Glen Reen Makes His NASCAR Touring Debut
Being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time Leads to 27th-Place Finish at Thompson
Concord, NC — Glen Reen Jr. took the step from weekly racer to touring series competitor this past weekend at Thompson International Speedway. That is when Reen made his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut. His finish was 27th, but the experience was far richer than that.
First off, Reen and his #17 team had a lot that was new to them during the Tour race. They had traveled before, with Reen winning the SK Light portion of the 2007 North/South Shootout at Concord Motorsport Park (NC), but the procedures of a NASCAR event were completely new to them.
“It’s definitely different,” said Reen, who is 22 years old. “There are a lot more cars and a lot more things to do. There’s so much more preparation. You’ve got to get your tires ready and go through the tech line. I’m used to racing where they only tech you after the race. Here, you have to run through templates, get things checked, get your tires impounded and then get them back. Then you scuff tires and qualify. It’s unreal.”
The Reen team adjusted well to their challenges, though, giving the young Connecticut driver a good car for the event. Now, if only luck had cooperated with them, a good finish would have been very likely.
“I’ll tell you, the car felt awesome to start,” said Reen. “We were definitely moving up. Then I got involved in something. I don’t even know what happened. Some guy came down and clipped the right nerf bar. It must have been a light nerf bar, because it bent like nothing. They black flagged us for that, and it took a while to fix it, but otherwise the car was on a rail.”
But wait, there was more…
“I got involved in a second accident. There was nothing that I could do, so I pitched the car sideways and hit it with my nerf bar. The car was still fine. We were still plugging right along. I was only running at 55%, because at that point there was no need to race. I just wanted to stay out as long as possible and get experience.”
That experience will come in handy on April 27th, when Reen returns to action in the Spring Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT). Reen is a former regular in the SK Light division at Stafford, and he hopes to enjoy a home-track advantage in the race.
“Oh yeah, that’s my home track,” said Reen. “I’ll be golden there. I know my way around Stafford, and that will be nice.”
For more information on Glen Reen, contact Mike Twist at (207) 590-1786 and stay tuned for his new website, coming soon.
Sources: Mike Twist/Glen Reen PR