire's Modifieds have seen a finish worthy of comparison to the immortal Tim Richmond finish with Geoff Bodine and Ricky Rudd in 1986. 

The lead changed 29 times, a guaranteed high for the whole weekend for all the classes racing here, and yet another reminder of what happens when the draft becomes everything.

It was another great race in a season where Modifieds have put on unusually memorable battles at Stafford Speedway this year as well - notable is that Rowan Pennick has been cleaning house at Stafford this season but never got untracked and got into a late melee at Loudon, ending his day.  

With that the Mod Tour waits for the next round, and prove anew they're worth the wait.   This race likewise proved worth the wait for Todd Szegedy and Bob Garbarino.

Frustration At The Firecracker 400

Daytona racing has a history of enormous competition, but when it goes wrong it becomes incredibly maddening and at time scary. The 2015 Firecracker 400, coming a week after the amazing MAVTV 500 Indycar race at Fontana, showcased some of the same issues as Fontana but also other issues specific to NASCAR.

Observations from the ugliest Firecracker 400 in years -


* - The cars regularly broke 202 MPH, and once again nothing good can really come from 200 MPH, though Indycars are far safer at 200 than stockers.   The idea that Indycars somehow lose something when the power is restricted to 200 MPH or that NASCAR loses something with restriction to 190 is baffling, especially when in 2001 the entire sport openly acknowledged - Rusty Wallace gave it specific utterance at that time and has repeated it since - that 194 MPH is the cut-off point for keeping the cars on the ground.  

The complaint about restrictor plate racing will come up again, as usual ignoring vicious melees at non-plate tracks, such as the Watkins Glen series of melees including last year's Ryan Newman-Michael McDowell melee, bad crashes at Charlotte over the years, and so forth (Indycar has this same myopia about the lethality of crashes in its "plate" races as opposed to melees on its street circuits, crashes that usually out-do superspeedway wrecks as we saw with Dario Franchitti and more recently with RC Erenson in the Indy Lights race at Toronto).

Worth nothing for context is that this past Friday at Stafford Speedway, CT there was a huge crash in the SK Modified race that took out the leaders (notably Ryan Preece)  and there have been numerous such incidents in a Stafford season where the racing has been unusually competitive.

As relatively uncompetitive as this Firecracker was, it was still superior racing to most non-plate races, and as with the California Indy 500 at Fontana it showcased that the sport needs pack racing - albiet to a point.  The real issue for NASCAR is Brian France's ridiculous opposition to push-drafting - it stopped the blocking that has become more of a problem in racing of late, and it created more outright passing than anything else can; push-drafting would have opened up far more in the way of passing and thus opened up the competition level above what it was here, and this was even more true with the Firecracker 250 for the Xfinity Series, where uncompetitive racing and resultant frustration led to melees that left the finishers all with weak racecars.   

80 lead changes, seen at Fontana, is a lot better than the 22 seen in this Firecracker.




* - The real cause of the Dillon crash was Kevin Harvick, and he's done this before, notably last year's above-mentioned Newman-McDowell crash at the Glen.   Harvick has led over 1,200 laps but hasn't cashed in that much on winning.


* - The Hendrick cars have the season pretty much to themselves.   There is no non-Hendrick challenge anywhere outside of Stewart-Haas Racing, and the only challenger there is Harvick.  Kurt Busch has surged since coming back so he can still offer some challenge.   Outside of him, the rest of the field is racing for fifth at best - only seven of seventeen races have been won by someone other than a Hendrick or Harvick/Kurt Busch Chevrolet.

The upshot of the Austin Dillon crash is it is an illustration of his career - racing for nothing and hitting the wall.


* - Aggravation at Chevrolet's dominance has been a long-standing gripe within NASCAR dating to the 1960s and surging with the 1970s comeback of the Bowtie Brigade, and it appears Chevy's success is driving away other brands in other series, with Indycar potentially losing Honda after Chevrolet returned to the series only a few short seasons ago.   Sanctioning bodies need to rethink whether Chevrolet is as good for their series as they might think - certainly racing needs a lot more success from non-Chevrolets such as Honda and Toyota and (call this a subtle lobby all you want) any comeback Dodge might contemplate.


