Tommy Barrett, Jr. to Make NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Debut in Stafford’s CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend
Stafford Springs, CT — Tommy Barrett, Jr., who won the Shark Cycle 80 MRS race at Stafford back in August, will attempt to make his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut at Stafford Motor Speedway in this weekend's CARQUEST Fall Final. With Barrett's track record at Stafford, he couldn't have picked a better track to make his debut at.
In only two years of SK Light competition at Stafford, Barrett won 14 features, including 10 wins in his very first season of SK Light competition in 2010. Barrett twice won four races in a row during his 10 win season and he followed that up with 4 more wins in 2011 before moving up to the MRS division for the 2012 season. Barrett took his very first career win in last month's Shark Cycle 80 at Stafford by charging through the field after starting the race at the rear and making several pit stops during the race.
In the week prior to winning the Shark Cycle 80 at Stafford, Barrett made his SK Modified® debut, driving a car owned by Doug DiPisa to an 11th place finish.
Barrett will be behind the wheel of the #10 Gary Teto owned machine for his Whelen Modified Tour debut, and he will have Ralph Solhem serving as his crew chief. Barrett will have a hodgepodge crew servicing his car, with his MRS crew combining with team members from Solhem's #0 WMT team and Mario Fiore's former championship winning #44 crew.
"Actually, we met at the last Stafford race," said car owner Gary Teto. "I had been watching him on the computer and I was messaging back and forth with Mario [Fiore] that I would like to get together and meet with Tommy. We met at Stafford, and we actually tried to set something up for the last Thompson race, but that got by us and we worked on a Stafford deal. I think Tommy has a lot of potential and he has a big learning curve too. I haven't done any racing this year so some of the old friends and crew guys got together and I had a chat with Ralph [Solhem] and things started to fall into place for us."
With his track knowledge and an experienced crew on his side, all signs are pointing in the right direction for Barrett to have a memorable debut in this weekend's CARQUEST Fall Final.
"It's the same car and same equipment that Eddie [Flemke] ran," said Teto. "Everybody is pumped up and excited to go racing with a new driver. It's almost like starting over again from scratch for us. We're hoping for the best and we think we can have a pretty good day out there with Tommy driving the car."
Tickets for the September 29th & Sept. 30th 40th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $42.00 for all ages. All CARQUEST Fall Final tickets are good for admission on both Saturday and Sunday. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax and Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
For more information on the 40th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR