July 10, 2015

  Fifty five years ago in 1960 Tommy Fenley, a former competitor at the half mile Kingston Fairgrounds in Rhode Island was the Modified feature winner at the Stafford Springs Speedway. Don Collins was the big winner at the Waterford Speedbowl as he won Modified events on Wednesday and Saturday. Ted Stack, in the non-Fords and Ed Moody followed suit as they also recorded double features at the shoreline oval. Red Foote was the winner at the Norwood Arena.

  Fifty years ago in 1965 Don Wayman made it two in a row on the Dirt at Stafford Springs on Friday night. Ed Moody was the Modified winner at the Waterford Speedbowl. Charlie Krashen was the Bomber winner. Lou Lazzaro made it two in a row in Saturday night action at the Fonda Speedway. Ralph "HOP" Harrington was the main event winner at Norwood. Bob Hall finished second with Leo Cleary, third. Eddie Flemke and Don McCullough rounded out the top five. Rounding out the top ten was Pete Hamilton, Fats Caruso, Johnny Thompson, Bill Slater and Barnie Matte. Dave Humphrey won a 100 lapper for the Midgets at Seekonk. Ken Orr took the win at Riverside Park and Tom Kotary took the win at Utica-Rome. Finishing second was an unknown by the name of Richie Evans. Dave Kotary was third.

  Forty five years ago in 1970, it was a busy week to say the least. The All Star League took to the dirt on Tuesday at the Orange County Speedway in Middletown, N.Y. Rags Carter took the 100 lap win over Will Cagle and Lou Lazzaro. Asphalt standouts Charlie Jarzombek, Fred DeSarro and Richie Evans finished eighth through tenth. At Malta on Friday night, Fred DeSarro, well on his way to taking the track championship, took the top spot over Eddie Pieniezak and Dave Gault. Stafford's twin 25's went to Leo Cleary and Bugsy Stevens. At the Waterford Speedbowl, Glynn Shafer in the Ron Yuhas No. 6 took the Modified feature win. Ron Cote was the Late Model Daredevil winner. On Sunday, Thompson ran a 100 lap-double point event, which saw Bugsy Stevens take the top spot over Cleary, Ed Yerrington, Jack Malone, Bernie Miller, Bob Santos and Billy Harman. Pocono ran an open competition event which saw Geoff Bodine make one of his first big track appearances and he almost won it until traffic master, Ray Hendrick gave him a lesson in how to pass lapped cars. Hendrick ended up with the win and was followed by Bodine, Maynard Troyer and Bryan Osgood. Ron Newman was the winner at Utica-Rome on Sunday night.

  Forty years ago in 1975, Charlie Jarzombek went two out of three on Long Island as he won Friday night at Freeport and Sunday at Westhampton. On Saturday at Islip, the Long Island legend finished second to Gary Winters. Saturday night at Stafford saw Bob Vee win his first and only feature at Stafford. Bugsy Stevens finished second with Ronnie Bouchard, third. Bob Potter took the 35 lap Modified win at Waterford. Joe Mullins was the Grand American Late Model winner.

  Thirty five years ago in 1980, Waterford and New Egypt ran on Wednesday night. At Waterford, Bob Potter won a 100-lap open over Rick Donnelly and Dickie Doo Ceravolo. Ceravolo was elevated to second spot after Donnelly was disqualified for illegally altering his tires. At New Egypt, Gary Cretty scored his first win. Wayne Anderson finished second. On Thursday night, Punky Caron returned to his old haunts at Monadnock and kicked butt as he took a convincing win over John Rosati and Jack Bateman. Friday night at Stafford, Ronnie Bouchard was on a tear as he won the 30 lap modified feature over Corky Cookman, Bugsy Stevens and Richie Evans. Bouchard carried his winning ways to Westboro on Saturday where he scored two more victories. Bob Fuller and Leo Cleary scored seconds. Bouchard was going for four when lack of oil pressure forced him to park it at Thompson on Sunday. Jerry Cook ended up with the win with Bob Fuller, second. Other weekend winners included Don LaJoie who scored his 50th win at Danbury, Maynard Troyer at Spencer, Charlie Jarzombek at Islip, Billy Griffin at Shangri-La, Reggie Ruggiero at Riverside and Alan Whipple at Claremont. Up north, Geoff Bodine walked off with $12000 after taking the win in the Oxford 250.

