Tyler Rypkema Carries Podium Streak, Whelen Mod Tour Points Lead To Icebreaker 150 At Thompson 

It’s fair to say Tyler Rypkema has been a racer who has quietly flown under the radar for the bulk of his nine seasons on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. 

In his 83rd career series start, Rypkema scored his first Whelen Modified Tour victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last September. Coming into the 2026 season the Boehler Racing Enterprises driver had a total of four podium finishes over 86 series starts. 

In 2026, after two races, the 29-year old driver from Owego, N.Y. driver is already halfway to doubling that total, and turning heads doing that. 

Rypkema opened the season on Feb. 7 at New Smyrna Speedway finishing second to Justin Bonsignore. On Saturday in the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150 at Martinsville Speedway, Rypkema kept the podium streak alive for the season by finishing third. 

“Feeling pretty good,” Rypkema told RaceDayCT. “What you have to do is you have to fire off strong and try to maintain and just keep building the consistency and just have good runs come together.” 

The third place finish at Martinsville marked the first time in Rypkema’s career that he has scored consecutive podium finishes with the series. Bigger than that, it marked the first time in his career that he sits atop the series standings. 

“It started off right at New Smyrna, [car chief Scott Richards] … said ‘Hey, listen, this is the start of a new season, last year we had a lot of ups and downs, but we need 16 good ones.’” Rypkema said. “He said that right off the bat, you need 16 good ones, that’s how you compete for the championships. And then after New Smyrna he said to me, ‘You have to have 15 good ones.’ So that’s our mindset, you don’t have to go out there and try to win on the first lap, but we have to have 16 good races this season.” 

Rypkema goes to Thompson holding a two-point advantage over reigning series champion Austin Beers in the standings, with Patrick Emerling three points off the lead in third and Stephen Kopcik four points off the top spot in fourth. Rypkema is ready for big picture racing to show he’s ready to contend for a series title. 

“It’s a lot of give and take,” Rypkema said. “You have to be smart, you have to be patient, look at the big picture more often than the current situation you’re in. Make sure you’re saving the car for the end of the race. Don’t get it tore up early, don’t get in wrecks. Just a lot of that. Being consistent and just keeping your nose clean for the entire race all races.” 

Rypkema has five top-10 finishes at Thompson over 13 series starts at the track, but is still looking for his first podium finish there. 

“Very up and down there,” Rypkema said. “We’ve had some really good runs there, we’ve fallen short there, we’ve had bad some runs there. I have full confidence in Scott and [crew chief Greg Fournier] to bring a good piece there for us. I’ll show up 110 percent and be focused and ready for the day. I’m confident that we can keep this ball rolling and keep the momentum rolling.”