Building Speed: Petty Cash Motorsports Looking To Finish Meteoric Run To An SK Modified Title At Stafford 

STAFFORD – On April 24, 2021 Tyler Hines won his first SK Modified feature at Stafford Speedway. 

It was a victory that made many around Modified racing very suddenly stand up and take notice of a brand new team that had arrived that season in the SK Modified pit area at Stafford Speedway. 

After years of sponsoring numerous drivers around the southern New England short track racing scene through their business – Tick Mike’s Organic Tick and Mosquito Spray – the Meyhoefer family decided it was time to expand on their footprint in racing. 

And born from the family’s love of racing was the SK Modified team known as Petty Cash Motorsports. 

On Friday at Stafford the family team that didn’t even exist before 2021 will go looking to capture their first SK Modified championship at Stafford with driver Andrew Molleur. 

Molleur goes into Friday’s final SK Modified race of the season at Stafford holding a 32-point lead in the standings over second place Mike Christopher Jr. A 16th place finish or better in the 40-lap feature on NAPA Championship Night Friday will clinch the SK Modified championship at Stafford for Molleur and the Petty Cash Motorsports team. 

It’s been a meteoric rise for a team that saw flashes and sizzles over its first three years and now sits on the verge of grabbing the ultimate prize in SK Modified racing. It’s a family team in every sense of the term. The team’s foundation includes the family matriarch Ginny Meyhoefer, her son Mike Meyhoefer and her grandson and Mike’s son Tyler Meyhoefer. 

“It’s been surreal,” said 23-year old Tyler Meyhoefer, who was put in charge of overseeing the team when he was 19 years old. “You grow up in the stands at Stafford watching guys like Keith [Rocco] and Ted [Christopher] and [Rowan] Pennink and all these championship drivers dominate. And the fact that we have this opportunity – not even me, because at the end of the day this is not about me – this is about this team as a whole, just to be able to do this, to have a shot at it, is like mind blowing to me. It’s unbelievable.” 

Said Mike Meyhoefer: “Ginny and myself, we just go to the races, we love it. Tyler is the director of the operations of this thing. I sponsored race cars for years. But the reality is, my kid is really the one that put all this together. He’s the one that’s been doing this and he’s really the one that made the decision on [Molleur] driving the car.” 

For the 21-year old Molleur, celebrating his first SK Modified championship Friday would be a full-circle moment. He was brought in to drive for the team before the start of the 2024 season, replacing Jimmy Blewett. 

“When I got my first win at Stafford in an SK [Modified] in 2019, Tyler and Mike are both in the victory lane picture because they were [sponsors of my team] that year,” Molleur said. “They’ve been a part of my racing career for longer than most people realize. … I’m glad that I’m able to have success for these guys because they deserve it. They gave me an opportunity. There was plenty of guys out there that they could have gone after and they ended up choosing me and I wanted to make sure that they didn’t think that they made the wrong decision. Up to this point, I feel like I haven’t let them down. Hopefully we can finish up the year the way that we want to.” 

Said Mike Meyhoefer: “If you win an [SK Modified] championship at Stafford, you’re in some really great company. That’s the varsity team right there.”

Getting Off The Ground 

Hines had two wins for the team in their inaugural season in 2021.

“Everybody thought, there’s no way Tyler Hines could win an SK Modified race at Stafford,” Petty Cash Motorsports crew chief JJ Vece said. “And I’m not saying we did it. The kid can drive. He’s proved that because he’s won after us. … But we shocked a lot of people doing what we did.” 

In 2022 Bryan Narducci got his second SK Modified victory at Stafford driving for the team. In 2023 Jimmy Blewett spent the bulk of the season driving for the team and scored a victory in his debut with Petty Cash Motorsports. 

Initially Vece – who has been with Petty Cash Motorsports since its inception – didn’t want to be in the crew chief role with the team. Vece, who has spent many years as a crew member for various SK Modified and Tour Type Modified teams, wanted to be in charge of everything surrounding the maintenance and preparation of the car. The team began its journey with current NASCAR Cup Series crew chief Ryan Bergenty having that crew chief role with team each week at Stafford. A falling out with Bergenty early in the 2021 season ultimately put Vece in the role as crew chief. 

“He never was the leader of the pack,” Mike Meyhoefer said. “Tyler said to him, ‘You’re doing this. You build the race car, you’re going to be the crew chief and make this work.’ We knew the kid is smart. He knows what he’s doing.” 

Said Tyler Meyhoefer: “From the get go, when we won in 2021 when we came out, that kind of put a lot of people’s thought’s to shame on [Vece]. He’s at that shop a lot. He’ll message me at 3 or 4 in the morning saying ‘I found this or I’m doing this.’ and I’m just like ‘[wow]’. He does so much that people will never know and he doesn’t get credit for. After all the drivers we have had, he’s been the main guy. I think it proves that no matter what [driver] is in our car, he put a winning race car under them. I think especially this year he’s learned that he can do this.” 