  Thirty years ago in 1985, Thompson ran a 35 lap special on Tuesday nights, which saw John Rosati, score an upset victory over Charlie Jarzombek and Richie Evans. The modified Tour was at Riverhead on Wednesday Jim Spencer and Brian Ross broke the strong hold that the regulars had as they finished one-two. Fred Harbach finished third with George Kent, fourth. Stafford rained out on Friday night but Spencer and New Egypt was spared. Doug Hewitt won at Spencer and Tony Siscone won at New Egypt. Waterford ran a 100 lapper on Saturday night. Ed Flemke Jr. took the win over Ted Christopher. Richie Evans won at Shangri-La and at Riverside Park, SJ Evonsion beat out Mike McLaughlin. Chris Young won riverheads regular Saturday modified program. The modifieds ventured to Claremont for a Sunday event, which drew 29 cars. Richie Evans took the 100-lap win over Jim Spencer and Dwight Jarvis. The Busch North Series was at Thompson on Sunday. Randy LaJoie took the win and in the SK division it was Wayne Dion.

  Twenty five years ago in 1990, Star Speedway hosted the NASCAR Modified tour for a 150-lap event. Tony Hirschman took the win over Mike Stefanik, Reggie Ruggiero and George Brunnhoelzl. At Stafford on Friday night, Steve Chowanski beat out Tom Bolles for the win and at Monadnock; Reggie Ruggiero was on a roll as he won out over Jerry Marquis. Ruggiero carried over his winning ways to Riverside on Saturday where he again took the win. Richie Gallup finished second with Tom Bolles, third. Lenny Fischer got his first win in 14 years of trying at Riverhead on Saturday. Don Howe finished second. At Waterford it was Gary Dyer over David Gada and at Shangri-La Randy Hedger beat out Jan Leaty. The New Hampshire International Speedway celebrated their grand opening with the Chevy Dealers 300 for NASCAR's Grand National division. The event drew 50,000 spectators who looked on as Tommy Ellis took the win over Harry Gant, Chuck Bown and Morgan Shepherd.

  Twenty years ago in 1995, Jim Broderick was first under the checker at Stafford but almost found himself in the fence during the cool down lap when a frustrated and mad Ted Christopher, spun him out. Christopher, who finished second was fined $200 and put on probation for two weeks. At Waterford on Saturday night, Todd Ceravolo won out over David Gada and Mark LaJunesse and at Riverside it was Dan Avery in victory lane. The Featherlite Modified Tour was at Jennerstown. The scheduled 150-lap event was called after 132 laps when the lights went out and wouldn't come back on. Steve Park was declared the winner with Ed Flemke Jr., Jan Leaty, Tony Hirschman and Tom Baldwin rounding out the top five. Al Ermmarino won at Riverhead and Dave Dion won the Busch North Series event at Shangri-La. In Winston Cup action at the Pocono Raceway, Dale Jarrett took the win and ran out of gas on the cool down lap. Jeff Gordon finished second with Ricky Rudd, third.

  Fifteen years ago in 2000, Ted Christopher started his weekend with a win over Todd Ceravolo and Steve Lombardo at Thompson on Thursday night. At Stafford on Friday it was again, Christopher. Brad Hietella finished second. Rain washed out Waterford. At Nazareth on Sunday, Ron Hornaday won the BGN 100.Mike Stefanik in a Cretty Motorsports Team car made a surprise entry to the modified portion and proceeded to come home a winner. Reggie Ruggiero finished second and was followed by Ted Christopher, Jerry Marquis and Ed Flemke Jr.