* - The worst of the non-Chevrolet lot is Ford.   When Penske Racing is off - and it's been curiously off outside of two wins this season - then the brand has nothing.   Roush Fenway Racing is worse than an also-ran, it is a cancer now, between failures at engineering and a driver roster inferior to some of Roush's customer cars.   It is no accident that once again Richard Petty's #43 looked stronger than the Roush cars, and it may be Petty needs to switch manufacturers and thus not be dragged down further by the Roush alliance.


* - With all this, the potential for a first-time winner this year looks strikingly weak.   Nobody with Roush or RCR looks like they know which way is up, and even with some respectable darkhorse runs at Daytona nothing developed to indicate anyone can seize a first-time win.   If anything, some of the drivers tagged for future potential are only getting worse, notably Danica Patrick.   Kyle Larson curiously does not seem to be taking any next step, and that's it as far as drivers who might get a first win.


*- Interesting off-the-track point is made by longtime NASCAR writer Mike Mulhern.   The talk of a franchise system in NASCAR comes after a $1 billion deal by Nike for the NBA, and it leads him to ask a question worth pondering - "Could NASCAR do a deal like that without franchising?"   Stay tuned there.




So what's next? Kentucky for NASCAR, Milwaukee for Indycar, and the sport has to plug on and try to get something better.

Spring Cleaning For Coby At Thompson

The name Icebreaker took on more than normal meaning in April 2015.   Thompson Speedway opened its season after a winter that dumped over 100 inches of snow - something that brought back memory of the infamous 1978 and '79 New England blizzards - and opened amid some of the best mid-April weather in years.  

Not only did the weather bring out positivity, it brought out the strongest crowd for the Icebreaker in awhile and also showcased some eye-popping changes to the speedway, eye-popping especially to one who hadn't been to Thompson in several years.   With a strong sponsorship presence from the Mohegan Sun casino, the speedway now boasts garage buildings in what had once been merely an open paved lot for team transporters; it also boasts a revamped road course, sporting new road course pavement, SAFER barriers, and old-fashioned Armco - so old-fashioned it made the road course look like Watkins Glen.  

The Icebreaker thus opened the NASCAR Modified Tour season with the strongest field for the 150-lapper in years.   But for two-time series champ Doug Coby, it was merely a showcase of spring cleaning.   Staring on the pole in his Smeriglio Racing #2 Chevrolet, Coby took off in a race that was an exercise in close but ultimately futile pursuit by the likes of Bobby Santos III, New England legend Ted Christopher, and contender Ronnie Silk.   Silk offered the only true challenge for Coby, as pitstops past halfway under yellow put Silk in the lead; it took three laps and a nifty three-abreast slide job by Coby on the restart before he retook the lead and finished up cleaning house at the Icebreaker.

Numerous yellows kept the field close; it also put the #88 of Woody Pitkat behind the eight ball early as NASCAR briefly stopped the race to find a mysterious fluid leak that drivers reported but could not identify; finding the #88 to be the culprit, NASCAR sent Pitkat to the pits to get the leak fixed.   This done, Pitkat had to rally back to the front and he did just that, ultimately finishing second.

"Every restart we started on the bottom," Pitkat said after the race, noting the long-standing reality of Thompson racing that the low line in the corners simply isn't fast.   It thus leads to Modified racing there resembling sprint cars with slide-job passing and the cars noticeably loose in the corners.  

Coby's housecleaning at Thompson furthers a Modified career that started well in 2004 but hit a series of detours in the 2008-10 period as Coby had to go car-hopping, an experience that "promoted me a lot to the series," he has said, which stood him in good stead once he finally got settled again, first with the Dave Darling team in 2011, later with the Smeriglio outfit.  

The top nine finishers were Chevrolets, including fifth-place  Ryan Preece in Ed Partridge's #6, one of the few cars that could give even a cursory challenge to Coby all day.   The Chevy monopoly was broken by Todd Szegedy, driving Bob Garbarino's #4 Dodge; it marled a comeback of sorts for Szegedy, who ran just six Tour races in 2014.  

The Icebreaker also marked the beginning of a new TV deal for NASCAR's smaller touring classes as NBC Sports Network taped the race for airing later in the week.    If the deal helps as some clearly hope it does, it will be a step forward for NASCAR given long-standing acrimony over negligence, real and perceived, toward the sanctioning body's smaller touring classes.  

For the Modified tour spring cleaning resumes at Stafford Speedway at the end of the month.

NASCAR's Eye-Popping Year, And It Isn't Over Yet

NASCAR has struggled in the last decade and plus as its popularity has declined and the costs and absurdity of its economics have taken a toll on raceteams and speedways.   2014 was promised to be something different with yet another wrinkle to Brian France's absurd Chase format.  