Vece said over the first four seasons car chief Chris Hirt has been a constant with him in the shop. 

“Without him helping me in the shop, we’d be nothing,” Vece said. “He’s just as focused as I am on this whole thing. 

“Every driver we’ve had has been pretty successful. I try to stay consistent and I try to stay on the path of what I know and what I’ve done before. I just try to bring a race car every week and do very repetitive things with it. … I try to do the same exact thing every week with how I prepare the car. I’m OCD about everything we do and trying to stay the same with everything every week.” 

Title Run

When Blewett made the decision not to return to the team for the 2024 season there was no shortage of candidates the fill the seat. When it was announced that Molleur would take over the ride the naysayers questioning the decision were many. 

“We were at a standstill when Jimmy told us he wasn’t going to come back,” Tyler Meyhoefer said. “… We tried to do something with [Molleur] going into the 2023 season and he had other plans and we couldn’t make it happen. [Following the 2023 season], it just seemed right. We’ve always been good with their family and they were always good with us. To put him in the car, it was a chance that we were both taking on each other. Andrew knew what the No. 85 [SK Modified] was, that it was a chance for him to prove himself. And it was also a chance for us to prove what we could do for a full season. We knew the kid could drive. Everyone has doubters and naysayers and you’re always going to have people talking down to you.” 

Said Molleur: “They came on stage and they were a force to be reckoned with from race one after they hit the track with Tyler Hines. They were really fast. I knew they were really fast. That car has always been really good. I was just like ‘I wonder what that car drives like?’ [Narducci] raced that car and he was fast and won with them. And then Jimmy Blewett won in his first race out with them and he had a lot of great runs with them. … They’ve always been a really good team and they’ve always been fast, so when the opportunity came up to drive for these guys and I knew I was getting in a really good car and that the team was really smart. I knew we would have a really good shot at winning some races and obviously being a position to win a championship.” 

One of those questioning whether Molleur was the right fit for the team was actually Vece. 

“We had Bryan Narducci, an amazing talent, but aggressive,” Vece said. “You have to back him down. The thing I learned between Hines and Narducci, I wanted Hines to be more aggressive. I learned you can’t make someone more aggressive, but you can back somebody down like Narducci and make them better. 

“And then Narducci is out and we get [Blewett]. I love Jimmy to death, he’s a great friend of mine, but he’s a beast. He ain’t scared out there. And then I’m going to go from Jimmy Blewett to Andrew Molleur and my head is spinning. I was like, ’Are you kidding me, do you see what he is?’ I’m not saying I thought he was a bad driver, but I didn’t think he would be out for blood. But, he proved me wrong. I’ve realized that he might not be out for blood, but he’s smart and he knows how to not put his car in a bad position. And going through the season he started gaining more and more respect on my end. He’s driving more aggressively, but he does it in a smart way and a lot of people don’t see that.” 

Said Molleur: “There were certainly people out there that believed in me from the start and there were people out there questioning me a little bit. I think [Vece] understood that I had a good driving ability, but to race at a top level like this at Stafford especially where there’s 15 guys that can win every week … I think [Vece] just wanted to be sure that I would be the right fit for what they wanted on the aggressive side. … I think now [Vece] understands that I am at the track to win every single week, but I’m also not going to rip the wheels off the car trying to win either. I think he understands that and he can appreciate that now.” 

Molleur kicked off his run with the team with a fifth place finish in the season opening event on April 28. It was the start of a string of eight consecutive top-five finishes to start the season for Molleur. The streak came to an end on July 12 with a sixth place finish. 

As spring settled into summer at Stafford it became clear that Molleur was a force at the top of the SK Modified standings, though there were some around the pits at Stafford who were critical of Molleur, characterizing him as “points racing” rather driving for wins. 

Molleur got his first win of the season on Sept. 6 and his second victory came on Sept. 28. 

“The goal of mine this season was to win some races, but I really wanted to be the one who could get these guys a championship,” Molleur said. “I certainly had that in mind all year long, but I’ve also tried to not let that effect me in the way I drive. I think as a driver I’m pretty conservative, but I’m also aggressive when I need to be. I feel like I have that pretty good happy medium for sure, Everybody wants to win the championship, but they don’t want let that effect how they drive throughout the year. This season was about trying to not make a lot of enemies while trying to win races. It’s certainly tough to do that but I think I’ve done a pretty good job with that this year.” 

Said Tyler Meyhoefer: “Andrew is not the kind of driver to stuff 30 people in the fence every week. That’s not who he is. He’s methodically worked his way every week to the best finish he could get and we are where we are right now because of that.

“I’ve got full faith in this kid that he knows what he’s doing. And I’ve got full faith in our crew chief that he knows what he’s doing to finish this off. We have to just go to the track Friday and do what we know we have to do. I know Andrew already has the mindset that he’s not just going there to ride around and finish it off. He’s there to win every week and I love that.”