  Ten years ago in 2005 the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series traveled to the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH on Friday. Forty Modifieds were on hand for time trials which were supposed to be held on Thursday afternoon. Heavy rain and high winds put an end to that. High winds that topped out near 60 MPH overturned protective tents that competitors had been using to shield themselves and their equipment from the heat of the Sun. Electricity was also knocked out. When it became apparent that time trials would not be held NASCAR made the decision to base the starting lineup on the latest point standings.
  Based on the point standings going into the event Ted Christopher was placed on the pole with Chuck Hossfeld, outside. Christopher led twice, the first 26 laps and more importantly the last four as he made it three wins in a row as he beat Tony Hirschman to the finish line by a bumper. With 10 laps to go in the 100 lapper Eric Beers was leading the field under caution. Doug Coby was running second with Christopher, Hirschman and Steve Whitt following. When the green came out on lap 91 Coby took the lead. Beers slipped to fourth while Christopher and Hirschman closed in on the leader. On lap 97 Christopher made his bid as he passed Coby. Coby also gave way to Hirschman who closed in on Christopher’s bumper. Beers ended up third with Steve Whitt rounding out the top five. Sixth through tenth were Rick Fuller, Chuck Hossfeld, Jerry Marquis, Mike Christopher and Nevin George. Twenty-five of the original 40 starters were running on the lead lap at the finish. Later in the day Christopher ran in the Busch North Series event which he didn’t finish. Mike Stefanik took that win.
  Kerry Malone made a miraculous recovery from a devastating wreck on the third of thirty laps in the Sunoco SK type Modified feature at the Thompson Speedway on Wednesday night. Malone got caught up in a wreck during a restart. His car sustained a lot of damage including a destroyed oil cooler, a broken tie rod and a pulverized rear spoiler. Because of the fact that it took a lot of time to remove the wrecked car of Richard Savory, Malone’s crew was able to remove the damaged oil cooler and replace it with a jumper hose plus replace the tie rod. Malone restarted in the rear of the field without losing a lap and clawed his way through the field to take the lead from Todd Ceravolo on lap 26. Ceravolo had inherited the lead after leaders Tom Cravenho and Bert Marvin tangled and spun on lap 24. Ceravolo finished second and was followed by Jeff Malave. Cravenho and Marvin recovered to finish fourth and fifth. Other winners at Thompson included Norm Wrenn in the Pro Stocks, Roger Larsen JR in the Mini Stocks, Charles Bailey III in the Late Models and Larry Barnett in the limited Sportsman.
  The Stafford Speedway also ran on Wednesday night as they featured the NEMA Midgets and the ISMA Supers along with Pro Fours. Special guests included Erin Crocker, Dave Blaney, Carl Edwards and Ken Schrader along with Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice and Indy veteran Al Unser Sr. Despite the fact that Stafford and Thompson are less than 60 miles apart both tracks drew decent crowds for their mid-week events.
  At Stafford on Friday night Frank Ruocco won the 40 lap SK Modified feature over Jeff Malave and Lloyd Agor. Ted Christopher made his grand entrance from Loudon in a helicopter and finished fourth. Todd Owen rounded out the top five. Among those in the field was Chris Jones who up until last Friday had been on indefinite suspension. Evidently the Stafford management has relented and forgiven Jones of all his prior sins. It has also been rumored that Bo Gunning will be back at Stafford for this Friday night’s 100 lapper. Other Friday night winners at Stafford were Tom Butler in the Late Models, Michael Bennett in the Limited Late Models and Robert Dow in the DARE Stocks.
  The Waterford Speedbowl had one of its earliest nights of the season as the entire Saturday night program was completed by 9:30pm. Second generation SK Modified driver Chris Pasteryak ended a dry spell that went back to July of 2003 as he took his second career victory at the shoreline oval. Pasteryak took the lead from Ronnie Silk with 13 of the scheduled 35 laps to go. Rob Summers finished third with Frank Mucciacciaro and Dennis Gada rounding out the top five. Other Saturday night winners were Bruce Thomas Jr. in the Late Models, Ken Cassidy Jr. in the Mini Stocks, Chris Correll in the All Star Trucks and John Puglisi in the Sportsman.
  Martin Truex held off a late surge by Carl Edwards to take a green-white-checkered flag in Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series New England 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway for his circuit-high fifth victory of the season. Tony Stewart led 232 of 300 laps and beat the Ford of Kurt Busch by 0.851 seconds in the New England 300 at Loudon.
  Kentucky Speedway owners filed suit against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., claiming NASCAR violated federal antitrust laws and illegally restricted the award of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races. Kentucky Speedway, in Sparta, Ky., also said NASCAR illegally awarded NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races to the International Speedway Corp. owned tracks. Kentucky Speedway also alleged antitrust violations relating to various restraints of trade involving the NASCAR Busch Series races and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races. The lawsuit had been filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky in Covington. The International Speedway Corporation which is controlled by the same family that owns and controls NASCAR announced that they had chosen a spot outside the greater Seattle, Washington area to build a $250 million NASCAR racetrack.