Yet as the NASCAR tour heads to Michigan International Speedway for the Yankee 400, the stunning win by AJ Allmendinger over Marcos Ambrose and the ferocity of the racing at Watkins Glen - not to mention the ferocity of the numerous crashes - have made one reflect that this season has turned into one that has genuine reason to be remembered.  

The sport's most popular driver is Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Junior has finally found the groove in his racing career that's been missing.  He's raced to win, and has won three times, from the Daytona 500 through his sweep of Pocono, the first driver to do the Tim Richmond sweep since Denny Hamlin.  And once again the Hendrick Motorsports juggernaut has won a lot, highlighted also by Jeff Gordon's resurgance to reach 90 wins - though chronic back issues have plagued Gordon recently.

And Gordon's back hasn't been the biggest story at the Hendrick shop - Jimmie Johnson's campaign for the seventh series title has been bombed like the PLO by crashes and mechanical failures, and suddenly the #48 team that looked a Cup title lock no longer is. 

While Hendrick has run up more wins, the resurgance the sport has seen - and needed - has been from Richard Petty's organization.   Aric Almirola's surge to competitive legitimacy has been striking and the return of the #43 to the Firecracker 400 victory 30 years after the STP Pontiac's historic triumph has only been liberating.   A NASCAR season where Earnhardt Junior is winning has certainly benefitted the sport; that same season seeing Richard Petty's team winning again is the ultimate fusion of the old guard and the new - a fusion that is only right.

Watkins Glen brought these trains of thought on a curious collision course as multiple melees affected the field and put a damper on a stunning slugfest of a finish between Petty's #9 car of Marcos Ambrose and the Brad Daugherty #47 driven by Petty's former driver in AJ Allmendinger.   Coming after Ambrose drove a Petty car to win the Busch Series 200 the day before, the weekend was a Petty-themed weekend the sport hasn't seen to this level in many, many years.  

And the finish at Watkins Glen brought out some of the vinegar seen in other races, such as the two Daytona races, Talladega, and the NASCAR Modifieds at New Hampshire, races where passing and repassing were the focal point and the winner got the win by outfighting the field.



*****

Yet hanging over everything was the ugliness of an upstate dirt track set-to between Tony Stewart and local racer Kevin Ward where Stewart ran over Ward and thus took his life.   It brought out the uglier side of recent NASCAR history and the surge to success of drivers displaying the kind of irresponsible deportment that leads to situations like what happened the night before the Watkins Glen NASCAR GP.   Drivers getting out of their cars to call out those who raced them dirty is universal to racing, and cars calmly drive by even when helmets are thrown at windshields - or even when we see situations such as at Stafford Speedway years back where a driver hammered by another car jumped onto the hood of the offending car trying to get the ignition wires.   That Stewart did not calmly drive by with enough opportunity to do so is the gravely disturbing reality of this situation - one simply cannot concoct a scenario exonerating Stewart here, though it hasn't stopped multiple forums from being filled with nonsensical condemnation of Ward for walking toward Stewart's car.

Even if running over the other driver was indeed accidental, Stewart is still guilty of gross stupidity in not paying enough attention to see Ward walking onto the racetrack - as other cars did in calmly driving by him without any harm.  And it bears remembering it began with a hard sideswipe by Stewart that took out Ward's racecar.   Slide job crashes are not uncommon in dirt racing - or even asphalt oval track racing for that matter - but most are not malicious.   Stewart's history, though, carries a malicious quality to wrecks in which he's been involved.    And NASCAR's recent generation of racers has seen numerous others who display a similar level of psychotic quality to their racing - Carl Edwards and his numerous crashes, notably his savagery in encounters with Brad Keselowski; Joey Logano and the 2009 Irwindale melee that has carried over at times to his Cup career (notably the Fontana crash with Denny Hamlin); the Busch brothers, widely hated by fans for derangement spanning years; even Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have displayed heavy rap sheets of tearing up someone else's sheetmetal.

And there is the overlooked fact his Winston Cup raceteam issued a statement early Sunday morning that Stewart would race and it was "business as usual," a statement that raised eyebrows on such non-racing forums as WEEI Radio in Boston.   It was around noon that Stewart announced he would withdraw from the race and Regan Smith would take over the #14 that Sunday.   That timeline looks suspicious, like Stewart was going to race as though nothing had happened and had to be persuaded at the last hour not to go through with it.

