NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour veteran Craig Lutz announced today he will no longer be competing for the Russell Goodale owned No. 46 team on the series.
A post from Lutz Sunday morning on Facebook read:
“I want to start off by saying, I can’t thank Russell and Jeff Goodale enough for the opportunity to drive their race cars over the years. Unfortunately, a decision was made to part ways. I will always be grateful for the numerous years I got to be the one behind the wheel of the #46. … Not sure what my future holds with racing, but I want to thank my fiancé, close friends, and my family for their continued support throughout the years.”
Lutz, of Miller Place, N.Y., ran the first five events of the Whelen Modified Tour season but did not compete in the All States Materials Group 150 on Saturday at Oxford Plains Speedway.
Lutz was tied for ninth in the series standings following his most recent start on May 30 in the Miller Lite Salutes Don Howe 200 at Riverhead Raceway. Lutz was 23rd in the event at Riverhead, dropping out of the race after 175 laps with rear suspension issues.
Lutz was fifth in the season opening event at New Smyrna Speedway on Feb. 7 and was eighth in the division’s visit to Thompson Speedway for the Icebreaker 150 on April 12.
Lutz had Whelen Modified Tour wins at North Wilkesboro Speedway and Richmond Raceway in 2025. He finished the 2025 season third in the series standings. It marked his best career finish in the standings. He previously had two fourth place finishes and two fifth place finishes in the standings.
Lutz has run regularly on the Whelen Modified Tour since 2016. He has six series wins in 158 starts with the division since 2014.
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The tour car count is dropping like flys. Not what they had in mind to begin the year as it had more promise then the last 6 years. Not good. Putnam may feel the pressure. Someone needs to start a new national series and drop NASCAR. Something like the world of outlaws.
Well, Gary Putnam is doing a great job !!!
darealgoodfella,
Not for nothing, but I’m not sure why one would blame a Whelen Modified Tour team and its driver splitting up on the series director.
There’s chaos on the NWMT right now. Teams are cutting back their schedule or dropping off the tour. This driver/team split may also be rooted in the NWMT chaos.
It ain’t over yet.
There wasn’t chaos in the NWMT pits this weekend at Oxford. There was frustration, not with the tires, tour director, or NASCAR, but with the weather and that some team(s) because of time, financial ability, and proximity have been able to practice more and work out a coil bind setup on ARs prior to race dates and not violate testing rules. The 79 practiced at Oxford twice, once before the original date, and again before last week to work on flat track setup. Coil binding in the front is a difficult setup to perfect, the 79 front was really into the track Saturday with it, and they were on top of it at Seekonk as well which is a similar flat track. At Oxford, everyone had to start on stickers since qualifying was rained out which caused some frustration. A few teams want nascar to eliminate requirement to qualify on stickers, and make everyone do a 2 or three lap scuff session after tech and before qualifying to size/warm tires.