  Five years ago in 2010, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour headed to Loudon, NH for the New Hampshire 100. With a race purse of $166,513 it would be a shame to lose this event because local officials would not negotiate with track owner O. Bruton Smith over security costs. This event was scheduled to be televised by the Speed Channel on a taped delayed basis. In a somewhat related mater word has it that the INDY cars would return to Loudon in 2011 on July 30-31. It had been mentioned that they would be joined by the Whelen Modified Tour Series.
  With 38 Modifieds running against the time clock Ryan Newman earned the Coors Light Pole Award for the New Hampshire 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a lap of 29.663 mph (128.402) around the 1.058-mile oval. Bobby Santos will start on the outside of the front row after he posted a qualifying lap of 29.778 (127.907). Santos entered the weekend as the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour points leader after he became the first driver in Tour history to win three of the first four races. He finished second in the other race, and has three Coors Light Pole Awards.
  Todd Szegedy qualified third at 29.867 (127.525). Erick Rudolph and Rob Summers rounded out the top five. Doug Coby was sixth, followed by Ron Silk, Ted Christopher, Rob Fuller and Jimmy Blewett.
  Newman passed Ted Christopher in Turn 3 of the final lap and held off New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s winningest driver to earn his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory. Newman, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular, made his fifth NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start for car owner and 2010 Daytona 500 winning crew chief Kevin Manion. Newman and Christopher put on a memorable show in the closing laps of the New England 100. They came to the white flag side by side, and after Christopher nosed into the lead on the backstretch, Newman used the outside to make the winning pass.
  Newman's margin of victory was .125 seconds. Newman led three times for 28 laps. Christopher, who led six times for a race-high 40 laps. Ryan Preece followed across the line in third to tie his previous career-best finish in Loudon, while points leader Bobby Santos came home fourth. Ron Silk rounded out the top five. Ed Flemke Jr. was sixth, followed by James Civali, Doug Coby, Woody Pitkat and Eric Beers.
  There were 21 cars on the lead lap at the finish. There were seven caution periods for 26 laps. Among those who has less than good results was Mike Stefanik who suffered heavy front end damage as a result of a wreck on lap three. There were 15 official lead changes between six drivers.
Despite a season-low finish, Santos distanced himself in the season standings. He now has 900 points through five races while Christopher moved into second with 771. Todd Szegedy is third with 758, while Mike Stefanik fell from second to fourth with 728.
  The Thompson International Speedway Thursday night Thunder series dodged a few thunder showers as they got to complete their race program. Features included the continuation of an event that was postponed back on June 3 after rains halted the program. In addition to the Tour-Type Modifieds, all six of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions were in competition.
  In weekly racing action, Ted Christopher scored his fourth Sunoco Modified victory of the season. Derek Ramstrom, who just graduated from High School continued his winning ways in the Super Late Models; also scoring his fourth feature victory of ‘10. John Falconi turned his luck around this season with a commanding victory in the Late Model division. Falconi kept a family tradition alive at Thompson with his Late Model victory on Thursday night. Speedway announcer Russ Dowd pointed out that a member of the Falconi Family has posted at least one race win a season at Thompson for the last seven decades. After what has been a dismal start to the 2010 season, Falconi turned in a dominating performance to score the win for the family. Paul Coutu scored a convincing victory in the Limited Sportsman division. Keith McDermott was the winner in a controversial TIS Modified dash. Leo Defevers was tops in the Mini Stocks. The Super Late Models, Late Models and the Limited Sportsman division all treated the fans to caution-free main events.
