It seemed only a fitting connection. The driver known as the “High Roller” finding a seat with the team known as Petty Cash Motorsports.
Andrew Molleur will return to the SK Modified division full-time at Stafford in 2024 driving for the Petty Cash Motorsports SK Modified team.
“I’m very excited,” Molleur told RaceDayCT. “Obviously they’ve had a lot of success and I think that we can have the same, if not better success. I think we’ll have a really good shot at the end of the year to dethrone [three-time reigning SK Modified champion Todd Owen] after his reign over the last three years. I think we’re going to have a good year.”
Molleur replaces veteran Jimmy Blewett as the full-time driver of the No. 85 Petty Cash Motorsports ride. Blewett joined the Petty Cash Motorsports team prior to the 2023 season but was forced to step away from the ride due to a neck injury last September.
Molleur has four years of full-time experience in the SK Modified division at Stafford. At 16 years old, he became the division’s youngest winner ever on May 31, 2019. He captured the division’s Rookie of the Year honors in 2019. He got his second win in the division on Aug. 20, 2021. He has 11 top-five finishes over 75 career starts in the division since 2019. He was also the youngest winner in track history an SK Light Modified at Stafford when he scored his first win in that division on May 18, 2018 at 15 years old. He also has two career Late Model wins at Stafford, with the last coming on July 1, 2022. He ran two full-time seasons in the Late Model division in 2021 and 2022.
Molleur stepped away from running full-time at Stafford following the 2022 season to run on the American-Canadian Tour for team owner Jason Glaude. He ended up seventh in the final ACT standings and was edged out slightly by Tanner Woodard for the division’s Rookie of the Year title.
Molleur’s one start in the SK Modified division at Stafford in 2023 came in the division’s final event of the season. He finished seventh.
“Early in the season I hadn’t really been to Stafford to watch and really wasn’t following things there the first few weeks they were racing,” Molleur said. “And then I went to Stafford on a Friday night and I just realized like “Damn, these guys are all out there and I’m just a race fan in the stands watching.” I truly missed being out there.
“That last race of the season we had a really good run. I think we started 27th and we finished seventh. As the season went on and we were racing the [American-Canadian Tour] I missed more and more racing at Stafford on Friday’s. Obviously Stafford is a track that gives their drivers a lot of exposure and they get a lot of attention and it’s obviously one of the nicest tracks in the country. I missed that aspect as well. That last race made me hungry to want to get back there in 2024. Thankfully this deal came together. I know that they had a few guys in mind they were looking at to put in the car and I’m very fortunate that they chose me.”
Molleur said he is still looking at the possibility of running a limited schedule with the American-Canadian Tour or in the Late Model division at Thompson Speedway for the Glaude owned team in 2024.
“Damn, these guys are all out there and I’m just a race fan in the stands watching.”
That’s an unfortunate way of putting it. Those butts in the seats are kind of the whole point so you’d be well advised to show them a little more respect as you race past them.
Doug,
I took that comment to be him verbalizing being jealous of the guys racing rather than in any way insulting being a race fan.
I don’t know Andrew all that well but well enough to know I don’t think he’s capable of insulting anyone
“I took that comment to be him verbalizing being jealous of the guys racing rather than in any way insulting being a race fan.”
Same here. Most people who do anything that involves an audience would probably rather do it than watch others do it.
Musicians, athletes, actors, racers…
You guys are reading into this too much, what he said was an indication of how much he missed competing on Friday nights.. I’m sure he sincerely appreciates the fan support Stafford has!
I hope he does a fair amount of ACT races, he did well in arguably one of the most competitive local tours in the country..
Good to see Andrew get the ride, but disappointed that Jimmy is not back in the 85. He brought a fresh sense of excitement that hasn’t been seen in a while in the Sk’s.
Don’t listen to them Andrew they’re just fans. Well except Mr. Courchesne but he’s the big guy and it’s his article. His default is to support racers and tracks that help him do his job better we’d expect nothing less.
You can bet I’m not the only one that took the reference negatively but lets forget that. Let’s look at it as an opportunity. A couple thoughts for your consideration.
Don’t be giving knuckleheads like me the opportunity to highlight something that could be interpreted as negative. Not expecting people to interpret what you say but making people feel good while essentially saying the same thing. Like this:
“And then I went to Stafford on a Friday night and I just realized like “Damn, these guys are all out there and I’m in the stands watching.”
Or better yet:
“You know Shawn it was great watching the races from the stands. Talking to the fans and getting an entirely different perspective. Maybe making some new friends in the process. But while I enjoyed it racing is just in my blood at this stage and I just felt I needed to get back to racing at the best track around on a weekly basis.”
Whether it’s racing or expressing ones self it’s always easier to do it with 20/20 hind sight. But racing besides the endless technical, physical, financial and mental issues is about sales. Always be selling yourself and in this case making the readers fill we are all part of the racing community and not racers and just fans.
Blewett was in it to win it but when he was never able to stay in front of Owen toward seasons end let alone pass him there seemed little chance he would be commuting from New Jersey for another bite of the apple.