In the past the likes of Ernie Irvan and Ricky Rudd were drivers under the microscope following brutal on-track set-tos; the upshot is Irvan wound up paying the price as his own injuries ultimately ended his career.   One now wonders if Tony Stewart pays some price, not in injury but in the cloud that will hang over him now.  


*****


With the Yankee 400 at Michigan the sport returns to the big tracks still grappling with the technology arms race and its harmful effect on passing - ironically shown in a recent K&N series race at Iowa Speedway (won by Brandon Jones, who looks all of thirteen years of age even though he's older) where the cars, running on bias ply tires instead of radials, were four abreast for the lead in a wild ten-lap battle to the finish.   Should Michigan see racing like this the sport will take another step forward in making itself better.  

And it will showcase how a season already shocking isn't over yet.

NASCAR Enters The Bye

It's the All Star Break - and baseball has something going on this week, too.

NASCAR's mid-July bye week comes following the heat of New Hampshire, this on top of the heat of Daytona, and oddly enough the last two weeks and the few weeks before that have made for a curious shift in the series.   Before the Brickyard beckons, some takes on the season so far and the last several weeks in particular -


The New Hampshire Weekend - The weekend itself was a bang-up weekend starting with the Sunoco 100 for the Modified Tour.   The draft kicked in yet again and the battle for the lead was amazing down to the finish.   It was fitting that after Richard Petty's #43 won the Firecracker 400 Mike Curb's Modified driven by Bobby Santos stormed to the New Hamsphire Modified win. 

And the Cup race, while never able to match the Mods in competitive ferocity, nonetheless saw a striking level of passing up front and some dicey maneuvers on restarts.   It wasn't as wild as Pocono has seen, but it was close.


Suddenly Ford Has Taken Over - Fords have won the last four races, beginning at Sears Point.   At New Hampshire the Chevys never looked in particular contention while the Toyotas produced some muscle that's been missing much of the season, and with the season taking a decided turn for the worse for Toyota as the Brickyard is a place Toyota hasn't won at nor shown much muscle at. 


It's The Full Keselowski Experience - We certainly didn't see this coming earlier in the year when it appeared Keselowski was losing his mind.   Now he's won two of the last three races to go with March's Vegas win and looks to have recaptured status as top dog at Penske Racing.  Contrast this with Joey Logano; Logano has four top ten finishes since winning the Richmond 400 and two 40th place finishes.  Naturally he bitched about Morgan Shepherd in the New Hampshire wreck, but this is another case of getting what one deserves.


It's Not The Hendrick Experience - Jimmie Johnson now has consecutive 42nds on his results card and seven finishes below 18th so far.   In contrast Old Man Gordon has put together a good run of finishes before running out of gas at New Hampshire.   Dale Junior has also strung together a good run of finishes the last seven weeks.   Surprisingly Kasey Kahne hasn't done that badly despite being MIA much of the time.


Roush Keeps Striking Out - Carl Edwards has a paltry one top ten since the 600 - the Sears Point win; he also hasn't led a lap since Sears Point.   The issue of engineers has been a talking point sorts lately, and it isn't getting better with Edwards reportedly on the way out, Greg Biffle not producing - just one top ten since the Winston 500 - and Ricky Stenhouse proving he's a drafting bust.


Almirola Crashes To Earth - Starting last after a crash in practice, Aric Almirola never got above 21st and finished 23rd, this after a superb Kentucky effort that ended in a crash and then the Daytona win.    Nonetheless the #43 has shown real muscle all season.


Stewart-Haas Takes A Hit - Kevin Harvick is the one screwed most by the points system, having won twice and led nearly 900 laps - only Johnson has led more so far - yet is 13th in points.  Having said this, the last seven weeks have been a blow, with just two top tens and three finishes 20th or worse.  And his teammates aren't doing any better - Stewart-Haas has combined for ten top tens among all four cars since the Winston 500.   Tony Stewart's seventh was something of a surprise finish, only his second top-ten in the last eleven races.  


RCR Trundles Along - Can someone explain how Mister MIA Ryan Newman is seventh in points? I grant he's posted three top-10s in the last seven races, but overall he and the RCR gang have simply been abysmal all season.   Not that anyone noticed, but Austin Dillon got outclassed by Kyle Larson again.  


Ganassi Keeps On Keeping On - Larson's New Hampshire finish overshadowed a respectable effort by Jamie McMurray.



