VETERAN PRESENCE: Szegedy’s Role Changes With Passing Of Time
Winchester, NH — Without missing a beat, Todd Szegedy offers his opinions on everything from the health of NASCAR to the future of the Whelen Modified Tour, from his fellow competitors to the variety of tracks where Modified racing succeeds.
He’s on point with virtually all of them, too, but there is apparently one topic that gets him to clam up.
“Do you remember a point in your career where you realized you’d become a veteran voice in Modified racing?” Szegedy is asked as he pokes at a plate of pasta salad between practice sessions at Monadnock Speedway recently.
He pauses, and looks up.
“What I don’t like is being called a veteran. I think that’s crazy,” Szegedy said. “I haven’t earned the right to be called a veteran yet. I’ve won a championship, sure, but I haven’t earned that right. If I’m still racing in my 40s, sure, you can call me a veteran, but I don’t consider myself that at all.”
The 34-year-old driver from Ridgefield, Conn., then takes a stab at defining “veteran” status in racing. He said it’s a combination of factors.
“I think it’s a little bit of both — you’ve got to accomplish things and you’ve got to have some longevity and be around for a while,” Szegedy said. “That classifies you as a veteran, because you’ve done some things and you’ve seen a lot.”
What’s interesting is that while Szegedy may loathe the notion of attaining veteran status on the Whelen Modified Tour before celebrating his 40th birthday, he is — by every criteria on his list, save for his age — a veteran. He’s both been in the series long enough (130 career starts) and accomplished enough (with 13 career wins, the 2003 Whelen Modified Tour championship and four straight top-five finishes in the final standings) to serve as one of the Tour’s respected personalities.
He’s the kind of driver who was once a shining young star on the fast track to NASCAR fame and is now one of the most trusted veteran voices in the series’ garage.
“There are some guys that have leaned on me and asked me questions, and I’m actually honored by that,” said Szegedy, who sits third in this year’s standings with five top-five finishes through the first seven races of the season. “I still consider myself a rookie sometimes, I really do. I consider myself really young in racing.
“I look at Teddy (Christopher) in his 50s — that guy can still whoop up on most of us. Mike Stefanik, same thing. Eddie Flemke. They can still wheel the hell out of a race car.”
So, too, can Szegedy, which he proved at a very young age.
He’d planned to run just a partial schedule back in 2002, but when car owner Don Barker secured sponsorship, Szegedy’s plans changed. He chased the full schedule in both 2002 and 2003 — becoming the first driver to win Rookie of the Year and the series championship in back-to-back years. In doing so at 27 years of age, he’s the youngest Whelen Modified Tour champion in history.
Szegedy won four races in that championship season of 2003, parlaying that into a part-time ride on what is now the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He continued to run Modified races, winning three more times in just 17 starts in 2004. The next year, he moved to North Carolina to work for Robert Yates Racing.
The experience, to say the least, was an interesting one.
“At that point, I viewed (the Modified Tour) as a stepping stone. My ultimate goal was to go Cup racing, and I made it pretty darn close,” Szegedy said. “Looking back, it’s volatile down there. There’s no job security whatsoever, from drivers to guys that work on the team.
“If I were to do things a little bit different — and we always say ‘if’ and woulda, coulda, shoulda — I definitely would have pursued college and gotten a good-paying job. Don’t get me wrong, I like where I work. They’re like family to me. But a job where I’m making $100,000-plus a year and could race the Modified Tour would be great.
“The Modified Tour is great. It’s a lot of fun. The only other series I think I’d want to race if I was going to do it full time would be the [NASCAR Camping World] Trucks. There’s not as much pressure, not as many races, and you get a lot of weekends off… But I’m in a good place, and we’re really having a lot of fun.”
Szegedy knows all too well the struggles of making it in racing — from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series right down to Modified racing on the regional level. His start in Modifieds was delayed by a lack of funding.
“Unfortunately, sponsorships really dictate this sport. When you see a young face come in, they think all of a sudden they’re superheroes,” he said. “You know what, I don’t buy that at all. They look like superheroes because they’re getting into the best equipment money can buy immediately. I’d like to see them start in junk and see if they can do what they can do.
“Most of them I see are getting in top-notch equipment right away, from the Modified Tour to the big-time.”
Szegedy’s Rookie of the Year season in 2002 was a workmanlike one — with 10 top-10 finishes in 19 starts and one win at Richmond — and he remembers that. He may not like it, but his ability to speak articulately on the subject of starting out in NASCAR racing gives him veteran voice in Modifieds.
“I think I missed the boat altogether,” Szegedy said of a timeline for advancing up the NASCAR ladder. “There’s guys like Donny Lia who gives hope to the rest of us (of moving up at a late age), but quite honestly I’m not pursuing anything at all. If the opportunity came to drive a Truck or a Nationwide car again I would certainly do it, but I haven’t looked at that.
“My car owner spends a lot of money on me and the Modified Tour, so I’ve got to give that my dedication 100 percent.”
Though he may have seen it as a stepping stone at one point in his racing life, now Szegedy uses words like “home” and “family” when describing where his career his now. It’s probably why he speaks so glowingly of what it is that makes Modified racing such a regionalized phenomenon, a cleverly-kept secret in short-track racing.
“There’s always a story at the end of a Modified race, whether it’s good or bad. Was it a great race, or was it a disaster? There’s always a story, because there’s severe passion,” Szegedy said. “These cars are difficult to drive, and the bumpers — we use them. You’re guaranteed there’s going to be sparks flying, there’s going to be good, hard-nosed racing, there’s going to be people yelling and screaming at the end of the night. That’s just the way it is with these cars. That’s what they’re missing where they don’t know about Modified racing.
“They’re missing action.”
And that’s coming from a veteran voice in northeast racing circles.
Sources: Travis Barrett/NASCARHomeTracks.com