So another driver for the Petty Cash Motorsports, show me the money revolving door of drivers you say and with championship aspirations to boot. Owen may be congenial and well mannered but he’s still the alpha dog in a pack separated by fractions of a second. Good luck to young Speed Racer you’re gonna need it.
Hey Doug, somebody pee in your corn flakes again?
The things you can find a way to complain about or start a conspiracy is incredible.
Pretty simple… the kid was doing something different and was on the sidelines, away from what he previously did. That’s all. He was expressing how he missed Stafford Friday night racing, and being a driver in those events. No dunking on fans.
Doug, will you ever go to the track and be a fan?
” pee in your corn flake”
I’m getting a little weepy eyed the victim of nostalgia. If I had only not said anything when you said that 7 or 8 years ago I could have saved myself hundreds of idiots and morons insults. Whined about it to Mr. Courchesne saying it was vulgar and he was having none of it. Common expression he said so the game was on. Too long, too many games, so much wasted nonsense and here we are.
Doug and Darealgoodfella even older and you want to reprise the same feud. The problem is I have no fight left in me an old man simply trying to say anything that people may want to read and have an opinion on.
Merry Christmas Darealgoodfella I love you man!!!
Oh Doug, you seem to have forgotten so much. You earned all those ‘stupididiotmoron’ comments when you tried to have a conversation with yourself using all those different screen names, but you posted two identical posts with two different screen names, outing yourself. Among other things. You did it to yourself.
Sorry, not sorry.
But anyways, this has been an interesting off-season so far. Many tracks and series have already posted their schedules, drivers posting their new rides and plans, way earlier than they have in years past. My ’24 calendar is filling up.
Good to see this kid take over a good ride. The SK class continues to be one of the top competitive classes of Modified racing, with incredibly exciting racing.
Also hoping Blewett is healthy and his neck/health issues are all resolved, and he gets a ride.
Congrats on the ride in the 85. I’m sure teams will gel together and win some races. Fun to watch you in the late model too.
I’m just throwing this out there, but Doug, you’re an idiot. Everything you say is derogatory why don’t you just go hibernate in a cave for the winter an keep quiet, Mr. negative
Do we know if Jimmy decided not to return or if the team decided to move on? I agree with another previous poster who said Jimmy brought something extra to the weekly series. I will miss seeing him at Stafford each week.
I came back to the track after quite a few years. I can remember how welcoming Andrew, Mike (dad), and the crew were. Thanking me for being a fan. I am now a huge fan of the local tracks again and will continue to be because of the way Andrew and his team show such respect to folks coming to watch them. Sorry Doug, you may have tried to make some sort of correction to Andrew’s “under the microphone” comment, but anyone that knows him knows that he is one of the most respectful people on the track and off.
I see absolutely no equivalency between expressing one’s self to maximum affect in the public arena with a one on one personal interaction.
Come on Doug!! You are basically bashing his character with a comment he made speaking about his desire to be on the track rather than being in the stands as a spectator. Notice I used the word “spectator” not “fan”. That is the reference he is making. Plain and simple: Andrew’s appreciation for the fans is far greater than your desire to twist what he said into something of a far fetched way of boosting your ego by bringing him down a notch.
“Don’t be giving knuckleheads like me the opportunity to highlight something that could be interpreted as negative. ”
That does not sound like a guy worried too much about his ego does it? Sounds more like a person that knows his place in the pecking order and simply was making an observation about maximizing broad brush messaging with the public as opposed to a personal relationship.
If you or your supporters are explaining what was meant say like Nikki Haley had to then that would be a area to consider working on in the future.
Congrats on the new ride, Andrew!!
Looking forward to a new season with some of the best drivers and best fans this side of the Mason Dixon line.
Doug, have a great new year!
I like Molleur. He has shown potential. Petty Cash is a team that is on a pretty short list that have fielded winning SKs at Stafford in the last 3 – 5 years.
I’ll piggyback on this article since it’s fresh and has generated some interest to comment on a couple other topics from the recent past.
“The great crate debate” Coming from an engine builder’s background I saw first hand the negative impact that Crate options and mandates had in 2004 (approx) to local/mom and pops engine/machine shops. Jobs were lost and politics and cheating were the order of the day. (Yeah I know nothing changed in that regard from before) Adapt or die was the battle cry of the few GM Performance big wigs to the many long time engine shop owners. Did anyone notice that EIRI the same people was still winning the races. Maybe some of you folks know someone from back in them days that got into racing solely because they loved the 602/604 crate engines and the $$ they saved them, but I don’t know a single one. I do know many people that after many years of being fully engaged in asphalt circle track racing abandoned it for drag racing, dirt racing with more variety in power plants or golf or boats or campers etc.
Thirdly based on the announcer’s statements at the Islip 300 regarding his age and the rules now out for the races at New Smyrna it seems the Hartwig child will not be able to race their this year. Shawn or someone else on here correct me if I’m wrong.
I don’t think Doug can take his own advice when I see in his last post here on a racing site that he couldn’t resist inserting the name of a certain female presidential candidate. Where did that come from and why?