The sport thus has some items to chew on during its bye week.

Bobby Santos Wins Sunoco 100 Whelen Modified Tour Race

A good write-up on Bobby Santos' wild win in the Mod Tour 100 at New Hampshire.

We once again witnessed - when the draft means more than handling, passing results.

From Stafford To Iowa To Talladega

The Winston 500 weekend is now approaching and as NASCAR marches toward Talladega it sees several issues jostling about the sport during this past Richmond 400 weekend.   The Richmond 400 as is common brought out some good racing and considerable ugliness, first between Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski after a late-race set-to amid Joey Logano's first career short track win, then between Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears where they exchanged blows and Ambrose got cheap-shot in the garage area.
  
The Richmond 400 came following a story about possible scheduling gimmicks by NASCAR with Brad Keselowski still lobbying for a Winston Cup date at Iowa Speedway. NASCAR official Steve O'Donnell's comments have been interpreted in some circles as an endorsement of a Keselowski idea for a Winston Cup race at Iowa on a Wednesday night followed by the race at Kansas four days later.   O'Donnell also talked about possibly scheduling a Truck Series race at Knoxville Speedway to go with the race at Eldora and also of a Busch Series All-Star race, ostensibly at Iowa.

That such talk is going on illustrates a lot of people aren't getting it.  First, Iowa Speedway under no circumstances deserves a Winston Cup race.  It's not a bad racetrack like Darlington or the road courses, but it's not that good, either.  For all the hoopla about short track racing - and people will cite Richmond this past weekend as evidence - the Richmond 400 wasn't much until the late fireworks, and those fireworks were less about good racing than the serial stupidity of some drivers.   It is noteworthy that Richmond saw fewer lead changes (20) than Martinsville (33).

The blunt truth is Winston Cup is a superspeedway league and people need to accept it as such; stop trying to make it something inferior.

As for the Busch Series and Trucks, what those series need is not an All Star Race or scheduling gimmicks - though the Trucks do ought to have second dates at Daytona, Pocono, Talladega, and Kansas, tracks where the series has put on genuinely good races.   What those series need is for NASCAR to start using some of the multi-billion-dollar TV money and putting it into the purses.   The dirty little secret of the Busch Series is only about a third of the field contests the entire schedule, the result both of Winston Cup driver involvement - which has bled the series dry and thus needs to be ended - and NASCAR's refusal to use some of the TV money for better purses.    


**********


Also in need for NASCAR to start investing some real money is the Modified Tour, which showcased some genuinely good racing without the high-buck idiocy of Cup diva-dom via the 2014 Spring Sizzler at Stafford Spweedway, CT.   The physicality of the racing was somewhat unusual, and a plethora of yellows helped make the fight for the lead in the first 61 laps a real fight.   Bobby Santos won last year's Sizzler and this time clawed to the lead again, he held off Doug Coby's surge for the win.

What stood out for about 2/3rds of the race, especially with all the restarts, was that the bottom groove didn't work.  It finally got going in the final third of the race.   Between the SK Modified feature won by Ryan Preece - who never got going in the 200-lapper and fell out with a mysterious engine problem - the mini-stock feature, and the first 2/3rds of the Tour race, the high groove worked much better than the low, especially in Turn Two, and a lot of passing up front resulted.   Then the track changed and the high groove became less effective - in part because Santos became noticeably more aggressive on late restarts on the bottom. 

Once the terror of Northeast racing, Ted Christopher settled for sixth.   His decline as a racer once again made his finish surprising in his Stafford debut with Robert Katon, Jr's car, painted in the colors reminiscent of the old Rod Osterlund #2 Winston Cup car.  


**********


So with the dawning of May, the sport hits Talladega for the Aarons Dream Weekend - one that always leaves a lot of racers calling it the Aarons Creamed Weekend after their cars get creamed.   Some quick takes before the weekend -


Cup is becoming a two-team showdown - Penske Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing have won the last four races and six of the last eight.   Hendrick Motorsports as usual has been the other power contending with any consistency, but remains winless since Daytona, and their one winner has been spotty, though two top-seven finishes the last two weeks suggest Junior has a return of momentum going.  

While Junior has some momentum going, Stewart-Haas didn't have a memorable Richmond, and even with Martinsville and Darlington wins the outfit has just five cumulative top-tens among four cars in the last four races - and had a decidedly mediocre Daytona 500.   And while Tony Stewart himself has been largely MIA this year, the driver in clearest decline has been Danica Patrick, this after that puff piece earlier in the year claiming improvement in her performance.  

