(Press Release from Stafford Speedway)
Tommy Barrett Jr. celebrates victory in the Twisted Tea 80 Open Modified race at Stafford Speedway in June (Photo: Fran Lawlor)
Fresh off of his victory in the Open Modified 80 at Stafford back in June, Tommy Barrett, Jr. is locked and loaded for another run for the checkered flag in the Bud Light Open Mod 80 this Friday, July 13 at Stafford.
“Our confidence is pretty high coming to Stafford,” said Barrett. “We struggled a little bit last week at Seekonk but we know we have a fast setup for Stafford and we’ve tweaked it a little bit to try to get a little more speed out of it and I have all the confidence in my guys that they’ll do the right thing. Another win would be huge for us. I love winning at Stafford it’s where I started racing modifieds and it’s the track that I have the most wins at so I’d like to keep on stacking the wins up at Stafford.”
In just a short amount of time, Barrett has racked up quite the impressive resume at Stafford. He won 10 races as an SK Light rookie in 2010 and followed that up with 4 more SK Light victories in 2011. Barrett then won Modified Racing Series races at Stafford in 2012, 2013, and 2014 to go along with his Open Modified 80 win last month. Although Barrett has enjoyed a large amount of success at Stafford, he is not exactly sure why he runs so well when he comes to race at the Connecticut half-mile facility.
“I don’t really know,” said Barrett. “I really like the track and there’s a lot more lines than people think. You can really move around and when the car isn’t handling right in one place it might handle right in another place.”
With 18 career Stafford wins to his name, Barrett knows what it takes to get to victory lane at Stafford. With the Bud Light Open Modified 80 allowing for teams to change tires during the event, teams can use pit strategy to their advantage as well as having a fast car and track position at the end of the race. Barrett used an off-schedule pit stop in the June Open Modified 80 to gain track position when the leaders came in for tires later in the race and then drove away from his pursuers in the closing laps.
“To win at Stafford you need a fast car and track position,” said Barrett. “We actually didn’t pit according to plan in the last Stafford race. We originally planned to come in some time after halfway and we ended up coming in on lap-30. I think the plan for this race will be to pit a little later than we did in the last race, but a lot of times things don’t go how you plan. We’ll have to see how the race plays out. I think Keith Rocco, Richard Savary, Rowan Pennink, Chase Dowling, they’re all going to be fast and there’s going to be a lot of tough competition. Our plan is to come to the track and be the front runner in the race.”
Not only will teams have to decide when to pit, but they will have to decide on which tires they want to change as Barrett says there are several options that will each affect the car differently.
“We ended up changing the rear tires rather than the right sides in the last race and I really tried to take care of the right front tire for the first 30 laps and it ended up holding together for the whole 80 laps,” said Barrett. “I’m not sure what our plan will be for this race, it’s all up to what my Dad wants to do. Changing the rears seemed to work last race and even though the nose started to give out a little bit we had good drive off the corner. If we change right sides, the car will turn better but the drive off won’t be as good. We’ll see how the day goes and we’ll make our decision come race time.”
Tickets for the Bud Light Open Modified 80 are priced at $30.00 for adult general admission, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seat tickets are $32.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking along with overnight camping available for self contained Recreational Vehicles.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
With all of the great divers and teams that race at Stafford it surprises me that they feel it appropriate to hype the event using the likes of Barrett.While he’s no axe murderer or someone like Bemer it still seems a little odd that this is the dysfunctional face they choose.
Blahhh.. Really art? Don’t we have enough of the the low rent comments from the Dareals of the world on here? Give it a break already. The kid won the last Open event why wouldn’t be be the object of attention on here? He screwed up. It’s all well known. He’s paid a heavy price …life goes on for all of us.
Couldn’t you wait until he’s in the news for some law breaking before trashing him again. I tell ya it’s getting tough to log in on this site I swear.
What ever you do don’t comment on Tommy’s obvious racing skills.
A Chase Dowling win in the 80 lap Open event tomorrow night would not surprise me.
I guess some people are more forgiving than others and willing to give him another chance,probably realize everyone can’t be as perfect as you
Jeremy Mayfield has a modified, get him up here too.
