When the entry list was released for Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Rumble at the Ridge 200 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, noticeably missing from the lineup was driver Craig Lutz and the Russell Goodale owned team he competes for.
Lutz has started all nine Whelen Modified Tour events in 2021, but after finishing in the top-five in the series standings the last three years, the team has struggled greatly in 2021.
Lutz told RaceDayCT Thursday that team will take a break from Whelen Modified Tour action to regroup and prepare for the 2022 season.
“It’s kind of been a year from hell for us,” Lutz said. “Anything that could go wrong has gone wrong, on the track or even off the track. At Stafford [on Aug. 6] we were running fourth and we got wrecked and we go to the load the car and the trailer door breaks on the hauler. Anything stupid that can happen has happened.”
Lutz sits 14th in the series standings after nine events with two top-five finishes.
Lutz took over the Goodale owned ride midway through the 2017 season. He finished fifth in the series standings in 2018 and fourth in the standings in 2019 and 2020. Lutz recorded his first series win in the 2019 NAPA Fall Final at Stafford Speedway and had wins at Jennerstown (Pa) Speedway and Thompson Speedway in 2020.
“Basically we’re just trying to regroup,” Lutz said. “We may hit one or two races to finish the year off. But to run full-time on the Tour obviously takes a lot. The last couple years we’ve been a top-five team in points and that’s what we shoot for every year. It’s just you ask, where does it end really? Basically we just want to regroup and look forward to next year. We’ve wrecked cars and we’ve blown two motors. It just put us in bad spot. We’ve just been behind the eight-ball all season long.
“Russell is very committed to running the Tour [in 2022]. Just the way things have gone this year, it’s been hard on everybody. So he wants to regroup and make sure we start off next season better than we ever have.”
Hey, 01 team, put Lutz in the car.
One less car means more participation points for the 01.
Maybe, just maybe, the 01 might break into the top 15!!!!!!!
I guess we will see you guys at Martinsville in April.
One can only extract from this that he is also no longer running Tri Track or other events?
. “We may hit one or two races to finish the year off.”
Great plan for the team; step back and regroup resources. Two blown motors, wrecked cars, broken loading gate on the trailer. And some think money grows on trees? 2022 sounds like a great plan to me.
We all saw it didn’t we. The 46 team desperately needed a good finish and Stafford was a good track to do it. Running well, looking good and wiped out in a freaky incident that rarely happens by one of the last cars you’d expect to do it..
Darned straight they need time off so good for them.
They will be at the Fall Final and they will do well.
just say it ! ……..”we can no longer afford to run the tour”. that’s racing ??… yup bad luck can strike anyone but add up the cost of equipment that everyone needs to keep up with the jones`s in the pits with fancy camper/haulers and tractors and competitive cars on the track ..with some bad luck ..100k PLUS EASY….. GONE ! .. and you might get 50 cents on the dollar when you sell out. NASCAR is a joke !. AND TOO MANY TOURING SERIES .even local racing suffers from the cheating, lack of rules enforcement and engine builders getting exclusive rights to sell and “freshen” crate engines… what a shame. some of the dirt tracks have figured out how to keep costs down and increase purse money. the asphalt game hasn’t caught up….once the oval at Thompson closes you MIGHT get some cars at other tracks ..hey da moron !!! how many guys running dirt NEVER win but show up every week..?? . I guess at some point your SK modified will be the premier division and possibly sk light or “crate mods” will now be the “affordable” division ? ..no more 600+ HP yates motors and TFR chassis money pits for me!!!! .STOP THE INSANITY !!!
I have been saying it for a long time if your not at the top of nascar your a joke to them the wmt is a joke to nascar they are lucky they got 25 cars at Lancaster ny if they dont do something soon and they wont I dont see the wmt being around in less than 5 years