The guy showing real improvement in performance has been Joey Logano, entering new territory having won more than once in a season for the first time - yet to be expected given he's clearly usurped Keselowski as Penske Racing's top dog.  


Talladega may be a rare chance for someone else to steal a win - The track's history speaks for itself, so teams that haven't been able to keep up with Penske and Stewart-Haas had better jump out and steal this win given the rest of the year right now isn't offering much in the way of additional chances.   JGR has shown muscle this year but it hasn't been as powerful as one would expect - though given the chaos of Toyota's program it's not surprising.   Mismanagement by a manufacturer also leaves Ford pickings other than Penske slimmer and slimmer.

The wildcard as always is the draft, and unlike the exercise in frustration that was Daytona this time the Busch bash should be able to race for the lead with less encumbrance.  


So we await the first shot in the fight for Talladega.

Takeaways From Talladega And Thompson

The third weekend of October was a boffo weekend for racing as Talladega opened up for the Truck Series and Winston Cup while Thompson Speedway brang down the curtain on its 2013 season and that of the Modified Tour. A scattershot look at both -


 -----------------------


Donny Lia, Rowan Pennick, and Ryan Preece give the Mod Tour a fresh new class of stars  - The final 20 or so laps of the Sunoco 150 were a spirited battle between Lia, Pennick, and Preece; Lia had won at Stafford a few weeks earlier while he and Todd Szegedy got into it in September at New Hampshire's FW Webb 100-miler with Ryan Newman.   Preece had won the most races and won the series title while Pennick had not led a lap since the Town Fair Tire 100 at Loudon in July.   The three of them got into it and Pennick took the win, his first since the 2010 Riverhead 200.

The three of them showcased youth and spirited competition that will serve Modified Racing well.



Johnny Sauter makes a nice living in NASCAR's high minors - Over the years there have been drivers who've never made it in Winston Cup but whose talent is showcased in NASCAR's "high minors" of the Busch Series and the Trucks.   The Truck 250 was one of the most amazing Talladega Truck races ever seen and Johnny Sauter's rally to the win - his ninth in the Truck Series - was as brilliant a battle as seen anywhere.  

Sauter reminds one of Todd Bodine, Mike Wallace, Ron Hornaday, and Randy LaJoie, drivers who tried a go of it in Cup and never made it, then established their own mini-kingdoms of success one level below Cup.   That's not a bad way to go in racing.



Jamie McMurray again defies assumptions - In 398 Cup starts McMurray now has seven wins.   He may never contend for a series title but he doesn't have to to have a memorable career.   It reintroduced the sport to a driver who hadn't won since his eye-opening 2010 season and who most had pretty much written off.



Aric Almirola again shows he is a disgrace - It may be fitting that Almirola was born in Tampa Bay, where the Bucs have degenerated into an embarrassment to the NFL.   Certainly his two seasons in Richard Petty's #43 have been a disgrace even with the surprising fifth at New Hampshire and five other top ten finishes.   Winning the Diehard 500's pole by rain-induced default, Almirola led eight laps and then was never heard from again, limping home 22nd after just riding around all day.  Petty deserves a lot better than that - winning Talladega is what Petty deserves, not the pseudo-effort Almirola phoned in.



Talladega again showcases the best of racing and the worst of NASCAR's rules ineptitude - The Truck 250 was another case where the supporting race to Cup was better than the Cup race.   NASCAR's Generation Six racecar has done poorly all season (necessitating early October's aerodynamics test at Charlotte) and Talladega showed it can produce great racing even with a bad rules package as the lead changed 52 times.   But even with that passing was graphically difficult since NASCAR's radiator rules discourage tandem drafting - the cars seemed even not to want to touch at all - and the points-racing ethos in the sport kicked in with drivers running in line the last ten laps waiting for a moment that didn't happen.


Contrast this with the Truck 250, where tandem drafting was prolific; the most striking part of the race, though, was how conventional drafting was able to keep pace and once a tandem took the lead the push-Truck would dive under and take the lead.   The negatives of the tandems in the past - the push-vehicle before would push a leader into the clear and just stay there; conventional drafts could not keep up - appear to be evolving away.    The Truck race didn't have the weird look that tandem races had had; it looked and felt like an old-fashioned superspeedway shootout.  

