Former Stafford Motor Speedway Late Model driver Kyle Casagrande will team with former Stafford DARE Stock division driver Jeff Jolly for a Casagrande Motorsports entry on the newly created North East Street Stock Tour.
The North East Street Stock Tour ran its first event Sunday at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H.
Casagrande started the season running a family owned car as a teammate to his brother Cory Casagrande in the Late Model division full-time at Stafford.
Cory Casagrande announced recently that he was leaving the Late Model division at Stafford to run the Granite State Pro Stock Series full-time for the remainder of the 2015 season.
Kyle Casagrande said the team will now change his brother’s former Stafford Late Model car into a North East Street Stock Tour ride. Kyle Casagrande said he will also run his former Stafford Late Model in events part-time at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H.
Kyle Casagrande said the team could be ready for a North East Street Stock Tour debut in the division’s next event on May 30 at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway. If they don’t make it for Seekonk, the team would make its debut with the division on July 11 at Monadnock Speedway.
“I think it’s a little less stressful on all of us,” Kyle Casagrande said. “My dad was working on three cars. We’ve got the Pro Stock and both of our Late Models. It was kind of stressful to get two cars ready every single week for Stafford, plus that Pro Stock whenever Corey was going to be racing that.
“It was stressful for me too because I live an hour away [in Wallingford] and it would take me an hour to get to Stafford every Friday night. I wasn’t there in time to practice the car once all year. I would just show up for the heat races and hope it was set up right for me.
“After the first three weeks it was getting a little stressful and expensive. We clipped the front of my car and clipped the back of Corey’s car. That was getting a little expensive. Doing this we can kind of pick and choose where we want to run. We don’t have to worry about points. We’re just going to kind of run and get back to having fun I guess.”
Kyle Casagrande is the all-time winningest DARE Stock division driver at Stafford with 20 victories from 2008-2013. He ran full-time in the Late Model division at Stafford in 2014. Jolly has 10 career DARE Stock division victories at Stafford from 2006-2014. Jolly ran a Casagrande Motorsports DARE Stock at Stafford last year.
“We’ve been racing at Stafford for seven or eight years, longer if you count go-karts,” Kyle Casagrande said. “It’s been awesome there. We have nothing but good things to say about them and what they’ve done. I don’t want anyone to think we don’t like them and we’re leaving because of that. Corey loves doing the Pro Stock and it’s cool going to different tracks. I’ve been going with him to all the tracks
“We had so much success with the DARE Stock when I raced, so I think we’ll be able to figure out the Street Stock with the handling and all. I think we’ll pick it up pretty quick. And it’s always fun to go different places and find new places.”
The North East Street Stock tour is scheduled to make three stops in Connecticut in 2015. The division will run at the New-London Waterford Speedway on Aug. 29. The series will be part of the inaugural Stock Car Road Race Challenge on the road course at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park Sept. 11-12. The series will also be a part of the Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson Speedway Oct. 16-17.
Kyle Casagrande said he expects to run the Casagrande Motorsports Late Model at Monadnock Saturday, where the Granite State Pro Stock Series is also in action.
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