Keith Rocco (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
For the seventh consecutive week Keith Rocco sits at the top of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series short track racing world.
Despite only running one event last week, Rocco, of Wallingford, kept Lee Pulliam and Ryan Preece at bay behind him in the battle at the top of the standings.
Rocco, the 2010 national champion, competes full-time in the SK Modified divisions at Waterford, Stafford Speedway and Thompson Speedway.
Rocco, of Wallingford, has 642 points with eight victories, 20 top-five’s and 23 top-10’s in 27 starts.
Rocco was unable to compete at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday night because of his commitment to run the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. Rocco brought his SK Modified to Monadnock to attempt to run in the track’s Sportsman Modified feature, which is part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division I program, but issues with track officials forced him to sit out that event.
Under the point structure for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division I standings, a race winner receives two points for every car in the event up to 18 cars. Second place receives two fewer points and so on through the field. Three bonus points will be awarded to a race winner with a single-digit starting position and five bonus points will be awarded to a race winner with a double-digit starting position. Whelen All-American Series points season will run through Sunday, Sept. 20.
Lee Pulliam of Semora, N.C. moved past Ryan Preece into second in the standings this week. Pulliam has 603 points on the strength of 15 victories, 25 top-fives and 27 top-10’s in 30 starts this season at South Boston (Va.) Speedway, Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va., Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va. and Caraway Speedway in Sophia, N.C. Pulliam won national championships in 2012 and 2013.
Preece, of Berlin, also only ran at Stafford last week. Like Rocco, Preece was competing in the Whelen Modified Tour event at Monadnock. Preece competes full-time in the SK Modified divisions at Stafford and Thompson Speedway and part-time in the Tour Type Modified division at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway. Preece has 599 points. He has seven wins, 19 top-five’s and 25 top-10’s in 26 starts this year.
Ted Christopher of Plainville, who competes full-time in the SK Modified divisions at Stafford and Waterford remained in eighth this week with 482 points with four victories in 26 starts.
Rowan Pennink of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., who competes full-time in the SK Modified division at Stafford, moved from 18th to 16th this week with 429 points on five victories in 14 starts.
It’s the same article every week. Get quotes spice it up somehow idiot.
Lou,
It’s a simple update of the points each week and where they stand. But thanks for the kind words. Quite professional of you as always.
Thanks for your kind words, Shawn.
Lou Sucks!
Larry spiced it up for ya. Muy caliente.
Given the punctuation used (actually not used), I thought Lou was looking for you to dumb down the points report. 😉
What happened with the “SK” deal at maddog with Rocco.What didn’t they like?
In a phone call to the track he was told he could run the car with a restrictor plate just like every other SK that has run there in the past. He needed to buy four track tires there as well as the racing gas sold at the track. When he unloaded the car he was told by tech that he couldn’t run his normal PRO shocks, just non adjustable ones. He surprised them by pulling four of those out of the trailer and having them on the car in ten minutes. Tech then handed him a plate, said good luck tonight, just don’t finish in the top three.
That was Red, head tech inspector, by the way. When young Keith spoke with Larry to clear this up he was told that almost the entire SK light field had already complained to him abut the 88 running that night. Again he was told, this time by the track owner, that he could race but not finish top three or he’d be DQ’ed.
Mind you, he was told by them on Friday it was okay to come race and he had never ran even one lap of practice, but was told twice he couldn’t race for the win. He then loaded up and didn’t race it.
What kind of logic does it take to realize that it might be a plus to have the current National points leader in the field at your track on your biggest night of the year to run in your Division one class? Where the guy starts in the back and tries to win a feature against all f the local heroes?
And people take exception when their track is referred to as a half assed, backwoods, no outsiders kind of track? Larry Cirillo should be embarrassed that he allowed Red to talk him into this course of action. At least everyone knows what really happened now.
All this and Monadnock complains of car counts. What DFG is true, 100%. We happen to run a sportsman mod there and were pissed that they railroaded Keith from running. No one there has any back bone. Infact, there are one or two drivers who race there regularly who have traveled to a track like Stafford or Waterford and ran with the SK Lites. They know the talent pool is much bigger there and most of the cars at Monadnock wouldn’t even pass a proper safety inspection at either Stafford or Waterford. A 40lb chunk of lead came flying off a car there and nearly went in to the stands, unpainted, no number and not encased in steel. And this is division 1 racing… SMH.
Thank u DFG for clearing that up.Thats !@#$%^ up.What a j oke that place is
Interesting how a track that is run in this fashion(I agree Keith got hosed) with an owner who uses such questionable judgement at times, is somehow good enough to get NASCAR tour races.
I agree that Keith got a royal screwing by Monadnock. They should have told him up front not to bring the car.
Chris D. IMO NASCAR will give a WMT race to any track that wants one and can pay for it. At his point NASCAR needs all the tracks it can get to host the WMT events. The WMT schedule has lost many events over the years, even some of the CT tracks have cut back on their annual WMT events. I seem to recall the WMT schedule used to be quite extensive with 18+ races. If NASCAR really cared about the WMT they would make the events more attractive to the racetracks. I have heard rumors that it costs the tracks over 3x the amount of bringing the VMS or the Tri-track series.
And as a correction, these are not SK lites. They are cars with 602’s and 650cfm 4 barrel carbs. Some of them with unsealed “built” 602’s and 2 barrel carbs. They also can run oil filled hubs, any header they want, nearly any muffler, no real brake rules, any shock as long as it’s non-adjustable and oil coolers if they choose. a very far cry from a SK Lite.