They could name this the Connecticut Open. 26 teams signed up with 19 from Ct with many of our favorites including Dowling, Rocco, Silk, Pitkat and maybe Ruocco. Based on first race fast lap times that were interestingly a fifth of a second faster then the VMRS race the finishing order should be Barrett, Goodale, Pitkat, Pennink, Savery, Dowling and Etheridge. Based on the VMRS results Silk should be out of the money but maybe his team has a little extra juice for this one. Would be nice to see Goodale win wouldn’t it?
Will the SK Lights be Jekyll or Hyde tonight. Minimal cautions and 1 or two cars not finishing in a sterling driving exhibition. Or the 12 car wrecker fest blood bath that exasperated fans last week. God I hope it’s the former.
Street Stocks running sandwiched between the Shootout and Open races no doubt to give fans a chance to stock up for the main event. But it’s nice to see them run in the heart of the show seeing as how they’ve been putting on some great races. Look for the chicks, Meghan Fuller and Nicole Chambrello to impress.
On paper no real surprises in the SKs. Williams is consistently turning the best laps more often and not getting involved in any drama. But Rocco, Berndt, Owen, Dowling and Kopcik may be a tic off but are still in his league. Then there is one Mr. Preece who misfired at the last Open but would be a welcome surprise and won’t come unless he has a car that can win. If points leaders Rocco and Williams finish up front in the feature depending on cautions there should not be enough time to get to the front in the Shootout so sand bagging for these two may be afoot. But racers race so hopefully not.
The weather is going to be perfect and the show terrific. Big crowd virtually guaranteed.
Concentrating on Barrett here is like trying to find the one cloud as you gaze at the stars on a clear night. And it’s a pretty thread bare cloud as clouds go.
Barrett’s issues happened 3-1/2 years ago. I’m sure he’s grown up quite a bit since then. Like him or not, he can drive a Modified. I’m sure we’ve all had our moments of stupid decisions when we were kids, granted some worse than others. And I’m sure most of us have not had those decisions hang over our heads forever. Maybe the focus could be more on his current driving talent and less on a stupid mistake made years ago.
You know what guys, when I was a kid I made some really bad choices but with a good lawyer and judge I was given a second chance and made the most of it.So I get it. Barrett has thumbed his nose at NASCAR and other people.He’s a young kid and seems to me he must be getting bad advice from someone.I firmly believe in second chances for young people but I think he is coming up short and shouldn’t be held up as some kind of whiz kid hero.Just my opinion but if you think it’s a low rent comment so be it.It has nothing to do with his heavy foot and quite obvious skills on the track.
The kid undoubtedly has talent, he can certainly wheel a modified for sure and has a bright future ahead. However, what really bothers me is why he has not stood up and admitted his mistake (and we have all made out share of them in life) applied to NASCAR, enrolled in and completed the road to recovery program? I believe it would carry more weight in his future endeavors by standing tall and doing what is right rather that thumbing his nose at NASCAR. Sorry, great kid, great talent but he needs to get his act together before the opportunity passes him by. My opinion.
Look what we found amongst the word salad from our boy Duugie.
[ Concentrating on Barrett here is like trying to find the one cloud as you gaze at the stars on a clear night. And it’s a pretty thread bare cloud as clouds go.]
Concentrating on Barrett ?!?!. It’s an article about him because he won the first Open and has won numerous times at Stafford. If a story features Preece, Bonisignore or Coby however no such critic. There are ,of course, any number of good racers perfectly capable of winning this race and if I wasn’t already committed to another venue tonight I’d be there to enjoy this race.
I know, I know I’m carrying water for the drunk kid “whizz kid hero” or what ever else the self loathing can come up with. Blaaaah……….
I know I can’t be on your side porcupine because you’ll “needle” me anyway. My “point” is 96 comments when he won and the same people making the same point. Give it a rest. Meanwhile there is a great show afoot, speaking of which gotta go. Great racing and $3 Bud Lights await. Go Tommy and Woody and Rowan and Chase and Ron etc!
WOODY AND THE 52 at LEE
The kid may have talent, but it still doesn’t mean he can flaunt and ignore the rules, civility, norms, and law and order. Let him live in defiance in his alternate world. Move on already, leave him behind. You’ll forget him in no time.
Like if said many times , nobody knows better than dareal , and that’s on everything and everyone