  Ronnie Silk was in the right place at the right time to earn the victory in the Town Fair Tire Tour-Type Modified Shootout. The crowd was on their feet for the double-file restart with five laps remaining. Woody Pitkat held the top spot with Mike Stefanik to his outside. On the backstretch, contact between Pitkat and Stefanik sent Pitkat into the outside wall. Pitkat’s crippled #98 was collected by Butch Perry as it sat in turn three. Stefanik was put to the rear of the field for his involvement. Silk found himself as the new leader with five laps to go. Christopher, Mechalides, Reed and Keith Rocco made up the top-five for the last dash to the finish. Silk got a great restart to lead his first competitive laps of the event. After falling back to third on the initial start, Christopher was able to get back by and into second. Reed ran a slight distance back in fourth. Over the final laps, Silk was able to extend his advantage over Christopher to take down the win. Christopher came home second followed by Mechalides, Reed and Rocco.
The Sunoco Modified event turned into another barn burner. With ten laps to go, Christopher was pressuring Keith Rocco for the lead. Christopher got a great run on lap 21 getting alongside Rocco in turn one and again in turn four. Each time, Christopher had to settle back in line on the straight-aways. On lap 23, Christopher was up for the challenge making the pass stick in turn one to lead lap 24. Once out front, Christopher was able to gain a car-length advantage over Rocco. Pitkat ran a distance back in third. Sullivan was an equal distance back in fourth. Over the final laps, Christopher was able to stretch the advantage over Rocco. It was the fourth victory of the season for Christopher. Rocco settled for second over Pitkat. Sullivan posted his best finish of the season in fourth. Quietly Rowan Pennink rounded out the top five.
  In NASCAR Whelen All-American Series division racing at the Stafford Motor Speedway Keith Rocco made it three in a row as he raised his feature win total to 15. As it was at Thompson, one night previous, it was again the Keith and Teddy show but unlike it was at Thompson where Christopher won, Rocco prevailed. Woody Pitkat got win number four of 2010 in the 30-lap Late Model feature, Matt Gallo scored his second victory of 2010 in the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature, Dan Flannery won his fourth race of 2010 in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature, and Andrew Hayes picked up his first win of 2010 in the 15-lap DARE Stock feature.
  In the 40-lap SK Modified® feature event with six laps remaining in the SK Modified feature Frank Ruocco was in the lead with Christopher and Rocco on his bumper. Christopher, with Rocco in tow, shot by Ruocco on lap 37. Two laps later Christopher slipped enough for Rocco to pass on the inside and that's all she wrote! At the finish Ruocco had faded to fourth as Zach Sylvester moved into the third spot. Rounding out the top five was Woody Pitkat.
  The Waterford Speedbowl saw Jeff Pearl return to victory lane, his first win of the year in the 35-lap SK Modified® feature. Jeff Smith won his first career feature taking the 30-lap Bob Valenti Auto Mall Late Model race. Defending Street Stock champion Brandon Plemons found the checkered flag for the first time of the year while Louis Bellisle was the Norwich Bulletin Mini Stock winner. Anthony Flannery continued to tear up Legends Cars competition, taking his record 11th straight win in the division, a new Speedbowl record. Pearl claimed his first win of the season and 32nd of his career over Rob Janovic and Ron Yuhas in the podium finishing positions. Jeff Paul ended up fourth with Tom Abele fifth.
  The Bowman-Gray Stadium, in Winston-Salem, NC was the scene of a Myers Brothers sweep. In twin 25 lap Modified action at the flat quarter mile oval known as the Madhouse Jason Myers won the opener while brother Burt won the night cap.
  At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island Dave Brigati started from the pole, and with his Whelen Southern Modified Tour Modified and led green to checker in the Modified feature.
  NASCAR suspended former driver Randy LaJoie for failing a drug test, and he said he's enrolled in a substance-abuse program. LaJoie, who has not raced at any of NASCAR's top three national levels since 2006, said in a statement that he smoked marijuana once in May.
  Kyle Busch held off Brad Keselowski, who finished second in the Nationwide Series event at Loudon and had his solid run derailed by a poor pit stop. Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Trevor Bayne round out the top five.
  In Sprint Cup racing at Loudon, Kurt Busch tried to bump-and-run past Jimmie Johnson for a win. Johnson paid back Busch with a poke of his own in the final stretch to surge ahead with two laps left and win the Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday for his fifth victory of the season.

