By Shawn Courchesne ~ RaceDayCT
Tommy Barrett Jr.
THOMPSON -When the prognosticators began making their predictions for possible championship contenders on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for 2015, second year series competitor Tommy Barrett Jr. was nowhere to be found.
Not surprisingly though. Barrett’s team owner, Chris Our, had announced during the offseason that his team would cut back to a part-time schedule during the 2015 season on the Whelen Modified Tour while they worked on setting the foundation for a burgeoning ARCA Series team.
But just maybe, when the Whelen Modified Tour series championship is being decided later this year Barrett could be in the mix.
The Millis, Mass. driver said Saturday before Whelen Modified Tour Icebreaker 150 qualifying that his team may end up running the series part-time after all.
The season opening Icebreaker 150 is Sunday at Thompson.
“I think Chris just wants to take it kind of week by week,” Barrett said. “He’s not really committing to the full season, but that’s the way it’s looking more and more as we get into it.
“There was a lot going on over the winter. He runs his own business and there was a lot going on with the ARCA car. Now that we’re getting back into things, I can definitely see us running a full season.”
Our arrived in the Whelen Modified Tour as a car owner in 2012 fielding a ride for half of the events that season for seven-time series champion Mike Stefanik. Our ran his first full-time season in the division with Stefanik in 2013 before replacing him with Barrett after the 2014 season.
Barrett finished 12th in the Whelen Modified Tour standings in 2014. He got his first series victory in the annual August event at Bristol [Tenn.] Motor Speedway. In 13 events he had three top-five’s and five top-10’s in 2014.
“After last year, me and [crew chief Brad Lafontaine] just getting to know each other, we changed a lot over the winter,” said Barrett, who was 15th fastest of 35 drivers in Whelen Modified Tour practice Saturday morning at Thompson. “I think we’re really getting step it up this year and hopefully that starts off Sunday.”
[Consistency is] a huge thing. That’s definitely one thing that killed us last year. We’d have a couple of good runs then a couple of bad ones. A lot of it had to do with luck. Hopefully we can get luck on our side and change a few things up and be up front every week.”
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