It's why Brian France and NASCAR need to stop opposing tandem drafting; it is the strongest power to pass the sport has ever seen.   Perhaps Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR's innovation director, can persuade the sanctioning body that the best innovations often are going back to the future.



Denny Hamlin wasn't the only one hoping his season ends soon  - Hamlin blew up and it was mentioned on the mediacast that he's looking forward to end a lost year.   Meanwhile Stewart-Haas Racing had a bad ending - Danica Patrick shockingly ran strong then disappeared in the final 30 laps, while Austin Dillon ran great all day then got spun out and then blasted viciously on the backstretch - a fitting image of the team's lost 2013 season.  



Yes, there was a Trevor Bayne sighting - Some compared him to Tim Tebow - fitting since Bayne's 2011 Daytona 500 win hasn't gotten any positive follow-up aside from two Busch Series wins.   Even with that he basically has disappeared since that Daytona win.  



NASCAR needs to rethink whether to have paved run-offs - Over and over vehicles have slid hard into the inside wall at Talladega and elsewhere and never have we seen any evidence to think paved run-offs are doing any good.


And with that NASCAR heads to Martinsville, though we're a little puzzled why it's been pushed to late October the last number of years.

Santos Puts The Spring In The Spring Sizzler

Sometimes it's all about one guy.

Stafford Speedway opened its season at the end of April, and the Spring in Spring Sizzler was redefined with stunningly good weather on Sunday.   The Whelen Modified Tour was the big show of a Sunday feast of racing that began with Stafford's SK Modifieds, a 40-lap feature that compressed a plethora of yellows and some good battling up front into the first 20 circuits before Ryan Preece put it away in the final 20 laps.   Mod Tour veteran Mike Stefanik had not driven a Stafford SK since 1993 yet was pressed into a relief role as track regular Keith Rocco was nursing a wrist injury.

The SK feature was the warmup for several drivers competing in the Sizzler 200-lapper, notably Preece, Ted Christopher, Woody Pitkat, Rowan Pennick, and Stefanik.   SK veteran Todd Szegedy was on the Tour feature's front row alongside pole-sitter Bobby Santos III.   A native of Franklin, MA, Santos' youthful quality makes one forget he's been a Tour regular since 2004 and has also raced in the Nationwide Series, notably last July at Daytona in Tommy Baldwin Jr's Chevrolet; he also raced Daytona's February 300-miler in Jimmy Means' car in 2011.

His attempts at the big leagues so far haven't borne fruit, and he's car-hopped in the Mod Tour with such teams as Joe Brady, Boehler Racing, Bob Garbarino, his own cars, and lately Sully Tinio's #44.  It's illustrutive of the general sense of neglect by NASCAR toward the Modified Tour that Santos won twice in 2012 yet had to miss five of fourteen races.   But there's reason for optimism for Santos right now, as he cleaned house at the Sizzler by leading 197 of 200 laps and was never threatened at any point of the race, even with several late yellows (including a brief red flag for a Lap 150 melee involving Bryon Chew, Ken Heagy, Ronnie Silk, and Gary McDonald) and the likes of Ryan Preece, Christopher, Pennick, and Justin Bonsignore making spirited efforts into the front five.  

That Teddy was even in contention was surprising, as his Boehler #3 never seemed hooked up and he spent a long time outside the top ten; he managed to get into the top seven and then nearly got waylaid with fifteen to go in a three-wide slugfest ending in a four-car crash and Szegedy's elimination from the race after a frustrating day. 

In the end Teddy and Bonsignore, like everyone else, had nothing for Santos.   The win is Santos' third in the last four Modified Tour races, and it showed that sometimes it's all about one guy - it was certainly about Santos at Stafford's Spring Sizzler in 2013. 

From Texas To Thompson

As April thaws further out racing begins stepping up, and touring series under NASCAR sanction outside of the big three of Cup, Nationwide, and the Trucks start getting into gear. Such was the case a night after NASCAR's Texas 500, a race where a doltish Senator's demand that the race not be broadcast because of National Rifle Association sponsorship of it provided more fireworks than the racing itself - a controversy quickly lapped by bouts of "cheating by the Penske Fords before the race and then flunking of postrace inspection by runner-up Martin Truex. Keselowski in particular was angry, claiming the Penske Fords had been "targeted" by NASCAR. "We're not going to take it," he added.