  Last year, 2014, The fourth of July weekend began on a wet note as heavy rains from Hurricane Arthur forced officials of the Stafford Motor Speedway to cancel their holiday special. The Inaugural NAPA SK 5k was postponed last Thursday to Friday July 25th due to the impending threat of Hurricane Arthur. The SK 5k, dubbed the biggest race in SK Modified history, will take place in three weeks on July 25th under what will hopefully be beautiful clear skies. Close to three inches of rain was recorded in Connecticut from the storm.
  The Valenti Modified Racing Series took on the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH on Saturday night. Richard Savory, who won the series race at Lee NH recently made it two in a row and three for the year. With 28 cars strong, three qualifying heats were run. Savory started 14th and at the half way 50 lap mark was running sixth behind leader Chris Pasteryak. Savory waited until the closing moments as he took the lead with only three laps to go. Pasteryak settled for second with Justin Bonsignore, third. Rowan Pennink who qualified thru the consi came from the rear to finish fourth. Russ Hersey rounded out the top five.
  At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island, One week ago Bill Park and his team were thrashing on the orange no. 20 in the Riverhead Raceway pit area following a crash in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Hoosier Tire 200 with Todd Szegedy behind the wheel. Seven days later that same orange no. 20 car, albeit with a new white nose, was in Riverhead’s victory lane with Ryan Preece celebrating his second win of the season.
  While Preece put down the fastest lap in time-trials earlier in the evening it was clear that he didn’t have the fastest car during the Cromarty Cup 50-lap feature. But as Preece said at the end of the night, sometimes you get lucky, and he ended up winning this race for the second year in a row even with only leading just the last three laps.
  In NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action at the Waterford Speedbowl the shoreline oval's l’s mid-season championship Overdrive Radio 300 event hit the asphalt Saturday night with extra distance racing by the track’s regular six divisions. The big winner was Keith Rocco scoring top honors in the night’s 100-lap SK Modified® main event. Bruce Thomas Jr. won an entertaining 50-lap Valenti Auto Mall Late Model race, while Jeff Smith was a first-time winner in the SK Light Modifieds after an impressive performance. Josh Galvin was back in Victory Lane in the 50-lap Street Stock race and Garrett Denton won his second consecutive race in the night’s 50-lap Mini Stock event. Mike Christopher Jr. won his third straight INEX Legend Cars race to round out the winners.
  Rocco, the class of the field, as he methodically picked his way through the top ten until he landed in the lead on lap-34. He was in control the rest of the way to pick up his seventh win of the year in the division. Rob Janovic put forth a strong effort to wind up runner-up. Jeff Rocco had a solid outing to run among the top-three all race and finish third with limited appearances in the division in 2014. Tyler Chadwick and Kyle James completed the top-five.
  A big spike was driven into the heart of the speedbowl early in the evening when an official with his mouth drove Sid DiMaggio and his crew out of the track which they have done so much for no pay. A Waterford Speedbowl rule states "No crew member could touch a car after it crossed the inspection pad for time trials". Evidently an official got his jockey shorts twisted when an adjustment was made to an in-car camera. Fans were sad to learn that the Sids Vault team has left the Bowl. With all the free advertisement and promotion the track has received it would be a smart move on the part of track operator Terry Eames to mend the fences that this over zealous official has torn down.
  In Modified racing in the Southland, Andy Seuss continues to roll in NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour events at Caraway Speedway. The 27-year-old from Hampstead, New Hampshire, completed the sweep on the day's on-track events at the .455-mile banked asphalt oval. Seuss was fastest in practice, won his eighth pole Coors Light Pole Award at the track and led every lap en route to winning the Daggett Shuler Attorneys At Law 150 at Caraway. It was his fourth consecutive victory at the track and 10th of his career. Following Seuss was George Brunnhoelzl III, J.R. Bertuccio, Danny Bohn and Kyle Ebersole.
  Gary Putnam was sixth, followed by Jason Myers, Bryan Dauzat, Spencer Davis and David Calabrese. The wire-to-wire win was the fifth of Seuss' career and fourth at Caraway. He won the 2014 season opener in similar fashion. There were 19 cars on hand. Among those who had problems was Burt Myers who completed 72 laps before retiring with electrical problems which placed him 17th.
  The Bowman Gray Stadium was quiet for the holiday. Racing resumes there this week.
  On Saturday night 20 southern Modifieds ventured to the Hickory Speedway in North Carolina for the KOMA Unwind American Freedom 125. Zach Brewer took the win over Burt Myers, Bobby Sheffield, Mike Speeney and Jason Myers.
  Aric Almirola won a rain-shortened Coke Zero 400 at Daytona Int’l Speedway, which ended after 112 laps and the fourth rain delay of the weekend. In the process, the Richard Petty Motorsports driver collected his first career Sprint Cup victory and the first for car owner Richard Petty’s legendary No. 43 since April 1999. Friday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Subway Firecracker 250 produced another classic Daytona Int’l Speedway finish. Kasey Kahne used a push from Ryan Sieg on the final lap to overtake Regan Smith to win Saturday’s event at Daytona Int’l Speedway by a scant .021 of a second.

  That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, R.I.02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467.
  E-Mail, smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.

Phil Smith has been a columnist for Speedway Scene and various
other publications for over 3 decades.

Looking Back Archive
 

Source: Phil Smith / Looking Back A Bit
Posted: July 10, 2015