The "cheating" by the Penske Fords supposedly involved beating NASCAR inspection to suppress rearend "skewing" that had become popular in 2012 by Jimmie Johnson but which now is disallowed by NASCAR; how they did it isn't clear though the story is they used a "floating" rearend.   Of course it's not a simple case of NASCAR politics or a team being brazen in its cheating, because in the heavily political and often murky world of NASCAR there's reason to believe both sides - politics in racing are as old as racing (see for just one example such cases as Junior Johnson's outsized engine at Charlotte in May 1991 and the following revealation of excessive fuel storage in his Ford at the same track in October 1991) and so is cheating - and to use an old Sam Moses line, cheating, or as Bill Gazaway would put it, fudging, or as Richard Petty put it, just trying to get an edge.  


There of course is the reality of the raceteams being ahead of the inspectors in the technology arms race, which makes things murkier - how long have the Penske guys been able to get away with rearend skew before getting caught?  And chances are other teams will slip something past NASCAR inspectors, and when the racing is genuinely good then "cheating" issues tend to alleviate themselves.  


This certainly was the case at Thompson Speedway's Icebreaker the afternoon following the Texas 500.   The Whelen Modified Tour was the primary feature but multiple racecar classes strutted their stuff, with two great battles in particular standing out - the limited sportsman feature was decided in a terrific five-lap shootout won by Larry Barnett, who raced nose to nose with Jesse Gleason - Gleason and Barnett drove mid-80s Monte Carlos, but Gleason's car sported a 1988 Buick nosepiece, a charming hybrid surpassed only by Seekonk's Late Models where several have 1990s Monte Carlo noses but latter-80s Monte Carlo bubble-glass bodies - with Gleason killing Barnett high in One and Two - sporting a somewhat pronounced dip in the middle - but Barnett beating everyone alive on the backstrtech.  


The second thriller was the SK-class Modified shootout.   Keith Rocco, Woody Pitkat, and Kerry Malone got into an exciting battle for the win in the final ten laps and there were some three lead changes involving crossover passing - except Pitkat's last crossover crossed him out of contention off Two with three to go.  


Not that the Modified Tour race was any slouch.   Numerous cautions flew thanks to a rough day for Gary McDonald, but the worst yellow came near halfway of the 150-lapper thanks to a nasty crash in One involving Ron Yuhas - unsung hero of New Hampshire International Speedway in 2006 - and Ron Fuller, a crash necessitating a red flag.


Lap 111 saw another yellow and Mike Stefanik - the polesitter who got knocked out of the top six on the opening lap - got tires while Rowan Pennick and Chuck Hossfeld gambled on tires and stayed out.   Several late yellows helped Stefanik close up on Pennick, and the final restart with 11 to go was decisive as Pennick surprisingly lost the lead despite starting on the outside row - the preferred line for most of the day.   Even with losing the lead Stefanik's new tires didn't allow him to get away from Pennick, as Mike won by only a couple of lengths.


Curiously, Stefanik was self-depricating in victory lane about the whole thing as he posted the win with a new team.

Before the race Justin Bonsignore stated the Hoosier Tires the Tour runs, "They'll last at least eighty-five or ninty laps if we have to....here at Thompson you probably want new tires."   It certainly proved the case, and also showed "there's a lot of good quality cars (in the Modified Tour).....There's still ten to fifteen cars that can win every week."  


The Tour has often been seen as the red-headed stepchild in the NASCAR scheme of things, and "the cost of racing has gone up, but the cost of everything has gone up," says Bonsignore.   "I think it's a little out of hand now.   If they make big changes to try and cut costs, it's going to cost us more up front again.   It might save you money in the long run."


One such area is spec motors, which seem to be creeping into the Tour, though there also seems to be a diversity of engine builders/suppliers still.   Billy The Kid engines and Bob Bruneau, long-time engine figures on the Tour, are still common in the garage area, and some Tour cars run Rahmoc engines - yes, the company that once upon a time fielded super-strong Pontiacs for Neil Bonnett and Morgan Shepherd.    A Grand National Series branded spec motor built by Roush-Yates is also to be found in the Mod Tour garage area.  


The cost issue plagues racing at all levels, but in the end exciting finishes such as seen at Thompson's Icebreaker make the hassles all worth it.

2012 Modified Tour 100, New Hampshire

This is a highlights package of the 2012 Town Fair Tire 100 at New Hampshire; Mike Stefanik edges Ronnie Silk in a photo finish reminiscent of Tim Richmond's photo finish win at Pocono in 1986.